Zecco drops FREE trades

Quotes from email received tonight (2/25/11)

Zecco email said: Thank you for being a Zecco Trading customer. I hope you’ve been enjoying the exciting improvements we’ve rolled out in the last few months. When Zecco Trading first launched in 2006, our focus was to deliver a good, solid service at a bare bones price. In the four and a half years since that launch however, our customers’ needs have evolved quite a bit. While investors today certainly value low commissions, they also demand a great trading service with a rich set of advanced features. So, we have been working hard to continuously improve the Zecco Trading experience. In just the last year or so we’ve introduced major improvements in our quotes and research offering as well as launched important new tools like Zecco Streamer, Zap Trade and the new Zecco Mobile iPhone app. We’ve also made substantial improvements in customer service and upgraded our core infrastructure to dramatically improve performance and reliability. To better support this balance between offering remarkable value and continuing to deliver the innovative new technologies, tools and services that Zecco Trading customers require, we are modifying our commission structure. Starting on March 30, 2011, our new commission rates will be: Equity trades: $4.95 per trade* Options trades: $4.95 per trade, plus $0.65 per contract With this change we are no longer offering 10 free trades per month. As before, there are no minimum balance requirements or inactivity fees to open or maintain a Zecco Trading account. Under this new pricing structure, Zecco Trading’s pricing remains 30% to 50% lower than our competitors. I hope you agree that, when you consider the features, the quality customer service we provide, and the price, Zecco delivers the best value on the Street.

The end is nigh!

Looks like I will be shopping for a new broker, $4.95 is only ok

Wells Fargo Wellstrade and BOA are the remaining brokers that offer free trades for $25,000 relationships. Hopefully the exit of Zecco from this price point is not a sign of things to come at Wellstrade and BOA.

bender26 said:   This will be the last straw for me. I've been looking to transfer for a while now. Who is offering a good deal for transferred accounts as far as reimbursement of acct closing fees? I'm sure Zecco will light you up when you leave them too.
Try OptionsHouse. Their typical coupon code to get a rebate of transfer fees is ACAT100.

walletfart said:   Zecco also has poor execution of trades and does not handle limit orders correctly (they trigger off bid/ask price instead of execution price which lets them screw you). I have proof of them mishandling me and executing a limit when no prior trade occurred, ever since that I've stopped using them at all for new trades.
This is actually standard practice for stop loss orders for NASDAQ and OTC stocks. For example, at Fidelity, for NYSE or Arca stocks, they use last execution to trigger stop orders. But for NASDAQ stocks, sell stop orders are triggered by the bid, and buy stop orders by the ask. I had a case where a stop-loss order executed in the first second of trading because the spread was still incredibly wide, and by the time my sale actually executed it was well above the stop trigger - it made me realize that Fidelity is not a viable platform for trading.

IIRC, IB defaults to the same behavior, but at least there you can change your preferences to always use last price (or pick one of several other options too).

How about sogotrade, they are pretty cheap at $3 per trade , any one know how there platform is?

narya said:   How about sogotrade, they are pretty cheap at $3 per trade , any one know how there platform is?

I've used Sogo until Nov., when it annoyed me. Their customer service is crap, you'll get non-native english speaking people who don't know how to help you. I put up with them for their low fees, but in November, when I logged in, it told me that Sogo transferred their customers to "to Wang Investment Associates, Inc" and I had to choose if I accepted that. They didn't notify us until mid December (and didn't have a FAQ or info on their website). That's unacceptable. I transferred out to Wells Fargo, didn't trust my money with a company that isn't communicating with me.

I did like Sogo interface, as Wells Fargo interface is stuck in the 1990s.

mapen said:   Wells Fargo Wellstrade and BOA are the remaining brokers that offer free trades for $25,000 relationships. Hopefully the exit of Zecco from this price point is not a sign of things to come at Wellstrade and BOA.Just looking into WF and BOA fees, and holy $95 transfer out and up to $120 account maintenance fees, batman!

My Zecco customer service and trading fees have mirrored others, so this is a prime opportunity to switch firms

So, which is a better option to lean on after moving out of Zecco if the trade volume is not high? I was with Zecco as I was trading around 10-12 transactions a month and it was ok for my trading style. I see BoA has 30 free / month and WF has 100/year. As I'll have 25k to invest, any recommendations that I should pick between these two without incurring any maintenance fees?

Thanks

I just read the email from Zecco about the fee increase. Although I'm not happy about that, I plan to still stick with Zecco. I have found them very easy to use and continue to be one of the lowest cost fee options. I primarily only do simple trades though and am not very active. This past year I only made two buys and did not sell anything at all. The year before that I had about a dozen trades all total, and Zecco worked out just fine for me. The only thing I don't like about them is that it feels that they are slow to produce account statements and tax documents.

