The stock market is a crazy place and it can be really scary especially when you see things like Chase announcing a $2 Billion loss happening right before your eyes. Of course people can still make money when the price of a certain stock goes down or they can protect their money by moving it out of that affected stock as well.

If you are looking for a trading platform for your stocks, options and ETFs a good way to save money is to look for one that has low fees.

There are a number of places you can choose from but each one has a different set of requirements, ranging from the  minimum to open the account to the cost per trade.

Here are a few options that you can check out when you are looking for a place to trade on the stock market. I personally use Sharebuilder because for someone like me with limited knowledge and a very limited cash base the choices are simple.

I also liked Sharebuilder because it allows you to buy partial shares of a stock so you can still own the stock even if you don’t have the money to buy a whole share at a time.

BROKERAGE
Scottrade                         Open with $500, Trades cost $7.00

Fidelity Investments            Open with $2,500, Trades cost $7.95

Merrill Edge Self-Directed Investing            Open with $0, Trades cost $6.95

E*TRADE Financial            Open with $1,000,Trades cost $7.99

ING DIRECT Investing           Open with $0, Trades cost $9.95

There are many other options out there when it comes to investing your money but do any of you have experience using any of the ones listed here? Any recommendations for really great places to trade?