Zecco Trading Review
How to Sign Up for a Zecco Trading Account
First, click here to visit the Zecco Homepage and open an account. You will arrive at the “Select an Account Holder” page where you enter your personal information and choose your desired account type.
- Individual and Joint Trading Accounts - suited for individual investors and/or two or more account owners
- IRAs: Traditional and Roth - tax-deferred and tax-exempt retirement accounts
How to Create Your Personal Zecco Profile
Next, you build your personal Zecco profile by providing personal, financial, and employment(optional) information.
This page took around 1-2 minutes to complete. Zecco asks for a banking referral, but how significant could that really be?
How to List Your Preferred Zecco Account Type
Next, you fill out the following information to open your preferred account type:
- Investment Objective - I chose “Aggressive Growth” on my personal application
- Funding Options - I recommend using ACH to purchase securities. Also, try not to transfer any existing securities to avoid any account transfer fees
- Apply for Zecco Options Trading - select “YES” to add options trading privledges to your account
- Beneficiary Information - list primary or contingent beneficiaries to your trading account
Account specifics took me about 1-2 minutes to complete. This section was the shortest part of the application.
Zecco allows you to save your application and return to it later. However, the Zecco Trading application is brief enough to complete in one sitting.
Click Here to Learn More about Zecco
Zecco Account Review Period
Once you submit your application, you will receive a series of automated e-mails from Zecco. These e-mails welcome you to the Zecco community, and state your myZecco member information, including your username and password.
Zecco has two separate member sections: one for community privileges and one for trading privileges. Wait for the “Account Application Received” e-mail to confirm that Zecco received your trading account forms.
Zecco approved my trading account in less than 10 minutes.
How to Transfer Funds using Zecco ACH Transfer
In regards to the 3-5 Day ACH confirmation period, this is too long in my opinion, especially since you provide a banking reference in the beginning of the application.
Plus, once Zecco receives your first ACH transfer, it would make sense to grant instant ACH transfers to customers as long as your ACH information remains static.
Nonetheless, waiting a few, extra days for free stock trades is worth the wait.
How to Navigate the Zecco Trading Dashboard
Zecco recently improved its look and feel, plus the Zecco website loads faster in 2008. In 2008, Zecco added the following features:
- Improved Stock Screener - Find stocks using Zecco’s stock screener with over 30 different search criteria
- Powerful Options Analytics Tool - Suited for sophisicated options traders who use probability calculators, profit-and-loss calculators, volatility chains, and more.
How to Place a Zecco Trade
For accounts less than $2,500, Equity trades cost $4.50
For accounts over $2,500, you receive 10 free trades per month, then it costs $4.50 for each additional trade.
While Stock and ETF trades are free, mutual fund trades cost $10, and options trades cost $4 + $0.65 per options contract. I suggest using Zecco solely for stock and ETFs trades to capitalize on free stock trades. You can always buy mutual funds and options in your other trading accounts, or open another account to trade mutual funds for free.
Click Here to Learn More About Placing Your First Trade
How to Sign Up for 4% Zecco Sweep (Money Market) Fund
Zecco’s biggest disappointment is the paltry 1% APR on cash balances, but the Zecco money market fund pays 4% APY. Both Fidelity and TradeKing, my additional investment brokers, pay close to 5% on cash balances. It makes sense to keep your Zecco cash balance as low as possible unless you sign up for the money market fund.
Profit from ZeccoShare: The Free Trading Community
ZeccoShare, Zecco’s free trading community, alllows fellow Zecco members to share information and profit from each other using performance tracking, forums, blogs, etc.
Final Thoughts on Zecco Brokerage Holdings, Inc
Here are my final ratings on Zecco (from 1 to 10, 10 being the best):
- Cost & Fees: 10
- Customer Service: 6
- Trading Tools: 3
- Ease of Usability: 9
- Overall: 7
Opening a Zecco account to take advantage of $0 Stock/ETF trades is a smart idea. Free stock trades preserve more of your wealth, and save you money that can be reinvested instead of paid out in brokerage commissions.
Zecco is great for:
Day Traders - Up to 40 free traders per month, then $3.50 after that
College Students - Invest on a shoestring without worrying about commissions
Frugal Investors - Why pay more than you have to?
