Buying Stocks with ShareBuilder

With the economy in turmoil and struggling stock market, I decided to invest my money and buy some stocks. Stocks are on sale right now according to Warren Buffett. Buffett says to buy American stocks, which I did. I believe that Warren Buffett is right on this one.

The stock market has reached record lows in the month of October. I didn't have a lot of money to invest so I was looking for an online broker that didn't want a deposit of $2500. The first one I came across was Share Builder. Share Builder is owned by ING Direct and doesn't require a minimum fee to sign up.

Share Builder has three different plans, basic, standard, and advantage. The basic plan you don't need any money in the account unless you want to buy stocks. When you purchase stocks you get a trading charge of $9.95 on top of the $4.

If you don't feel like waiting for the transfer of funds in the account, Share Builder has a feature known as express funding. With express funding there is no need to wait for the funds to be wired to your account, Share Builder charges an extra $5 and you can purchase stocks immediately. I have the advantage account because I plan on being in the stock market for a while, with the advantage account I can trade 20 times without getting charged an extra fee.

There are other upsides to having the advantage plan; you get stock grades, stock reports, and IPO priority notification. IPO priority notification means that you get notified if a private company is offering stocks to the public for the first time. There are many other features that Share Builder has to offer, I really haven't had a chance to sit down and browse the site.

I just wanted to get in the stock market right away because the stock market is down and I believe this is the time to jump in the market. I am sure there are other online brokers that are as good as Share Builder but this is what online broker I chose.