www.Scottrade Ranks as Top Online Brokerage for Customer Loyalty

www.Scottrade is a leading branch-supported online investing firm, has been named a top firm in the 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for a seventh time. The index asked customers from seven online brokerage firms to determine how they perceive each brand, compare offerings and ultimately make a buying decision.

“For more than 30 years, Scottrade has offered the tools, investment education and support to help investors make better online investing decisions,” said Scottrade Chief Marketing Officer Kim Wells. “Ranking as a top online brokerage firm for customer loyalty for the seventh time points directly to our investors’ appreciation, which includes local stock brokers they know and trust, as well as our consistently low commissions and variety of products that make Scottrade a reliable resource to help them trade and invest with confidence.”

Investors can visit any of Scottrade’s more than 500 branch offices throughout the country to learn more about investing for retirement or online stock trading. They can also attend one of Scottrade’s Branch Seminars or watch a Live Webinar on the online Knowledge Center to learn how Scottrade’s products can help them make better-informed decisions.

In addition to the Brand Keys recognition, Scottrade recently was named one of FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America for the fourth consecutive year and has been chosen three times as one of the Best Places to Work in IT by Computerworld.

The 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index asked customers to rate their relationships with hundreds of brands in more than 75 categories, which ranged from the airline industry to banks to online travel companies.

About Scottrade
Investors who enjoy online stock trading will find value and personalized customer service at online investing firm Scottrade. Founded in 1980, Scottrade enables customers to learn about online trading tools, stock market research and how to buy stocks online, many at just $7 per trade. With more than 500 nationwide branch offices, Scottrade has the largest branch network among online brokerage firms. To learn more about one of FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” visit about.scottrade.com orwww.scottrade.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Member FINRA/SIPC.

Scottrade Review

Scottrade is one of the more established discount stock brokers in the industry, but I have to give them another praise after what happened since I wrote a review about them. This article outlines why Scottrade brings customer service to the next level, and what the brokerage firm offers.
What are the Commission Rates

Scottrade has always advertised its pricing of $7 per trade, while options are $7 per trade plus $1.25 per contract. Compared with its direct competitors who offer similar services, they are clearly the heapest option. However, on a strict per trade level, there are others out there.
 

Scottrade’s Different Trading Platforms

Like many of the premium brokers, Scottrade offers multiple platforms that all have their unique advantages. Here’s a brief description of each:
Scottrade Trading Website – The web platform is great if you are paranoid about installing anything on your computer. It’s also comparable to most discount broker platforms and offers the majority of investors’ needs.
Scottrade Mobile – A special mobile application that simplifies the clutter to allow for faster trading on a mobile device. I will never know why you need to make trades on the go, but this option is there if you need it.
Scottrate Elite – The full blown trading application that rivals the hardcore trading platforms of other brokerages. Streaming quotes, customizable and savable sessions as well real time news that is

• 
  pushed to you.
  Scottrade Knowledge Center
  
  In order to help investors, Scottrade put together one of the most comprehensive investment resources online. With nearly 2,000 educational articles and interactive tools, investors can learn about everything from the basics of options to what the yield curve of a bond is.

Scottrade Branches and Customer Service

There are actually more than 400 Scottrade branch offices nationwide, so you can get your questions answered either on the phone or in person. The company is one of the top 100 companies to work for (according to Forbes) and it shows in the attitude of the employees. Everyone I spoke with were genuinely helpful and happy.

Why I’m Seriously Considering Scottrade

I’m beginning to become a Scottrade convert. I wrote a review about two weeks ago, and not only did the company tweeted about it, the PR spokesman of the company also personally emailed me to clarify my concern on their physical locations and offered to answer any questions I had.

At the time of the review, I noted that the local branches didn’t provide much more than what a phone conversation would do. As it turns out, each Scottrade representative can walk you through the whole trading platform in person as well as make trades for you (if you choose, or if the website goes down for whatever reason).

I also learned that within the branches, they are hosting live seminars to teach Scottrade customers how to better invest in these times. This is what they have to say about the seminars.

I’ve repeated said that while it’s better to have good customer support than bad, I seldom use it and therefore it’s low on my list of priorities when looking at a new broker option. However, Scottrade seems to take customer service to the next level (the helpfulness and positive attitude of the employees were very apparent once I spoke with them). In fact, I’m so impressed that I’m thinking of moving my funds over to a Scottrade account. While there are cheaper solutions out there, I’m sure that the customer reps would be glad to help me if problems were to arise.

