This post reviews major online stock / option brokers for retail investors.

TradeKing is a nationally licensed online broker offering low flat fees ($4.95 per trade plus $.65 per option contract) with no hidden costs or account minimums.  Mutual fund trading cost $14.95 per trade, while TDAmeritrade cost $49.99 per trade, and E*Trade cost $19.99 per trade. TradeKing offers great education to investors who heavily trade on options, it offers pre-programmed option strategies in its tading platform to facilitate option trading which is common used in hedging risk. Regarding accessing research information, TradeKing offers access to research from MarketGrader.com, “a quantitative system that analyzes publicly-traded companies based on a strict fundamental analysis”

E*TRADE FINANCIAL offers $12.99 stock trades ($9.99 if your have more than $50,000 in your portfolio or makes 30+ trades per quarter).  Available research includes: Credit Suisse, Thomson Reuters, S&P Stock Reports, BNY Jaywalk, Morningstar, Dow Jones and Market Edge, a complete list can be found here.

E*TRADE retirement accounts include: No-Fee Roth IRA, No-Fee Traditional IRA, and Rollover IRA accounts. Opening an account is quick and easy, and takes a matter of minutes.