This will be the first in a series of suggestions to subscribers of our models on ways to lower transaction costs. After all, while we all want better performance, it's important to watch the overall costs. In the Top 20 last year, there were approximately 209 trades. In a $50K account and at $8 per trade, that would be almost 3% of the value of the account. For any sized account, that would be over 6X the cost of subscribing to Invest By Model.
Today, I want to share two ideas, with the caveat that I am passing along information that I haven't verified. The first if FOLIOfn (https://www.folioinvesting.com/pricing/index.jsp). The cost is either $29 per month (two months free) or $290 per year (also with two months free). The only catch is that all of the trading is done at the price at either 11 or 2 (unless you want to pay $3, which isn't too bad). The second option is Interactive Brokers (http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=commission), which costs 1/2 penny per share, with a minimum of $1 per trade.
Please share any feedback you might have regarding service levels or any issues I may have omitted. Also, if you have other ideas that you think we should spotlight, let me know.
