Cost	Cost Basis	Min Trades	Min Assets	Min Fee	Max Shares
0.00 $ (1)	per trade		25000.00 $
4.95 $	per trade	240 /year	2000.00 $
4.95 $	per trade		1000000.00 $
6.95 $	per trade	120 /year	2000.00 $
6.95 $	per trade		250000.00 $
8.95 $	Per Trade		2000.00 $

Merrill Edge	0.00 - 8.95 $
Wells Fargo	0.00 - 19.95 $
Share Builder	1.00 - 9.95 $
Just2Trade	2.50 $
Sogo Trade	3.00 $
eOption	3.00 $
Marsco	3.95 $
Options House	3.95 $
Light Speed	4.50 $
MB Trading	4.95 $
Trade King	4.95 $
Zecco	4.95 $
Firstrade	6.95 $
Speed Trader	6.95 $
Trade Station	6.99 - 9.99 $
Scottrade	7.00 $
Trade Monster	7.50 $
Fidelity	7.95 $
Investrade	7.95 $
Noble Trading	7.95 $
Cobra Trading	7.99 $
ETrade	7.99 - 9.99 $
Charles Schwab	8.95 $
Options Xpress	9.95 $
Think Or Swim	9.95 $
TD Ameritrade	9.99 $
Siebert Net	14.95 $

Interactive Brokers	0.001 - 0.005 $
Speed Trader	0.0039 $
Cobra Trading	0.004 - 0.007 $
Light Speed	0.0045 $
MB Trading	0.0075 $
Noble Trading	0.008 $
Options Xpress	0.01 $
Trade Station	0.01 $
Think Or Swim	0.015 $

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by Ria14444 ( 15 ) on 2013-02-06 12:45:40
Bank of America/Merrill lynch branded Merrill edge trading platform is one of the weakest in the market. Pros: it's cheap, research is decent. Cons: everything else

I'll start with the positive: the research options are solid but FYI Merrill lynch analyst are often more wrong, and very wrong, than they are right. They do offer s&p and Morningstar reports along with Merrill reports, but if your research is in need of Morningstar and s&p reports just go to their websites and grab them. I will say the research options are solid; they are cheap, yes this is good, but you get what you pay for.

The not so good: customer service....good luck getting any timely help, knowledgable answers, or anything useful when calling the call center. If you call with the same questions and talk to 3 different people, you get three different answers. DO NOT call for investment advice, you pay more and you are getting advice from someone who is about as qualified as yourself.
Investment advice: Merrill edge financial solutions advisor or call center advice works on process. This means they are given a choice of about 50 MF, 15 etf, and stock recommendations come from their us 1 list only. Anything outside of that has to go through compliance approval and good luck getting your trade done that day. If you are self-directed then you know there is no advice platform and nor should there be.
Customer service: the worst thing to happen to Merrill lynch was Bank of America purchasing them. That's when the investment client customer service went away, and they figure they could license a bunch of personal bankers or bank associates and "qualify" them to give advice.
If you choose Merrill edge just be prepared to pay the 95 dollar exit fee when you move your funds to another broker.

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by jwarrener ( 15 ) on 2011-12-21 14:15:46
They closed my account because my portofolio had a large loss this year. My major investment which was heavily margined gave poor guidance at the cc and it plummetted. I am still stunned that in spite of still having $120,000 in assets and paying them 5000+ dollars in margin interest this year they decided to terminate my account. If I screwed up something, I could understand it but did nothing to warrant such a move.
AVOID THIS COMPANY!

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by antimerrill ( 15 ) on 2010-10-20 20:48:20
I've been a Banc of America customer for couple years. Even though their platform was much worse than Scootrade's or TD's I switched, because the 30 free trades. However now with Merrill Edge is just simply a nightmare. Cash balances don't update for several days. So far they don't update at all. The execution of trades is horrible. Very slow, unstable, unreliable. To place an order it takes way too long (about 50 sec with 6Mb high speed internet connection). Website is very slow and not responsive. The website is very problematic, a lot of options which MOST traders don't need pop up. It's extremely illegible. Gains/Losses are hard to find. The colors are exactly the same which makes them very hard to read. In the era of color monitors it is just an outrage and unacceptable. Banc of America just DOWNGRADED all its LOW ASSETS customers and it looks like THEY DON'T CARE anymore. Try to call 1-800-926-1111 and press option 0 talk to the service agent! It's gonna be waste of time plus they all seem to have a negative attitude towards the customers. Just give me a break! Merrill is THE WORST ONLINE broker I've ever could imagined. I talked to one of the trading supervisors and she informed me that "not many customers go long and short in the same time" and therefore I CANNOT execute the trade. She said she was aware of the problem but SHE HAD NO IDEA if it's gonna be resolved or not. My guess - NEVER!
Stay away. Traders and investors - beware!!!
When you sell short a stock and later go long it WON'T SHOW IT! The website shows you actually have ZERO SHARES (0)! When you try to cover your position it tells you to call customer service which take on average 20-30 minutes. In the event of the flash crash your account could be wiped out.
Please stay away from Merrill Edge. Maybe if all normal people (excluding those who like this godforsaken website) call them every day, send letters and talk to supervisors they would switch the website to the old one. Which wasn't perfect but it was much much better! Bottom line just go to any broker but NEVER to Merrill. Horrible customer service, impossible to swing trade website, impossible to cover your short position if you have any long position in the same stock. Just a nightmare. Maybe they just like the tradition of Halloween and enjoy trick the clients?! LOL

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1 of 4 users found this review helpful

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