Zecco.com Review

So there is a "new" website called ZECCO.COM which offers 10 free trades per month ($5 after 10). This is perfect for people who trade like myself. I rarely have more than 6 trades per month. Day traders have other options available to them which I am sure are better....but this one looked about right for me.

Instead of just telling you about this I decided to give it an actual try and then update everyone on how it went. I have now been using this for about 2 months and it definitely has it's plusses and minuses so far.

Pluses (or musts in some cases):

• Your money is protected through SIPC/FIRNA for your first $500K ($100K cache max) and an additional coverage up to $35M (900K cash max) through Lloyd's of London.
  
• Their transactions are very fast! I had a few instances with Citibank where transactions took minutes...yes minutes. With Zecco I can re-check in about 2 seconds and not only has my transaction gone through but my entire portfolio has been adjusted with the new information...that is way better than Citi!
• They have an investing community. You can see what others are doing and chat with others about certain stocks. This can also be found on Google and Yahoo Finance...but I often find that those forums have a lot of people just yapping about...the folks here tend to be much more focused.
• Customer service is friendly and fast. I asked a few dumb questions in the beginning via email and always got fast responses (hours instead of days like Citi) with clear answers (not written in India).
  
• Did I mention 10 free trades per month? Now...this is important because I am not a huge investor. I typically invest in blocks of only $3-$8K. When I am paying almost $60 to get in and out of a position...that can be as much as 2% of my gains....and that is a big bite when you can get that 2% back here at Zecco. So in my mind...I just improved my investing intelligence by 2% even if I am just as wrong as I was yesterday ;-)

Minuses:

• Money transfers in/out of my account take a little time. The first one took about 4 days to clear and the second one took about 2 days to clear. This can be a little frustrating if you want to make a move quick...but in the grand scheme of things...once you have money in your account...this is a non-issue.
• They have a pretty good stock screener...but better ones can be found elsewhere.
• The interface is getting much better. It was a little clumsy when I first tried it...but it is rapidly getting more organized and much more responsive. They need to keep up the improvements and it will quickly be better than Citi.

Overall, I really like Zecco. The fact that I can dabble in trades without paying the 1-2% penalty of the big brokers is exactly what I was looking for. The tools are sufficient and the trade executions are excellent (so far). If you want to sign-up and try yourself...just remember to tell them that I sent you there ;-)