Loading ...
Zecco Needs to Hire a Marketing Team and Why I Use ETrade Financial
If this is your first time visiting, check out the story behind this blog. Otherwise, please join the others by subscribing to my RSS feed or get updates via email so you don't miss any personal finance articles!
Zecco is changing the rules of its $0 trade program… Again. However, this time it is pretty dramatic. Here are the details.
• 40 free trades a month / 10 per day -> 10 free trades a month
• Additional trades at $3.50 -> $4.50
• Account minimum from $0 -> $2,500 (having an account with less than $2,500 equals having to spend $4.50 per trade)
Just like Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary, I feel that Zecco just does not know what it wants to do. It’s as if they are a new born child just trying to feel their way into the world. I just hope that they don’t piss off their customers so everyone just cancels their account.
Just like every company, Zecco needs a marketing director that can give the company some much needed direction. It needs to figure out what it is good at and which part of the market it wants to penetrate first. Once they have that figured out, then all these detailed decisions can come easier, as opposed to changing rules every month or two and eventually piss off their customers.
As some of you know, ETrade is my preferred brokerage of choice. Although I pay money for each transaction, I feel that I am with a good company because the execution rate of my trades is much better than others I have tried. This gives me a better chance of getting my limit price and a better price if I put in a market order (Note - the ”better price” statement is not true as correctly pointed out by Lazy Man in the comment section. Better execution time only means a better chance at getting the market price of when you actually gave the instruction to buy or sell). These little things in the long run save me much more money than the $10 I spend on every trade.
The other advantage of using ETrade is its amazing customer service. None of the complicated touch tone menus, no one from India, and no one that gets pissed off at you because you have a problem. When you have a problem, they solve it.
As I see it now, I will keep on using ETrade until Zecco figures out their identity.
You can now follow me on twitter! Alternatively, subscribe to my RSS feed or get blog posts through email if you enjoyed this post. You might even win a prize or two by doing so!
An IVA or bankruptcy are a few of the debt solutions available to get yourself out of debt. Get more debt help to become debt free.14 Responses to “Zecco Needs to Hire a Marketing Team and Why I Use ETrade Financial”
Leave a Reply
Pingbacks/Trackbacks
-
Sunday Money Roundup - The Couch Is Calling Edition. | My Two Dollars on October 7th, 2007 at 7:30 am Says:
[...] Ning says that Zecco Needs to Hire a Marketing Team and Why I Use ETrade Financial. While I use neither (I use Scottrade for individual stocks), I can understand the [...]
I have been using Zecco for over 6 months and have great trade execution. I usually make less than 10 trades a month so the changes Zecco made will not have an impact on me. I will continue to use Zecco for free trades. Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it!
The Div Guy: Thanks for giving your take on Zecco. The free trades definitely is a great thing for many people but changing terms every 2 months isn’t.
As far as execution rates, I was really impressed by ETrade’s ability to grab shares at the right price and that’s all I’m saying.
I think when you have a completely new business model such as free trades you are going to have to make changes along the way.
The Div Guy: That I do not agree with. Free trades is definitely revolutionary but you have got to understand that there are people within Zecco that should be paid for strategic planning Going back and forth with the terms is not something that speaks well for the organization within the company.
As a comparison, you don’t see Wells Fargo and Bank of America changing the terms like this.
I’m with Div Guy all the way, except that I’ve been a loyal Zecco customer for one full year this month.
I support Zecco’s new limitations 100%because it will weed out the more expensive customers who trade all the time and make sure I’ll continue to have $0 trades.
Michelle: Great that you still like Zecco
I think I’m talking about Zecco as a company in planning but you and The Div Guy is talking about the fact that you don’t have to pay while trading with Zecco. I just hope Zecco can stay solvent since I think they are changing the industry in a good way even though they don’t seem to have everything well thoughtout yet.
I haven’t used Zecco yet, but I expect to sign up soon. I haven’t used E-Trade in years.
I’m not quite sure how market orders are better with “better execution.” If the stock is rising that very might be the case. However if the stock is falling, chances are that a slower execution will pay off. I don’t know how you can say one is going to lead to better results than the other.
I would like to see a scientific study that Zecco is worse that E-trade with regard to execution. It seems like speculation.
Lazy: Better execution time is about having your instruction executed the quickest. Whether it goes up or goes down because of the speed should not be accounted into the performance as that is up to us as an investor. This can easily be illustrated in the extreme case. A broker taking 10 days to execute your order would be considered really bad but the stock 10 days later might be lower.
To verify the execution rate, all someone needs to do is fire up a level II quote window from one broker (i don’t believe Zecco has that option yet but correct me if I’m wrong), then just see how long it takes your order to show up, and order executed.
Zecco’s FAQ says it can take up to 30 seconds while ETrade has a 2 second guarantee on market orders for S&P 500 and ETFs.
I apologize to everyone that I continue to fuel the dispute of ETrade vs Zecco
Everyone should just go with whichever broker they are happy with because that is the most important!
MoneyNing,
I think debate is healthy!
How often to Wells Fargo and BAC change their credit card rates, savings rates and product mix? Financial services companies are constantly changing because of customer demands and technology.
As far as execution, my trades have been executed in a matter of a couple of seconds. As soon as I enter the trade, I click on the exection details and the trades have been completed.
I think rates change but account benefits stay the same as long as you have your account stays open. For example, the older customers usually have the best deals on everything.
These include cell phone plans btw. I know people who are paying $15 per month for plans and there is no way to get those plans nowadays.
MoneyNing, that’s exactly what I was saying about the execution. It seems like you are equating execution with a “better price if I put in a market order” and that’s why I was confused.
I think it’s more accurate to say that you get a different price, but not necessarily a better one with slower execution. If Zecco is slower, that means it’s just different, and doesn’t necessary give E-Trade and advantage.
Lazy: Thanks for pointed out the flaw in the article. I put a correction up there.
The price is different and you can certainly get a better price (for market orders) with Zecco than ETrade. I think it is still more advantageous to have a faster execution rate though since you are getting the stock closer to the time you want which most likely means closer to the price that you want it at. (then again, if you really want to have it close to the price that you want, you should do a limit order).
I use Zecco, and always use Limit orders to ensure I pay the price I want to. If the price doesn’t stay put ( or within my target ), the limit order never goes through. Even if my broker guaranteed 2 second trades, I’d still use limits just to be on the safe side.