Is Scottrade Right for You

At the end of the day, this is a personal choice that you have to make. Compared with any other broker that has all the higher end services of Scottrade, this broker is the cheapest (and probably the best). However, there are less expensive alternatives out there if you are looking strictly at per trade cost. Is the few dollars a trade worth the piece of mind of knowing you are in the perfect hands? It’s entirely up to you.

If you decide to go with Scottrade though , click here to get started.

Scottrade

Scottrade is a privately owned American discount retail brokerage firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its Founder, President and CEO is Rodger O. Riney. Scottrade has 500 branch offices around the U.S. Scottrade has no international branch offices but does offer special services to its Asian-Pacific customers with a Chinese service center staffing Chinese-speaking stockbrokers.

Scottrade renders both online and branch office services including brokerage services, advisment services, investment education, and offers award-winning online trading platforms, including the Scottrade Trading Web Site, ScottradeELITE Advanced Trading Platform, Scottrader Streaming Quotes, Scottrade OptionsFirst and Scottrade Mobile.
The Scottrade Trading Web Site is Scottrade's standard trading platform with stock screeners; quotes and research; real-time quotes and charting; account monitoring and a knowledge center.

Scottrader Streaming Quotes provides real-time market data and news within a trading platform accessible via the Scottrade Trading Web Site.
ScottradeELITE is an advanced trading platform including news columns from both Comtex and Dow Jones, advanced charts, level two and TotalView quotes, and stock screeners.
OptionsFirst, designed by OptionsHouse in 2008, is a platform allowing complex multi-leg options orders, margin accounts with low minimum deposits, and multiple accounts to the same user. All regular common stock and ETF orders are allowed excluding OTCBB and Pink Sheets.
Scottrade Mobile, launched in 2009, is a trading website accessible from any internet-enabled mobile device.

Competitors in the discount brokerage industry include: E*TRADE, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, Firstrade, and TradeKing.

In 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company with making fraudulent misrepresentations to clients. The company settled the dispute by paying a $950,000 fine.

Tips on How You Can Learn to Trade Forex

Learning to trade Forex can be a good start in making financial freedom a reality. When you learn to trade Forex, a great financial opportunity is open for you even if you are a seasoned investor or a complete beginner. However, beginners should learn to trade Forex properly and acquire trading skills first before deciding to risk huge amounts of cash. Learn to trade foreign currencies with determination and patience and success will become easier.

Forex trading is simply the exchange or trade of currencies in pairs. People who learn to trade the foreign currency exchange participate in the trade by buying and selling certain currency pairs in the same way as people who invest in stocks. This is the reason why stock traders easily get the feel of the trading even though they are compete beginners. To participate in the financial game, one needs to have a trading account, which can be created easily on the Internet in many FX Trading websites.

Learn to trade by using a forex demo account first. A demo account is similar to that of a real account, but it does not involve real money. Therefore, losing in a demo trade does not have any financial impact on the user. Since the set-up is fake, it provides the user with the ability to learn to trade forex easily and applying it without fear of losing cash.

When you learn to trade in foreign currency, using a demo account provides you with the experience of trading online. Learn to trade currency by understanding how the system works. There are training courses that are provided for free along with the forex demo account. When you are learning to trade in foreign currency, it is best to take advantage of free online courses to save money. When you are well-informed with the basics, keep learning with further training by participating in several workshops, webinars, and forums online and offline. If interested, purchase a professional guide and use it to gain better understanding of the strategies used in successful trades.

When you are confident enough, open a real trading account and start trading with real cash. However, do not trade in large amounts yet until you learn to trade successfully. As long as you learn to trade foreign currencies properly along with its strategies and tactics, then you will definitely taste success eventually.

Some people are sometimes fortunate enough to profit from their trades at the start, but keep in mind that no strategy will ensure successful trades all the time. Take note that in some instances, you will loss. When you learn to exchange currency, keep your losses at minimum while you keep your wins at maximum.

Do not rely heavily on Forex trading software though. Keep in mind that the trends in the market are very unpredictable so make it a point to learn to trade forex including how to interpret the rise and fall of a currency. Buy a currency while it is low and sell it while it is high. Not all strategies work for everybody so it is recommended that you learn to trade currency using other strategies as well.

