ShareBuilder

Includes tutorials, primers
Automatic investment plan
Automatic investments cost just $4

Market orders cost $10
Fairly basic trading tools
Narrow range of investment products

Where to Buy

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Our Analysis

February 2009. ShareBuilder, now part of ING Direct, is geared toward the novice investor; no minimum balance is required, and there are no maintenance or inactivity fees. This online broker is noted for its automatic investing program, which allows investors to take advantage of dollar-cost-averaging by investing a set amount on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis. Automatic investments incur a commission of only $4 each, but the transactions are done as a pool only once a week. Real-time trades, which include stock sales, cost $10 -- more than some other brokers. If you want low-cost real-time trades with no account minimum and no fees, reviewers say that TradeKing may be a better choice.

We found reviews of ShareBuilder in SmartMoney magazine and Barron's, as well as at StockTradingToGo.com, which ranks online brokers based on the cost of trades only. A survey by J.D. Power and Associates assesses how ShareBuilder's customers rate this broker.

Where To Buy

Our Sources

1. SmartMoney.com

Editors name a best and worst broker in each of six categories based on hands-on analysis of each broker's fees, customer service, research tools, features and more. ShareBuilder, alone among the brokers included in this survey, fares poorly in two areas: trading tools and banking services.

Review: Smart Money's Annual Broker Survey, Neil Parmar, May 20, 2008

2. Barron's

In this annual survey of 23 online brokers, editor test each service by scrutinizing each sites rate policies, customer service, research tools and more. ShareBuilder ranks last overall, earning especially poor marks for its trading technology, range of offerings, and costs.

Review: Making It Click: Annual Ranking of the Best Online Brokers, Theresa W. Carey, March 17, 2008

3. J.D. Power & Associates

ShareBuilder comes in second of the 15 online brokerages included in this customer satisfaction survey of almost 6,000 investors. The survey measures customers' overall satisfaction with each broker, and also rates account offerings, customer service, trading charges and fees.

Review: 2008 Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study, Editors of J.D. Power and Associates, Oct. 28, 2008

4. StockTradingToGo.com

This website ranks online brokers based on cost alone, and it doesn't appear that anyone tried out the sites personally. Despite the title, it lists six brokerages and ranks ShareBuilder last of the six; although it's $4 commission rate is good, that rate is only available to those enrolled in one of its automatic investment plans.

Review: 5 Top Online Stock Brokers, Blain Reinkensmeyer, May 31, 2007