Good morning,
Anyone have experience with this or another online program that allows you to buy a share in a company? I'm totally new to investing, but trying to learn. Being able to purchase a share on the computer and leave out the middle man has its appeal. Safe? Thanks, Chancey

Safe and cheap trades.

I dont believe you can purchase penny stocks with Etrade, if that matters to you at all.

I have my Roth with etrade and so far I've not liked them. It took a few months to correct 1 tiny issue. Emails chat and phone calls to correct the issue were pointless.
Very limited on what you can buy to put in the roth account.

That plus crypto currency and a few other types.

I use TD Ameritrade but I think they are all pretty much the same.

I'm a set-it-and-forget-it investor. I buy (mostly) mutual funds that have long track records of good growth and then I don't do anything.

I keep a little money aside to play with and do buy and sell individual stocks with that money. But it never makes as much money as my set-it-and-forget-it investments.

Investing on your own makes sense if you're currently paying fees to someone else to invest for you. (1) managed investments typically do not make as much as just buying mutual funds. (2) your financial manager needs to show you that he's doing good stuff for you - which means he's probably doing stuff. As I said before, set-it-and-forget-it. Stop doing stuff. (3) Fees! They really eat up your investments.

TD Ameritrade and Webull are what I recommend. Being able to trade premarket and afterhours is a must if your starting a personal brokerage account.

There is always a middleman I think, and a high speed computer next door than can front run your order.

Somehow I doubt that some hedge fund is going to front-run an order for one share of a penny stock..................or any stock for that matter.


IMO the important thing for YOU to look for is a brokerage that charges no commission, no annual fees, and no inactivity fees.

I would urge you to avoid penny stocks. If you are seriously considering buying only one share, I would consider one of the major ETF's like SPY or QQQ

Thank you all for the information and insight! I certainly have a lot of jargon to learn! Just got done googling brokerage account and what a penny stock and IPO was?! Ha!

Investopedia is a good site for learning definitions and jargon.

I've been using td ameritrrade and I like it, lots of free information on there. Think or swim offers good paper trading (simulated trading with fake money) so that can be helpful.

ETrade is a middleman as are most online brokerages. Most of your trades made within their organization against their market holdings.