PUBLISHING financial tables on the web has long been a time-consuming and expensive process for investor relations departments, which is why they often end up being published in static formats like PDF and images that are difficult for investors to reuse. However, new online spreadsheet software now makes it much easier for companies to present [...]

E*Trade is one of the oldest and well-known online stock brokers in the US. E*Trade is an award winning brokerage firm and offers a wide variety of investing tools, resources, and features that place it among the leaders among both full service brokerages and discount brokerage firms.

More importantly, E*Trade is affordable, with a commission and fee schedule that is good for both active traders and long term investors. Let’s take a look at some of E*Trade’s features and why are a solid brokerage account for a diverse group of investors.

E*Trade Online Brokerage Account Review

E*Trade Features

E*Trade is a full service brokerage firm, offering a full banking service in addition to its brokerage account, mortgages, and other financial products. E*Trade offers multiple service levels to meet different investor needs.

E*TRADE Complete Investment Account. The E*TRADE Complete Investment account is their entry level offering, but don’t let that fool you – there is a lot of service and value in this plan. You have the ability to open an E*Trade bank account which can be integrated into your investment account, making it easy to make quick trades and transfer funds. The E*Trade banking account comes with free unlimited checking, a debit card, free online bill pay, and Free ATM fee refunds. But that’s just the bank – the brokerage offers the following:

• Investors can buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), and even participate in IPOs,
• There are over 1,100 no load and no transaction fee mutual funds,
• Free access to investing tools (see below for more information),
• Free web seminars, tutorials, videos, and other educational resources,
• IRAs – no fees or minimums,
• The minimum balance to open an account is $500.

Power E*Trade Account. The Power E*Trade Account is the next level service and is automatically available to investors and traders who make at least 10 trades per month or 30 trades or options in a quarter. It offers more advanced trading tools, advanced charts, analytical tools, screening tools, and access to the Power E*Trade Pro platform.

E*Trade IRAs. There are no fees or minimums to open or maintain an IRA through E*Trade.

E*Trade Trading Platform and Investment Tools

E*Trade offers customers a wide variety of trading tools to help make informed trades and investment decisions. Some of these tools include streaming stock quotes, charts, Stock, Fund, & ETF Screeners to find investments that meets your requirements, and an investor resource center where you can conduct research, read articles, and communicate with other investors. E*Trade also features E*Trade Mobile Pro, an app for the iPhone, iPad, and Blackberry. Visit the E*Trade website for more information about their offered investment tools and services.

E*Trade Commissions and Brokerage Fees

E*Trade has a tiered commission schedule, which can result in cheaper commissions if you are an active trader. The current commissions are $9.99 per trade if you make fewer than 150 trades/quarter or $7.99 if you make more than 150 trades/quarter. Options trades are the same as standard trades.

Additional rates:

• IRAs – no fees & no minimums
• Mutual Funds: over 7,600 available and over 1,100 with no load and no transaction fee
• Broker assisted trades are $45 for either plan

E*Trade Customer Service

E*Trade has award winning customer service, with phone support available year round – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can also contact customer support via a secure email form within your account and receive a response within 48 hours, which is great for those times you have a question, but don’t need an immediate response.

E*Trade Awards and Recognition

E*Trade has won numerous awards and has been recognized by a variety of third party sources. Here is how E*Trade finished in annual rankings by SmartMoney Magazine and Barron’s:

• SmartMoney Magazine, May 2010 Broker Survey: Trading Tools (5 stars), Customer Service (5 stars), Banking Services (5 stars), Mutual Funds & Investment Products (4 stars) and Research (4 stars).
• SmartMoney Magazine overall rankings: #2 in 2010; #1 in 2009, 2008, 2007; #2 in 2006.
• Barron’s Annual Ranking of the Best Online Brokers (Based on Trade Experience, Trade Technology, Usability, Range of Offerings, Research Amenities, Portfolio Analysis & Reports, Customer Service & Access, and Costs): E*TRADE overall ranked #11 in 2010; #10 in 2009, 2008; #8 in 2007; #6 in 2006.

Current E*Trade promotions:

E*Trade has the following offers and promotions available for new customers:

• 100 free trades with new IRA account.
• New account bonus – up to $500.
• Trade Free for 60 Days with new E*Trade account.

Final Thoughts about E*Trade

E*Trade is not the cheapest discount broker on the scene, but they offer some of the best value. Their full service bank and variety of other free resources and features make E*Trade one of the best discount brokerage firms on the market. For more information or to open an account, visit the E*Trade website.

~$~

This article written by Ryan Guina. Ryan is the founder and editor of Cash Money Life. He is a writer, small business owner, entrepreneur, and professional in the corporate world. He served over 6 years in the USAF and also writes about military money topics at The Military Wallet.

All content copyright Cash Money Life; if you are reading this on another website it has been illegally reproduced in violation of copyright laws.

I’ve noticed more company are offering incentives for customers to go paperless – receiving statements, notices, and other paperwork electronically, as well as making payments over the internet. In addition to saving trees, going paperless can also save you money. Consider these reasons for trading the snail mail documents for electronic ones.

Going paperless with your financial documents offers several advantages for customers.

Cost Savings
Paying bills online eliminates the cost of postage. You can utilize your bank’s bill pay feature to send payment via electronically. Many companies are set receive a direct payment from your bank within two days, maximizing the time your money is earning interest. Also some banks are offering incentives for you to go paperless. Wells Fargo is holding an Online Statements Sweepstakes where you could win $25,000 or one of ten $2,500 prizes for switching to online statements.

