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Echan · 04-11-2008, 01:31 AM

GeneralMao,

Generally, you don't. I'm not entirely familiar with the purpose of having stock in street name, but you are going to have to go through a broker either way. If you want to forego a broker, you're going to need to invest in a company with a DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) and check out their website for instructions on how to reinvest money with the company. Coca-Cola for example, has a DRIP, once you own their stock, they have provisions for automatically reinvesting your dividends to buy shares. They usually allow you to mail them cheques to buy more stock without any broker fees. I believe in order to do this, you need to have the stock under your name and it'll probably cost ~20 bucks for your brokerage to do the necessary conversion. When you purchase a stock, Coca Cola doesn't see that you own 100 shares, they see that TD Ameritrade or whatever broker owns X shares; the broker deals with their own bookkeeping to determine how much are entitled to you.

Personally, I have an account with TD Waterhouse and I've been happy with them. The service has been far better than online brokerages, although their trading fees are higher. It's also convienent being able to move money between my accounts without a holding period as my chequing account is with TD too.

Yellowmac offered great advice, I feel like you are ignoring him a bit with that reply. You are focusing on a relatively trivial matter. To be perfectly honest, who cares which brokerage you use? The holding periods, service charges etc are completely irrelevant in the long run. You are paralyzing yourself by worrying over pennies and cents by exerting so much energy into avoiding a broker.

Your primary objective, above all else should be your goals. Be honest with yourself. Do you want to just put money away for retirement? Thinking about traveling somewhere in the next 5 years and want to grow your savings in the short term? Do you just want to gamble it all on something risky to buy that motorcycle you always wanted? It's difficult to give sound advice without knowing where you want to go in life. I don't think that stating you have saved up play money you can afford to lose is a good enough indicator to give any sound advice.

04-11-2008, 01:31 AM	#17 (permalink)
Echan Upright	GeneralMao, Generally, you don't. I'm not entirely familiar with the purpose of having stock in street name, but you are going to have to go through a broker either way. If you want to forego a broker, you're going to need to invest in a company with a DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) and check out their website for instructions on how to reinvest money with the company. Coca-Cola for example, has a DRIP, once you own their stock, they have provisions for automatically reinvesting your dividends to buy shares. They usually allow you to mail them cheques to buy more stock without any broker fees. I believe in order to do this, you need to have the stock under your name and it'll probably cost ~20 bucks for your brokerage to do the necessary conversion. When you purchase a stock, Coca Cola doesn't see that you own 100 shares, they see that TD Ameritrade or whatever broker owns X shares; the broker deals with their own bookkeeping to determine how much are entitled to you. Personally, I have an account with TD Waterhouse and I've been happy with them. The service has been far better than online brokerages, although their trading fees are higher. It's also convienent being able to move money between my accounts without a holding period as my chequing account is with TD too. Yellowmac offered great advice, I feel like you are ignoring him a bit with that reply. You are focusing on a relatively trivial matter. To be perfectly honest, who cares which brokerage you use? The holding periods, service charges etc are completely irrelevant in the long run. You are paralyzing yourself by worrying over pennies and cents by exerting so much energy into avoiding a broker. Your primary objective, above all else should be your goals. Be honest with yourself. Do you want to just put money away for retirement? Thinking about traveling somewhere in the next 5 years and want to grow your savings in the short term? Do you just want to gamble it all on something risky to buy that motorcycle you always wanted? It's difficult to give sound advice without knowing where you want to go in life. I don't think that stating you have saved up play money you can afford to lose is a good enough indicator to give any sound advice.