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Penny Stock Brokers

We have researched all of the best stock brokers in the "deep discount" category, that are worth considering as a penny stock broker. Use the table for a quick overview of commissions, fees and minimum deposits. Details for each of the brokers are listed below; use the links or scroll down to find the best stock broker that fits your personal needs. To make a suggestion for an addition, please email us.

IMPORTANT! - Before you begin searching for Penny Stock Brokers...

When browsing through the Penny Stock Brokers below, there are a few critical points to look for. The majority of brokers have fees that make penny stock trading more expensive than their big, colorful price tags lead you to believe. The truth is that a lot of brokers don't want to deal with small accounts trading penny stocks as they make the most money from large and active accounts.

To deter penny stock trading, brokers may have fees that affect the trade of low priced stocks, usually less than a dollar. Another typical method is to have a "large order surcharge" that kicks in with trades of more than 1,000 or 100,000 shares. With penny stocks, most notably sub-penny stocks, a small $500 position could be over 100,000 shares. These additional fees are usually noted with an asterisk in small print at the bottom of the page. We have made note of these fees with the brokers listed on this page, just look at the "Penny Stock Fees" column on the chart and read the notes. If you find a broker not listed here, make sure to look at the fine print... and if they have a good commission, and none of these pesky fees, let us know!

As you will see, the brokers that have none of these fees are ETrade®, Fidelity®, and TD Ameritrade®.

ETrade and TD Ameritrade offer more impressive tools and customer service. For example, with ETrade you pay $7.99-$9.99 a trade, but if you do 30+ trades per quarter you'll get free access to Power ETrade Pro 5.0, which includes Level 2 quotes, even for PinkSheet and OTCBB stocks... TD Ameritrade now also offers free Level 2 quotes for PinkSheets and OTCBB using their Command Center 2.0 platform. You must be APEX qualified but this is pretty easy to get and from our experience doesn't get taken away if you are inactive (unlike ETrade Pro). This is a feature that could cost you well over $50 a month for a comparable service. Because of this, a lot of traders are better off to go with ETrade or TD Ameritrade even though the commissions are on the higher end.

With that said, please check out all the details!

Penny Stock Broker Comparison

- Penny Stock Brokers Compared -

Broker	Commissions	Inactivity Fees	Min. Funding	Penny Stock Fees
ETrade	$7.99-9.99	None	$500	None!
TD Ameritrade	$9.99 Flat	None	$2000	$2000 funding to receive 60 days of free trades
Fidelity	$7.95 Flat	None	$2500	None!
Schwab	$8.95	None	$1000	Max order size 999,999 shares
SpeedTrader	$6.95	$30 if less than 15 trades/qtr	None	1 Million share max order
TradeKing	$4.95+	None	None***	.01/share on stocks <$2 - No subpenny stocks
ShareBuilder	$9.95+*	None	None***	Large Order Charge - 1,000+ shares, $0.025*
Scottrade	$7+*	None	$500	Low Price Stock Fee - <$1, ½%+*

* for stocks trading under $1/share, total commission is $7 + ½% of trade principle.
** for stocks under $1/share, total commission is ½% of trade principle, minimum $3.
* $4 or less for automatic investments, or $9.95 for real-time trades.
- Large order surcharge: In addition to the base commission, a large order surcharge of $0.025 for each additional share over 1,000 shares will be incurred. The total commission (base commission + surcharge) is subject to a maximum of 2.5 percent of the principal, but no less than the base commission. (does not apply to Automatic Investments)
*** while these brokers have a zero minimum funding level, please remember that we recommend trading with at least $500 per stock. Please see our Buy Penny Stocks page for more details.

- Stock Broker Details -

Gold Level: These brokers offer the best combination of price for penny stocks, features and service.

Best Penny Stock Brokers!

- TD Ameritrade and E*Trade -

TD Ameritrade® is one of the best known discount online brokers. Formerly Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse, the companies have now merged. Since the merge, things have gotten better for traders. They now charge a flat $9.99 for all market and limit orders no matter the order size, or stock price - including OTCBB/Pinksheet penny stocks.

Once you reach APEX level (by averaging 5 or more trades a month for three month period) you will have free access to live streaming Level 2 quotes via their Command Center 2.0 platform. This is a great feature that would cost you at least $50 a month for a decent third party Level 2 service. Plus it is integrated with your broker and you can make the trades within the platform.

TD Ameritrade's mobile apps, available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry, are arguably the best in the industry. It is very easy to keep track of your penny stock trades using this app. You can make trades, keep an eye on your watchlist, check charts, news, and even watch Level 2 quotes! (Provided you are APEX qualified). This is the only broker offering an app with Level 2 as far as we know, and it is a HUGE feature in our opinion.. We've tried and used several brokers, but always use the TD Ameritrade mobile app to keep and eye on things while on the go.

