ShareBuilder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ShareBuilder is a web-based stock market brokerage firm which deals in incremental shares of stock and exchange-traded funds. All stock purchases and sales are to be placed online. Trades cannot be taken over the phone. As it is a customer managed product, all trades are placed online by the customer. According to Forbes.com, ShareBuilder is "the most popular dollar-averaging brokerage," "with nearly one million accounts."

ShareBuilder began in 1996 as NetStock Direct. In 1999, ShareBuilder was created. As of 2005 NetStock Direct no longer exists and the company is known only as ShareBuilder to date.

1 How it Works
2 Account Types
3 Automatic Investing
4 Access Restriction
5 External links

[edit] How it Works

A customer can apply any amount of money desired toward a piece of stock, rather than having to buy whole shares. This is advantageous to those who cannot afford whole shares of stock but still wish to invest in the market.

[edit] Account Types

The following are the basic types of accounts available with ShareBuilder:

Individual Account: An account for 1 adult.
Joint Account: An account shared by 2 adults.
Traditional/Rollover IRA: One of the IRA options available to prepare for retirement.
Roth or Conversion IRA: One IRA option to help prepare for retirement (Must meet eligibility requirements set by the IRS)
ShareBuilder ESA (Education Savings Account): Created to help pay for the education of the beneficiary of the account.
Custodial Account: Account created by an adult, for the benefit of a minor.

[edit] Automatic Investing

One of the major features of ShareBuilder is known as "Automatic Investing." In order to make investing easier (and cheaper), Automatic Investing on ShareBuilder lets the customer create a simple investment plan. With this Automatic Investing plan, users can schedule automatic investments on a weekly or monthly basis. The fee for this plan is $4 (or less). The minimum fee for selling these stocks is as much as $15.95.