Zecco blows. nuff said

buzolich said:   I just read the email from Zecco about the fee increase. Although I'm not happy about that, I plan to still stick with Zecco. I have found them very easy to use and continue to be one of the lowest cost fee options. I primarily only do simple trades though and am not very active. This past year I only made two buys and did not sell anything at all. The year before that I had about a dozen trades all total, and Zecco worked out just fine for me. The only thing I don't like about them is that it feels that they are slow to produce account statements and tax documents.

They are not even close to being low cost fee.

dealgrabber2010 said:   So, which is a better option to lean on after moving out of Zecco if the trade volume is not high? I was with Zecco as I was trading around 10-12 transactions a month and it was ok for my trading style. I see BoA has 30 free / month and WF has 100/year. As I'll have 25k to invest, any recommendations that I should pick between these two without incurring any maintenance fees?

Thanks

Remember that with WF, you need only $25k in total assets. So you can satisfy that requirement with $25k in investments (and a percentage of your mortgage can count, if it's with WF). With BOA, however, you need $25k in a bank account in addition to whatever you plan to invest.

dealgrabber2010 said:   So, which is a better option to lean on after moving out of Zecco if the trade volume is not high? I was with Zecco as I was trading around 10-12 transactions a month and it was ok for my trading style. I see BoA has 30 free / month and WF has 100/year. As I'll have 25k to invest, any recommendations that I should pick between these two without incurring any maintenance fees?

Thanks

Wells would be the better option for you. BOA is only 30 free if your cash balance is 25k up, the waiver doesn't include investment balancrs. Also if your total relationship is under 50k then you get a $25/quarter maintainance fee. For Wells they do include your investment balance and there is no maintenance fee. Though keep in mind if your investments are 25k and the valur declines then you're subject to the $30 monthly fee. Most Vanguard funds are able to be traded on Merrill with no fees so either $25 per quarter or $30 per month are some risks you take with either brokerages.

TD Ameritrade has commission free ETFs that work great for buy and hold indexers like me. They have most of the Vanguard ETFs available.

We all can see it's coming to this, just a matter of time. I have closed my zecco account since their last pricing re-restructure.

TMaG82 said:   
Wells would be the better option for you. BOA is only 30 free if your cash balance is 25k up, the waiver doesn't include investment balancrs. Also if your total relationship is under 50k then you get a $25/quarter maintainance fee. For Wells they do include your investment balance and there is no maintenance fee. Though keep in mind if your investments are 25k and the valur declines then you're subject to the $30 monthly fee. Most Vanguard funds are able to be traded on Merrill with no fees so either $25 per quarter or $30 per month are some risks you take with either brokerages.

Thanks all for responding to my question. Looks like WF is the best option for me as they don't charge maintenance fees as long as the overall balance is $25k.
One quick question - How should I proceed moving my stocks from Zecco to WF? Should I sell everything by end of next month (assuming I can get some profit) and then reinvest via WF or is there another option of moving my stocks from Zecco a/c to WF a/c without getting into the hassle of selling and re-buying with a possibility of losing more than earning.

dealgrabber2010 said:   TMaG82 said:   
Wells would be the better option for you. BOA is only 30 free if your cash balance is 25k up, the waiver doesn't include investment balancrs. Also if your total relationship is under 50k then you get a $25/quarter maintainance fee. For Wells they do include your investment balance and there is no maintenance fee. Though keep in mind if your investments are 25k and the valur declines then you're subject to the $30 monthly fee. Most Vanguard funds are able to be traded on Merrill with no fees so either $25 per quarter or $30 per month are some risks you take with either brokerages.

Thanks all for responding to my question. Looks like WF is the best option for me as they don't charge maintenance fees as long as the overall balance is $25k.
One quick question - How should I proceed moving my stocks from Zecco to WF? Should I sell everything by end of next month (assuming I can get some profit) and then reinvest via WF or is there another option of moving my stocks from Zecco a/c to WF a/c without getting into the hassle of selling and re-buying with a possibility of losing more than earning.

Be careful not to run into a "wash sale"

Many firms can do the exchange "in kind", e.g. move the stock position as a stock position, neither firm is holding the stock anyway and the stock is only a representation to begin with

That said, once you've chosen a couple of possibilities for new firm, go in to a local branch, or on this even an FW can "call", and ask what they what be willing to do for you for transferring your account to them such as paying any fees associated with the transfer.

done with Zecco...

websquirrel said:   Last week for free trades at Zecco. Anybody have any new account promotions at Wells Fargo?

Wells rarely does any promos for their products. I think the last checking they had was a few years ago and it was for $50.