Reduce clutter
All those paper bills, notices, and statements tend to pile up, and they need to be stored somewhere. When you finally sort thru those documents, they will needed to be shredded before discarding them. Electronic version don’t take up any space – except on your computer hard drive.

Convenience
You might be able to search and sort electronic bills and statements or import the data info financial programs, such as Quicken®, for analysis. Bank statements often contain interactive features that let you find out more about a charge and reconcile your checkbook or spreadsheet records. And electronic documents are portable (it is very convenient for me to keep my records on a flash drive). Having your documents categorized and sorted makes things easier come tax time. And filing your tax return electronically can speed up your refund.

Environmental benefits
PayItGreen, a coalition led by an electronic-payment industry group estimates that by eliminating paper statements, bills, and payments alone, the average household would save 6.6 pounds of paper each year, avoid the release of 171 pounds of green house gasses and 63 gallons of wastewater, and cut gas consumption by 4.5 gallons. Who knew?! The estimates take into account paper, transportation, and disposal.

Still not sure if you want to take the paperless route with your financial documents? Consider these tips for giving up paper.

Secure your computer
Back up your hard drive and keep a copy of your data in a different location from your computer in case of a fire or other calamity. Consider an online storage service like Wells Fargo’s vSafe. Make sure you have updated antivirus and antispyware programs (I highly recommend PCTools).

Download copies
Consider downloading copies onto your computer for safekeeping and future reference.

Record scheduled payments
If you set up online bill pay, especially if its automatic, be sure to record the payment in calendar, financial software or checkbook well in advance so you don’t risk overdrawing your account.

Retain confirmations
Whether you are paying a bill, making a deposit, transferring cash or anything else, save a copy of all confirmations. On your computer’s hard drive, consider setting up a folder called “Bill Confirmations”. Extract attached documents from your e-mail and save them in the appropriate folder.

Keep information current
Notify businesses if your change your email address. Otherwise you might miss bills or other important documents, exposing yourself to late charges and other problems.

I am 98% paperless with a few straggling prospectus coming via snail mail. Where as my husband is still pro paper. Vies that having a hard copy in hand lends for making sure bills are paid on time. Have you gone paperless with your financial documents? Why or why not?

Further Reading: Automating your Finances by Ramit Sethi

{photo credit: midcontinent}

In starting an online business or making an online presence for your current business, you need to completely understand that the internet is full of business owners like you. This means that the competition is tight. An online presence is seen most commonly in the form of a website. You build a website for your business and pump it up through internet marketing. To make people aware that you own a website, you can make some publications which shall display your website name in billboards or any other print ad media. You can also put the address of your website on your company merchandise or products. If you own a bakery shop, you can put your website address on the cake packaging so that your customers will be aware that they can see your products and order it online. These are some ways to get your current customers to go online and find your stores website. However, these ways are less effective for making new customers. What really works for your business in getting new customers with the website is by making use of the search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

People have been using search engines to direct them to the websites that are relevant to their search keywords. When they type in the keywords, pages of search results come up displaying the websites that are related to the search. Logically, the first website names on the lists are the ones that the people will visit. So it is very important for your website to be on the first list so that people will visit your website, see your products and eventually buy them. But how can you make it happen considering that you have a number of competitors? The answer is Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short. SEO is basically a set of techniques that are applied to your website so that the search engine will put you on top of the list whenever there is a search that involves the keywords that match your website specification. In this way, it will help you widen your market and ultimately increase sales. Plus, employing these techniques will require a very minimal amount from you, thus saving you from shelling out big bucks and bloating your expenses. You can actually apply the SEO techniques on your own. There are also SEO companies that offer the service to optimize the search engines to benefit your website.

Each search engine has its own way in determining which website goes into which place on the list of search results. They use a certain algorithm which changes regularly; so a website can be on the top list at one time and be on the bottom list at another if the SEO technique is not updated. So it must be understood that SEO is not an event, it is a process. Whether you apply the techniques yourself or by hiring a company, you must be patient and fully committed to the entire process. If you decide to do the SEO by yourself, you have to learn how to do it. There are a number of websites where you can get tutorials or tips of how to optimize your websites. There are articles that are made of simple languages so that even the beginners could understand. If you decide to hire a company to do the SEO for you, make sure you hire the reliable one. Ask a lot of questions and do some research to find out the best SEO Company that can meet your budget and needs.

Related osts:

• How to Choose an SEO Company for your Business?
• Building a website For Your Internet Business Using Targeted Keywords
• Specialized SEO Consultant Services by Shimon Sandler

The aim of blackjack, including blackjack online game, is to acquire cards so that the total value of these ads 21 or approaching as close to 21, but without that the sum is passed, 21. You may be the only person to play cards against the dealer or you can play with others, who will also play against the dealer. All participants blackjack online game play as individuals, and the amount of money you bet does not affect the amount of money that someone else bet. You place a bet in front of you in the form prior to the deal of a round of cards.

Then, the card dealer will give each player who has paid a bet two cards, the cards are dealt walking towards the table clockwise. The delivery of letters also gives him two cards, and one of these cards will be placed face up. All Kings, Queens, Jacks, and Tens (10s) are worth 10 points, and the rest of the cards has a value of your number. The Ace can be worth either 1 or 11 that value is at the discretion of the player. Blackjack is achieved when a player has in hand an ace and a face card worth 10 points.

Read the rest of this entry »