I logged into my Ameritrade account to check out how much money I have there and I saw an ad on the front page offering 35 free trades plus $100 bonus. Sadly it only applies to new customers who have decent amounts to play with so I’m out of luck on that deal. But its a sweet deal, considering 35 trades is worth about $385 at $11/trade.

On the other hand, Scott Trade offers $7/trade with no inactivity fees, but no sign-on bonus.

Charles Schwab charges $12.99 if I remember correctly. TD Waterhouse used to charge me $14 but
they’re merging with Ameritrade so they’ll probably be around the same $11 pricing.

If you planning on buying shares everymonth like clockwork, ShareBuilder has a good program at $4/trade, although I’m not a fan of dollar cost averaging. [I believe in market cycles and so does reknowned economist and actor Ben Stein. Read his good book Yes, You Can Time The Market!].

UPDATE: I also found about a new brokerage called Firstrade. They offer $6.95 trades which is a pretty good price.