To Scottrade or not . . .

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TSPTiming
Posts: 84
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:26 pm

Re: To Scottrade or not . . .

Post by TSPTiming »

I've been with Datek and then TD Ameritrade since the early 2000's, and like them, and it sounds like the Scottrade aquisition will go through next year. Last year when I had a really good streak with QQQ options and my account balance soared beyond $100K I started getting calls from an adviser they assigned to me, hoping to keep me happy I gathered...I didn't want any advice, but made a comment about their options trading fees being high compared to some other brokers...the next day they cut my per contact fee from 75 cents to 50 cents. I hadn't even considered that I could negotiate that, so that was nice of them. I love the commission pricing war going on this year. My retirement countdown clock is approaching 500 days to go, and when I retire I plan to continue with both the TSP (probably, haven't decided yet, but if the bill to expand withdrawal options passes this year I'll likely stick with the TSP and not roll over to an IRA) and the taxable TD Ameritrade trading account for investing funds we don't spend, and it's also where I have a small Roth IRA. The bulk of that taxable account is in 20 diversified dividend stocks, currently paying out 4.99% overall, giving me a nice monthly payout. The options thing is with play money, but after 15 years of not doing so well at it I seem to have gotten a gut feel for it and am now dealing with paying quarterly taxes every few months as I reap the rewards.

So far this year I'm 17 for 22 in QQQ options trades, and put on my 23rd trade at the close today, with a load of $144 puts...the Elliott waves are setup so perfectly for a fall, and complacency is extreme, so I pounced when QQQ exceeded the high of $144.52 from a few days earlier, which completed a classic corrective wave higher...the futures are starting to fall a few points, got all my fingers and toes crossed...

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evilanne
Posts: 2067
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:52 pm

Re: To Scottrade or not . . .

Post by evilanne »

Thank you for the insight Snapdragon, Crondanet5 & TSPTiming! I probably won't do anything until next year. I have $17K in regular IRA that I want to transfer to Roth first at full service brokerage before doing anything with TSP partial transfer.

Fidelity, Schwab & E-Trade were rated about the same as TD Ameritrade and E Trade & MerrillEdge were slightly lower (https://www.stockbrokers.com/compare?br ... ameritrade), but only TD Ameritrade appear to handle distributions properly for early distributions via SEPP, normal distributions and RMDs and properly code the 1099-R. Although I don't plan to withdraw the money transferred, I will need to call before making any transfer but all the others seem to refer you to your tax advisor and automatically code 1099-R as early distribution-no know exception. It isn't a hard process but if you need to withdraw prior to 59.5 under IRC 72(t) you want to make sure everything is handled properly to avoid any penalty which is why I plan to keep about 75% in TSP for life expectancy payments.

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Fund Prices2024-03-28

FundPriceDayYTD
G $18.15 0.05% 1.05%
F $19.08 -0.06% -0.74%
C $82.21 0.11% 10.55%
S $82.43 0.30% 6.92%
I $42.57 -0.24% 5.95%
L2065 $16.38 0.02% 8.37%
L2060 $16.39 0.02% 8.38%
L2055 $16.39 0.02% 8.38%
L2050 $32.73 0.01% 6.95%
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L2040 $54.38 0.02% 6.22%
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Linc $25.61 0.03% 2.82%

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