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Originally Posted by Agamemnon
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Just realize that if you're buying/selling a stock and the transaction fees are $25, thats $50 off the top ($25 for buying/$25 for selling)... so if you're buying $200 worth of stock, you're really hurting with those transaction costs. It's really only cost effective (I find) to buy in chunks of at least $1000 (but preferably more) to reduce your transaction cost/share.
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I use a self managed Scotiabank investing account as well. It's very simple to use. Most major banks will charge you $20-$30 in commission per transaction. So for a $1000 investment, to buy/sell for $25, you need to make 5% to cover the commission. That's not great, but it's not too bad either. Most banks will also charge you a yearly fee if you're balance isn't above certain amount (mine is $100/year for a balance under $20,000). Of course with the account you are given access to that banks market research, so that has some value to it.
Discount brokerages like E-trade, etc. will advertise low transactions fees like $5 per trade, but that's only if you're making something like 30 trades a month (which is a hell of a lot) or have a minimum balance.
Really, it depends what you're investment strategy will be. If you're looking to buy and hold just a couple of stocks, you'll probably find pretty standard rates across the board. I would check with whatever banks you deal with now.
Which companies are you looking to invest in? (just curious)