Hello and welcome to our community! - Page 37 - Warren Buffett, Ben Graham Investment Community

tomjkm · #**361** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 12:37 PM

I would like to get an expert advise from you guys, regarding opening a online trading account, which would be currently the best broker for a newbie rule1#investor? I can across td ameritrade, do anyone have any good or bad experience with then?

hbx45 · #**362** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 02:00 PM

Hi
This is my first post. I finished reading Rule # 1 book.
On my Ameritrade screen FDG is 52 week low (18-19)but according to ValuePro it's intrinsic value is in excess of $781? Is this real?

mhartman · #**363** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 02:02 PM

TD Ameritrade is fine, I have used them. If you are a newbie, I am assuming that you will be starting off with a few thousand dollars to trade with. If that is the case, the commissions on TD Ameritrade ($9.95 per transaction) will kill you (that is a 2% hit on a $1000 in and out trade). I traded a few grand over there for a few months and, in the end, I was about even, but they were up quite a bit. I have switched my money over to www.tradeking.com ($4.95 per transaction). By cutting the transaction fees in half, you increase your chances of breaking even or making a bit of money on trades. So far, Tradeking has seemed pretty good. I'm sure that others around here will have some good advice for you.

If you are trading more money ($50k +), transaction fees won't be that big of a deal (but why pay out more than you have to?).

Have fun.

Gunnski · #**364** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 03:01 PM

Online Discount Brokers, Online Stock Trading, Stock Investing, Mutual Funds, IRA - ScottradeI have nothing but a good experience with Scottrade. Easy to open an account. It is nice if you have a local office in or around your city of residence. On line trading is very easy. Nice support staff, very friendly.

jgore · #**365** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 04:03 PM

I use Tradeking as well and am very well please.
JG

jgore · #**366** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 04:10 PM

Not sure about the notebook. That would be very helpful. I get my buy/sell signal from msn.com. Just follow the instruction in the book. Invest tools require a big $$ investment. Not sure it is worth it to me. Good luck.
JG

**Justin** · #**367** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 05:10 PM

Hello John and welcome to our Community! Sorry to hear about AKAM but no worries you'll be there for the next run up. Thanks for the kind words on the website. As far as Phil's 1k to 1m, several wondered the same thing and he touched on that in his blog a few entries back. He jumped in on some riskier investments that may have broken the Rule a few times. However considering the general market at that time, you could get away with some riskier moves. On the greens and reds, you'll find that BusinessWeek serves that purpose very nicely. Pat made a comment on this in another thread:

Quote:

When you go to BusinessWeek: Daily & Breaking News, Top Stories from BusinessWeek News, there is a box that says "Stock Lookup" - enter a symbol in that box and click Go. When you see the chart, click anywhere on the chart and the next screen will give you the ability to add the MACD, Stochs, MA, etc.

Keep reading all that you can, you'll find that the Book makes a wonderful foundation for the Value Investing process as a whole, and this forum will serve as a wonderful supplement to your education.

If you have any questions, don't ever hesitate to ask, there are many here who can help!

**Justin** · #**368** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 05:30 PM

Hello hbx and welcome to our community. After running some initial scans of FDG on both the InvesTools and MSN spreadsheets, I'd have to suggest that a value of $780 may be flawed. Noting a few things here: I can't get an analyst's predicted growth rate, so to get a valuation I have to manually decide upon a rate based on the equity growth. Past Equity shows negative growth all over the place, and EPS is rather inconsistant as well. Without digging too much into this businesses function, I do read that it is a mutual fund trust that deals with mineral & coal commodities. Hmm. Mutual funds, commodities, and inconsistant growth, inconsistant earnings..You might leave this one up for your risky biz portfolio and turn a profit on a trade. But probably a bit too risky to consider a long term Rule One Investment.

No worries though, as you'll soon find this philosophy of investing demands nothing less than the best of the best, and as they say its lonely at the top. You might check out the small handful of businesses that do meet the initial Rule #1 Criteria. We've found about 80 or 90 businesses that at first glance, pass our initial filtration. From there, our Community digs in to the fundamentals, including Meaning, durable competitive advantage (MOAT), Management, and its intrinsic value (Margin of Safety). Perhaps you will find a business or two there that you know something about and can help shed some light?

See you on the boards!

**Justin** · #**369** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 05:54 PM

Hello docker, Janet, welcome to our community!

tomjkm · #**370** (**permalink**) 11-13-2006, 06:12 PM

Thank you guys
Is trade king a relatively new broker, do they have good charts,also do they offer any kind of stock research tools.How easy is it to open an account?