I would go with E-trade. Banks are banks and will always find ways to fee you to death! E-trade has everything you need including free research, tutorials etc. and if you have $50,000 you will only pay $9.99 per trade. Under 50K and it is still only $19.99 per trade. Also I thought I read that if you move your account from another institution you would get 100 free trades. This is a couple years worth for me as I am not an active trader and I just buy the best companies and sit on them and squeeze as much dividend/stock appreciation out of them as possible! Besides 3 out of every 4 years the market makes money so why not buy and hold as long as it is a good company. No need to pay much in transaction fees and don't pay MER's to the mutual fund managers who all seem to have the same top holdings anyways. Another very helpful tool I would recommend is Vector Vest which is an excellent way to get a handle on stock valuation.
Top reads : Peter Lynch (any of his books) Jim Cramer (kinda over hyped but there is some good info in his books) Any and all William Berstein books (esp. 4 pillars of investing, intelligent asset allocator).
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