Why One Brokerage Account Will Cost You

All brokerage accounts have there pro's and cons. Some charge higher in commissions when trading stocks and have lower commissions when trading mutual funds. Some brokerages accounts don't charge you for the first X number of trades but charge a premium for mutual funds.

My question to you is, "Why stick with one broker's pro's and con's when you can stick with broker "A" for the pro's (where they meets your needs for requirement "A" and go elsewhere for requirement "B") and use broker "B" for the pro's where they meet your needs for requirement "B"?"

My personal recommendation: Schwab + Zecco. Schwab allows you the ability to trade mutual funds with absolutely no commissions. They offer you a high yield checking account which is linked to your brokerage account. They reimburse any ATM fee's which you acquire through out the month and you have free checks for month. Your money is always working for you. The have "moneylink" access so you can transfer money in and out of your Schwab account to virtually any other financial institution. Deposit your money in Washington Mutual or Bank of America and consolidate it to your Schwab account and have your money working for you in your high yield checking. They have excellent customer service! Schwab's faults? Their commission fee's. $12.95.

Zecco, as long as you maintain an account balance of $2,500, gives you 10 free trades every month. Following the 10 free trades, each trade is only $4.50. This makes hitting your commission spread much less intimidation if you decide to pull out. They charge a hansom sum for mutual fund transactions. A nice future of Zecco, they allow you to view other traders portfolios who give consent. It help the beginning to intermediate investor expand there understanding of the market and what others are doing and why.

Conclusion: A hybrid of brokerage accounts will always be in your best interest. Schwab and Zecco are what i feel make the best combination. Make sure these brokerage accounts of a "moneylink" option so funds can be transfered quickly and easily between accounts.

Always invest wisely, always verify secondary research.

Get TAN... in your portfolio and later on the beach

Solar energy is as hot as the sun, with high energy prices and strong demand from rapidly growing economies outstripping oil supplies Too much sun, not enough green. The solar sector of '08 is going to be a lucrative wave which will be very comparable to the the tech sector of the '90's.


TAN is a Global Solar Equity Index which i cannot boast enough about. There is no portfolio with which this ETF does not belong.

The fund really is global: China is the largest country represented in the fund, at 29.91%, followed by Germany at 29.01% and the U.S. at 26.33%. Still, ex-U.S., TAN invests in only five countries.

The methodology for index construction is to select from companies that "specialize in providing solar energy products and services," subject them to common liquidity screens and then weight them by market capitalization (actually a modified market-cap weighting so that no one company has too great a weighting).

The fund has a weighted average market cap of $5.8 billion, a P/E of 44, 25 holdings and a cap on the expense ratio of 0.65%.

Tan Holdings:

FIRST SOLAR INC 8.85 %
RENEWABLE ENERGY CORP AS 7.72 %
Q-CELLS AG 6.52 %
SUNTECH POWER HOLDINGS ADR 5.91 %
SOLARWORLD AG 5.42 %
JA SOLAR HOLDINGS CO LTD 5.21 %
LDK SOLAR CO LTD-ADR 4.80 %
SUNPOWER CORP-A 4.72 %
YINGLI GREEN ENERGY - ADR 4.60 %
MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS INC 4.58 %
SOLARIA ENERGIA Y MEDIO AMBIENTE SA 3.75 %
TRINA SOLAR LTD-SPON ADR 3.35 %
EVERGREEN SOLAR INC 3.31 %
CENTROTHERM PHOTOVOLTAICS 3.30 %
ENERGY CONVERSION DEVICES 3.13 %
ERSOL SOLAR ENERGY AG 3.11 %
SOLARFUN POWER HOLDINGS CO 3.08 %
CANADIAN SOLAR INC 2.92 %
SOLON AG FUER SOLARTECHNIK 2.84 %
MEYER BURGER TECHNOLOGY AG 2.55 %
CONERGY AG 2.41 %
ROTH & RAU AG 2.14 %
MANZ AUTOMATION AG 2.07 %
CHINA SUNERGY CO LTD 2.02 %
EMCORE CORP 1.70 %
EURO 0.00 %
SWISS FRANC 0.00 %

Risks associated with solar energy
Oil prices and government intervention play large roles in the fortunes of solar energy companies. When oil prices fall, interest in solar energy is likely to drop off, as even at current high prices, petroleum-based energy is less expensive than solar.

However, a positive political environment for solar energy means favorable policies and subsidies are in place in a number of countries. Unfortunately, those government subsidies can fade with the vagaries of politics, and that could leave solar in the dark.

In addition, many solar stocks have already made huge gains in recent years. The question remains whether these companies can sustain growth long enough to justify their pricey valuations.

Compliments TheStreets, Fool

Arbatarge: How the Smartest Guy in the Room Gets Rich

Below are the current M&A spreads. I heavily suggest you take advantage of these spreads.

Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC), Bank of America (BAC)
Premium offered: $2.03 or 42.9%
Acquirer: BAC
Target: CFC
Shares offered per share: 0.1822 share
Value of offer per share: $6.75
Value of outstanding common equity: $3,903,356,963
Acquirer share price: $37.02
Target share price: $4.72
Expected closing: Third quarter 8/15/2008
Annualized gain: N/A

Clear Channel Communications Inc. (CCU), Thomas H. Lee Partners LP/Bain Capital Group
Premium offered: $9.31 or 31.15%
Acquirer: Lee/Bain Group
Target: CCU
Offer per share: $39.20 cash
Value of outstanding common equity: $19,356,960,000
Target share price: $29.89
Expected closing: N/A
Annualized gain: N/A
Note: As an alternative to receiving the $39.20 per share in cash, Clear Channel's shareholders will be offered the opportunity to exchange their common shares on a one-for-one basis for shares of Class A stock in the new company.


Energy East Corp. (EAS), Iberdrola SA
Premium offered: $4.35 or 18%
Acquirer: Iberdrola
Target: EAS
Offer per share: $28.50 cash
Value of outstanding common equity: $4,503,000,000
Target share price: $24.15
Expected closing: Early summer
Annualized gain: N/A


First Charter Corp. (FCTR), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)
Premium offered: $0.73 or 2.4%
Acquirer: FITB
Target: FCTR
Offer per share: $31 cash & stock
Value of outstanding common equity: $1,088,100,000
Target share price: $30.27
Acquirer share price: $21.12
Expected closing: Second quarter
Annualized gain: N/A


Getty Images Inc. (GYI), Hellman & Friedman LLC
Premium offered: $0.89 or 2.7%
Acquirer: Hellman & Friedman
Target: GYI
Offer per share: $34 cash
Value of outstanding common equity: $2,023,000,000
Target share price: $33.11
Expected closing: Third quarter
Annualized gain: N/A

Compliments of Schwab.com (lost link) 05-12-08 1004ET