With TD Ameritrade there are also NO Inactivity or Maintenance Fees no matter what your balance and trading activity level are. Best of all, when you fund your new account with at least $2000 you will get free trades for 60 days!

Our only quibble with TD Ameritrade is that they restrict trading on some penny stocks. Some will require a phone order to trade, while others you will not be able to make an opening trade at all. This is unfortunate because TD Ameritrade has performed quite well when it comes to getting fast fills, significantly better than ETrade in most circumstances. However, you will have to live with the occasional stock that you're unable to trade.

TD Ameritrade's contact info - Phone: 1-888-871-9007 | Web: TD Ameritrade

ETrade ETrade® is one of the most well known and popular online brokers in the World. Trading penny stocks on ETrade, while more expensive than other discount brokers, is a viable option because of their features and ease of use. With Power ETrade Pro 5.0 you get some incredibly powerful streaming charts, quotes and tools including PinkSheet and OTCBB Level 2 quotes at no extra charge! (Requires 30+ trades/quarter to qualify) If you factor in the cost of this data with other discount brokers, using ETrade for penny stocks becomes a great option for all but the most active traders.

Trade commissions for unlimited shares is $9.99 if you do 0-149 trades per quarter. If you do 150 or more trades per quarter the commission drops to $7.99 per trade.

ETrade also offers more features for research, charting, and analysis, and a decent mobile application. TD Ameritrade's trading App is miles ahead however.. You can also watch CNBC live in your trading platform. ETrade has recently done away with inactivity and maintenance fees, so you won't have to worry about getting nickeled and dimed if you aren't active. The only reservation we have about ETrade is their tendency to restrict buying on certain penny stocks. We don't see this as a disqualifying factor, however. The restrictions are few, and chances are you don't want to be involved with most of the stocks that get restricted.

Overall we think ETrade gives it's clients an excellent "bang for the buck" when you consider their features, quality of those features, and top-rated customer service. ETrade has earned our top designation of "Best Penny Stock Broker" for its great included features and customer service.

Check out a full ETrade review here.

ETrade Mobile Pro App Screenshots:

ETrade's contact info - Phone: 800-387-2331 | Web: ETrade.com

Fidelity® is a well known name in the investment world. Until recently, however, they were not an economical choice as an online stock broker. Now they're offering flat $7.95 trades. That's $7.95, unlimited shares, no matter what price the stock is. Even better, relatively active traders (36+ trades/year on average) qualify for the "Active Trader Pro". This is a "Windows-based trading platform offers faster trading capability, streaming market data, and fully customizable layouts. Get conditional orders, directed trading, Dow Jones News, tech filters, and trailing stops." While this won't give you Level 2 quotes on PinkSheets, it is a definite improvement over the basics that other brokers offer. With Fidelity you can also trade on the go with their iPhone/iPod Touch, or Blackberry apps, or on Fidelity.mobi on any web-enabled phone. Word on the street is that they do not restrict buying on specific penny stocks often. Take that with a grain of salt, but with this combination of a good commission, features, and renowned customer service, Fidelity has become an attractive option as a penny stock broker.

Fidelity's contact info - Phone: 1-800-343-3548 | Web: www.Fidelity.com

Silver Level: This broker offers a low price, and good service, but you will incur extra fees for low priced stocks.

Schwab® has a very similar story to Fidelity in our opinion. Once more of an "investment" oriented company, their commissions and fees for online trading were not competitive with the other options out there. Now they have dropped their online trade commission to just $8.95. The only limitation that will affect penny stock traders is that orders are capped at a maximum of 999,999 shares. Compared to other brokers, this is not as restrictive toward penny stock trading, but it still presents an issue. If you want to trade sub-penny stocks, particularly on the low end toward trip-zeros, this order maximum is going to get in your way. For a .0010 stock, a $1000 trade is a million shares... that's one share over the limit. Whether this is going to affect your personal trading is up for you to decide, for many it won't be a big deal. Schwab offers both an online streaming quote option, and a software based platform called StreetSmart Pro. With it you can get quotes, charts, news, screeners, alerts, and manage your trades with a few clicks. As of late, we have not heard much grumbling about penny stock restrictions with Schwab. If it were not for the share limit on orders, this would be one of our Gold Level penny stock brokers. If that limit doesn't affect you, than we suggest giving Schwab a serious look.

