Established in 1985, Firstrade began as a discount brokerage firm serving the local community. Achieving steady and organic growth, the company caught sight of the benefits to be gained from tapping into the capabilities of the Internet. Truly a pioneer in online trading, Firstrade.com was launched in 1997 joining only a handful of other online stock brokerages on the web.
Firstrade’s commitment as an online discount broker to offer the most for the least struck a chord with investors. Firstrade.com grew rapidly, providing self-directed investors with fast order execution, excellent customer service, and exceptional site performance. Major industry publications including Barron’s, Forbes, and Smart Money have all rated Firstrade as one of the best online brokers for consecutive years.
Firstrade today continues to thrive on its fundamental value: Low Costs, Higher Standards. In 2005, Firstrade was named the “Best Deal” in the online discount broker category by Smart Money Magazine, and continued the streak in 2006 when Kiplinger’s Magazine called Firstrade the “Clear Winner in the Mutual Funds Category” and “Top Clean-Hands Firm”.* The newly redesigned Firstrade website, built from the ground up using the latest technology, offers many new and exciting possibilities for our customers. You’ll be hard pressed to find another online broker that offers as many products and services as we do while offering such low commissions.
One Customer Review of Firstrade
Mark on December 29, 2008
COMMISSSION:
The site offers a competitive fee structure with its commissions, stocks and options are fixed at $6.95 per trade, with options having an additional $0.75 per contract, and mutual funds can be traded with no load funds for $9.95, and others are free. Along with some of the other benefits offered by the site, makes it a good place to trade regardless of your experience.
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
A variety of contact options exist here, with live chat, email and a phone line open from 8am until 9pm ET, as well as a comprehensive F&Q section available on the site, making contact easy and in most cases free to the client.
TRADE TOOLS & SERVICES:
Screeners, reports and planning tools are available on the site, and more comprehensive tools are held within the X Stream trading suite platform, not the most sophisticated site for trading tools, but other services include acceptance of telephone orders, broker assisted trading, a knowledge centre for education, as well as a newsletter and blog.
WEBSITE & ACCOUNT SECURITY
The site offers a protected server with advanced technology to avoid fraud and unauthorized access to accounts, combined with restricting the access of your personal information that is submitted – they feel there security measures are good enough to be able to offer the firstrade online protection guarantee, featuring reimbursement if in the event of your loss being the sites fault, the damage will be repaired.
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