Casual Day Traders

tomomatic

I've been putting things into mutual funds in a 401k for years but I can't cash out of those until I retire. I used to have an account with eTrade. I cashed it out to buy our current home.

I've recently started to dabbling with the idea of investing again. I'm still contributing to a 401k. I just want to dabble around with some pocket change and see if it can make me some more pocket change.

I was going to go back to eTrade as my online broker, but found that they charge a $25 per quarter service charge for balances less than $5000. I'm leaning towards TD Ameritrade.

Any recommendations for online brokers? or (even better) stocks?

Espressocycle

Listen dude, nobody beats the market at any rate better than pure chance. Any chance of doing so has been absorbed by the big guys who make money buying and selling nanoseconds before the competition with direct data lines and supercomputers.

You are better off with poker, which at least offers some opportunity to win more than you lose if you learn how to play based on rules of probability.

As far as personal investing, I suggest a Roth IRA with Vanguard. Their mutual funds are no more likely to beat the market, but their lower fees make it much more likely you will come out ahead. I'm a big fan of the Roth because it serves several purposes. First, because the money you put in is post-tax, you can always withdraw up to the original amount you put in without penalty. That makes it a good emergency fund. Second, after retirement all withdrawals are tax-free, so it gives you another tool in retirement to manage your taxes.

tomomatic

Espressocycle, I totally follow. I'm certainly not planning on trying to beat the Pro's or anything like that. I'm just trying to make good use of the tax refund that's been sitting in a bank account for a few months waiting to be used or invested. Seeing as how my bank's interest rate is stupid low, I figure I'd use some of it to fix some things around the house... and then play with the rest. I'm definitely taking full advantage of the Roth IRA but my contribution is already maxed. Blackjack does sound like a funner way to invest.

More or less, I want my funds to be somewhat liquid and beat the bank interest rate. If I open an Ameritrade account, i'd probably stuff it with mutual funds anyways, but it would be more liquid than anything I put into a retirement vehicle. Right about now, I feel like investing in FedEx and a few mutual funds is the way to go.

Follow_me

Yes, I'm curious as to the OP question too.