How Top Traders Think

You cannot be a successful trader if you are not willing to have both profits and losses… “It’s like only wanting to breathe in and not wanting to breathe out.” Both are a significant part of the trading process… The other half of the equation is also important (and equally puzzling). You can’t put too much importance in gains. People who value profits too highly, tend to take them quickly. Why? Because if they don’t take them, they are afraid they will get away.
this quate you have to always remember to b a good trader

It’s true that if you continue to work hard on the market, you’d eventually achieve constant survival that you dream of.
Last week, my GBPJPYUSDCAD Hedging strategy experienced some tolerable drawdown – something that would be recovered soon. In addition, I saw about 7 gap trading setups on Monday and I traded accordingly. On Friday, I closed all open positions with roughly 500-pip profit. Yes my clients’ appetite is being whetted in advanced, since they’re ready to become beneficiaries of this effective trading methodology.
Last week, I was again invited by another former trainee of mine. As a financial expert, he served in the federal civil service for 35 years. After retirement, he dabbled into agriculture without expert knowledge – only to lose a lot of money. Can you now see that trading isn’t the only business that entails serious challenges? However, he was lucky enough to have started Forex training on the right path. He practiced rigorously for almost 3 years before deciding to play the market with real money.
When I saw the account he was managing, I was amazed. He’d made over 2600 pips in 4 months! I saw 500+ pips as open profits and they increased to almost 700 pips before I left. I was extremely glad that he’d stuck to the risk management parameters I recommended to him. He was able to survive December and January as well, plus he suffered occasional drawdowns which were recovered eventually. If you feel that 26% returns in 4 months are a small profit, then it’s high time you did something else.
He and the engineer I visited earlier had something in common. This thing would soon be revealed to my clients. Yes my trainees and clients are the direct beneficiaries of my trading methodologies.
How Top Traders Think

Top traders believe in their trading systems (systems that have positive expectancy) and their own ability to remain calm whatever happens on the market. They know that trading is a game of probabilities.
They know that all trading strategies in the world would have periods of losses each, and therefore survival is all about limiting your risk and giving away as little portion of a trading portfolio as possible. Whenever a strategy experiences a drawdown, they know it’s just part of the game – for the strategy would recover in due course. It’s only a matter of time. They know that they don’t need to expect every trade they take to win: what they need to do is trading according to their entry criteria and managing each trade according to their predefined rules. They don’t ignore a trading signal merely out of fear, nor do they increase their risk because of overconfidence. Their main goal is to be more effective in trading, not struggling to force out higher hit rates.
Dr. Van, quoted above, says further: “Most people… want to be right all the time. They want to make money on every trade. Yet that will not happen because losses are a part of the trading process. When you understand the relationship, however, you can come to terms with losses and make them okay. A natural part of the trading process is to have a point at which you must unload a position or trade at a loss in order to preserve your capital. Those losses will happen to most people about half of the time or more. And you must make them okay or neutral. If a loss is not okay, you will not take it. When you’re not willing to take a loss, it usually gets a little bigger. When it rains, it pours. As a result, it becomes even harder to take—much more painful. If you didn’t take it the first time, as it becomes bigger you will be even less likely to take it. What’s likely to happen? It probably will become even bigger. The cycle typically continues until the loss becomes so big that you have to take it. This typically occurs when you get a margin call from your broker.”

For certain people, it may take many years to develop a normal trading mindset; for others, they speed up their personal evolution as traders and survive their learning curve more quickly than imagined. If you can cultivate the kind of the mindset discussed here, you’ll soon see the seed of trading genius germinating within you. The team here at Fxinstructor.com is doing everything in their capacity to help you become the best trader you can be. You’ll do yourself a great favor by capitalizing on the services they offer.

Futures Rise Slightly Before Durable Goods Data

There's No Business Like FOX Business
Stock futures pointed to a slightly-positive open on Friday as Wall Street waits for durable goods and new home sales data out this morning.
As of 7:30 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 38 points, or 0.36%, to 10644, the S&P 500 futures rose 4.6 points to 1125.00 and the Nasdaq 100 futures rose 10.75 points to 1992.25.
U.S. investors will get durable goods data at 8:30 a.m. ET followed by new homes sales shortly after the market open at 10 a.m. ET.
Economists are looking for durable goods orders to drop 1.4% for the August report, according to Thomson Reuters, compared with the 0.4% rise reported for July.
New home sales are expected to bounce off the multi-year low of 276,000 annualized units that was reported in the July data and rise to 291,000 units.
Gold remains in rally mode, striking $1,300 a troy ounce earlier this morning before backing off some. Oil was up 0.3% to $75.41 a barrel.
On Thursday, the Dow sank 76.89 points, or 0.72%, to 10662.42, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 9.45 points, or 0.83%, to 1124.83 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.47 points, or 0.32%, to 2327.08. The FOX 50 dropped 6.40 points, or 0.78%, to 813.71.