Financial Well-being

How I’m Doing So Far

Brokerages

I have stocks with both Ameritrade and Robinhood brokerages.

I also have an old E-trade account that was started around 2000 and I haven’t used it for some time, although it still works and exists in case I change my mind.

I did have a Charles Schwab account that I opened around the same time as Ameritrade, but we parted ways about a month ago, and I won’t recommend them as a brokerage to anyone.

Ameritrade

For Ameritrade, I have approximately 10 stocks in that account with a focus on oil, gas and consumables; and biotechnology stocks. They charge $6.95 per trade, so it’s a bit pricey at times to trade unless a decent number of shares are being purchased. The reason I do keep the account, after finding zero fee trading with Robinhood, is that Ameritrade has some amazing tools for research, while Robinhood lacks most research capabilities.

Also, Ameritrade offers DRIP for dividend re-investing, which Robinhood doesn’t yet support. DRIP means that any company I own shares that have quarterly or yearly dividends will be used to re-purchase stock shares even in partial allotments. I like the idea of acquiring more stocks over cash that would just be sitting in the account earning lower interest than the stock may earn in the market.

Robinhood

For Robinhood, I have 7 stocks in that account from 1 share of some stocks like GE and Pfizer (PFE) to 25 shares in Ford (F) and some others. I have 1 free share of SiriusXM (SIRI) that I received by referring a friend to the brokerage. He ended up getting a free share of Groupon (GRPN) for the referral as well.

Because this brokerage charges no fees for trading, I have been able to make purchases I wouldn’t ever make with Ameritrade such as the 1 share of GE or PFE. I’ve even bought shares of small-cap, low-cost stocks like WTI with some of the remaining funds I have, just to use up most of my unspent cash value.

Of note, I didn’t choose to get the gold plan with Robinhood, so I’m not using margin. Because all accounts get fash transfer whether gold or not, I have been able to use my cash to buy stocks right away. Eventually, I may move some of my money in Ameritrade to Robinhood as I’ve spent approximately $173 on trades at Ameritrade in the past two months.

How are the stocks doing

I’ve made some money in the past two months, but I’ve also had to sell a stock at a loss due to concern it would just keep losing value (lesson learned–while oil stocks may be doing better, oil transport/shipping businesses aren’t and avoid them at all costs). For that stock loss, it was approximately -$433 due to reverse splits. I didn’t understand at the time how to see a reverse split on the calendar at Ameritrade, so I mistakenly thought the stock kept having price spikes. All in all, even with the loss, I am up about $1,200 per month for the profits I’ve made.

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