Since these are two of the most popular online brokers I am going to be comparing Trade King vs Sharebuilder to see who is the best.  Both are great brokers to use for your online investing but they both have some pros and cons.

Cost per trade:

TradeKing offers online stock trades for $4.95.   Sharebuilder advertises that they have $4 trades but that is a little sneaky.  In order to get $4 trades you need to be on an automatic investing plan which means you need to buy a stock at the same time on a weekly or monthly basis.  In order to do real time trades the cost is $9.95.

Advantage:  Trade King

Broker Assisted Trade Cost:

If you want to call in and have a broker place a trade for you it will cost you $4.95 with Trade King.  A broker assisted trade with Sharebuilder will cost you $19.95.

Advantage:  Trade King

Mutual Fund Purchase Cost:

To purchase a no load mutual it will cost you $14.95 with Trade King and $19.95 with Sharebuilder.  Load funds are free at both brokers.

Advantage:  Trade King

Fees:

Neither TradeKing or Sharebuilder charge account inactivity fees or IRA fees and they both have no minimum balance.

Advantage: Push

Trading and Research Tools:

Trade King offers a wide variety of tools including MarketGrader Research Reports, Technical Analysis tools, interactive charts, profitability calculator, stock screeners and numerous other tools.  Sharebuilder offers very few tools and most of their tools are only available if you are on their Advantage plan which costs $20 per month.

Advantage:  Trade King

As you can see from our Trade King vs Sharebuilder comparison above it is pretty clear that TradeKing is the winner.  However if you are looking for even lower trading costs then I highly recommend that you check out Zecco. They offer all the features that TradeKing offers but their online trades are only $4.50! So why not save a little more money on trading costs.

Everyone wants to find an online broker with low trading fees to use for investing. However, many investors are fooled when looking at online brokerage firms that state they have low fees but in the end you are paying more than you thought you would.

To combat this we have reviewed all of the top brokerages on the basis of their trading fees but also their account minimum and account inactivity fees. Low trading fees are no good if you end up getting hit with account inactivity fees.

Through our research we came to the conclusion that the #1 choice for an online brokerage account with low trading fees is .

offers $4.50 trades.

How can they offer such low stock trading fees? Most brokers have large advertising budgets and those budgets end up in their customers having to pay higher fees. Zecco does very little advertising and therefore can offer trades at a ridiculously low $4.50.

also has NO account minimum and you can start your account with whatever dollar amount you want and there is NO account inactivity fees. You really can’t beat Zecco when it comes to value.

So if you are looking for an online brokerage with low trading fees our suggestion is to head on over to

For a full review of online brokers see our How To Start Investing Online guide and see the full results

The first thing you need to do when starting to invest online is to find a quality and reliable online investment brokerage firm. This is a very important step because you want to make sure you pick a broker that has a competitive price for stock trades and also have low fees.

Below you will find my online investing review. I judged each online broker on account minimum, IRA fees, and cost of a market trade.

#1 Top Choice – – Zecco is a discount broker that allows you to place stock trades for $4.50.

also has NO account minimum which makes it the perfect place for any investor to get started. You can get started with $25 if you would like and there are no account inactivity fees so there is no need to worry about placing a certain amount of trades per month.

also has no account minimum for IRA’s. You can open it with any amount that you would like. Zecco gets our highest recommendation and it the perfect place to start your online investing.

#2 E-Trade – Requires a $1,000 account minimum and has no IRA account min. They offer real time trades for $12.99. Another great option for an online investment broker.

#3 TD Ameritrade - Requires a $2,000 account minimum and no account minimum for IRA accounts. They offer real time trades for $9.99

#4 Fidelity – Requires a $2,500 account minimum for personal and IRA accounts. Offers real time trades for $19.95.

As you can see, offers the best online investing accounts due to their low fees, no account minimums and $4.95 stock trades. In our online investment brokerage firm comparison review they get the top ranking.