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.