Schwab's contact info - Phone: 1-866-855-9102 | Web: www.Schwab.com

SogoTrade® charges $3 for all market and limit orders, unlimited shares, including OTCBB/Pinksheet penny stocks. For stocks traded below $1.00, however, the online commission is ½% of the principal value subject to a $3.00 minimum. This is essentially the same fee as Scottrade, but it is the total commission instead of being on top of $7. So for traders playing with smaller amounts of money, or looking to trade small caps of $1+, SogoTrade is a good option. A $1000 trade of a sub dollar stock would result in a $10 commission. SogoTrade has a low $500 minimum funding level, and no maintenance or inactivity fees. Again, ChoiceTrade and Zecco are still a better choice overall when it comes to the commissions on low priced penny stocks. See more details through the link below. Check out a full SogoTrade review here.

Fees and Commissions

SogoTrade's contact info - Phone: 1-888-818-7646 | Web: www.SogoTrade.com

Bronze Level: These brokers have good service and features, but are priced quite high for penny stocks.

TradeKing® is a respected deep discount broker that has been offering $4.95 stock trades for years now.. They just recently merged with Zecco, once one of the decent options for penny stocks. The $4.95 commission, however, only applies to stocks trading at $2 or above. "TradeKing adds $0.01 per share on the entire order for stocks priced less than $2.00. Maximum commission per order not to exceed 5% of the trade value, with minimum commission of $4.95. Minimum investment of $100 per order in OTCBB and Pink Sheet stocks. TradeKing does not accept opening trades for stocks below $0.01 per share." This is quite expensive and restrictive and pretty much rules out penny stock trading unless the stocks are ~50 cents or greater, and won't even let you buy a sub-penny stocks. Because of this, you can do much better with another broker, and we cannot recommend trading penny stocks with TradeKing. Don't get us wrong, TradeKing is a great broker from what we have found in our research, it is simply not a viable option for penny stock trading.

TradeKing's contact info - Phone: 1-877-495-5464 | Web: www.tradeking.com

ShareBuilder® is a relatively new, and unique online discount broker. Opening in 1999, ShareBuilder's CEO Jeff Seely made it his goal to let everyone participate in a market dominated by large brokerages. The ShareBuilder philosophy is based on three concepts: Discipline, Diversification, and Dollar Cost Averaging. ShareBuilder has merged with ING, and since has offered $9.95 real-time trades. What makes their service unique, however, is the Automatic Investment Plan. You can schedule dollar amount trades for Tuesday of every week and pay a commission of $4 or less. This is a nice feature for making longer term investments, allowing you to build your portfolio slowly and affordably.

The problem with Sharebuilder, when it comes to penny stocks, is that in addition to the base commission, a large order surcharge of $0.025 for each additional share over 1,000 shares will be incurred. The total commission (base commission + surcharge) is subject to a maximum of 2.5 percent of the principal, but no less than the base commission. This doesn't apply to automated investments, but you probably wouldn't be using the automated investment system to buy penny stocks either! The additional fees for trading low priced stocks are too outlandish for us to recommend Sharebuilder as a penny stock broker.

Fees and Commissions

ShareBuilder's contact info - Phone: 1-800-747-2537 | Web: www.ShareBuilder.com

Scottrade® is another inexpensive online broker. They charge $7 for both market and limit orders. There are no quarterly or annual fees, but there is a $500 minimum funding to open an account. The big issue with trading penny stocks with Scottrade is an additional fee for stocks under $1. In addition to the $7 commission, Scottrade charges an additional fee of 0.5% of the total stock value purchased. So if you spend $1000 on a stock, an additional $5 will be added to the $7 commission. For new investors trading small amounts, this won't be much of an issue. For larger trades, however, ETrade, TD Ameritrade and Fidelity are better options. Scottrade is also notorious in the penny stock community for restricting buy orders for specific penny stocks, or requiring the order to be called in. This issue, combined with the extra "Penny Stock Fees" make Scottrade a poor option as a penny stock broker. Check out a full Scottrade review here.

Commissions and Requirements

Scottrade's contact info - Phone: 1-800-619-7283 | Web: www.Scottrade.com

Please make any suggestions for additions/changes here.

Looking for a great broker for big board stocks or options? Check out BrokerageReview.net for other online brokerage reviews.

- Main Site Pages -

1. Stock Market Information and Basics
2. How to Buy Penny Stocks
3. The "Penny Stock" Explained
4. Penny Stock Company Actions - Good
5. Penny Stock Company Actions - Bad
6. Finding the Hottest Penny Stocks
7. Stock Share Structure Explained
8. Penny Stock Forums & Message Boards
9. Develop a Penny Stock Trading Strategy
10. Tools for Penny Stock Trading
11. Penny Stock Books and Publications
12. Penny Stock Pick Newsletters

- Articles -

-Technical Tips for Penny Stock Trading
-6 Basic Thieves of the Stock Market
-Top 10 Tips for Penny Stock Traders
-Interpreting Financial Statements
-Buying Penny Stocks - The Details
-Penny Stocks to Buy

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Last Updated: 11/3/13

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