I've been using Ameritrade as my online broker since 1997 (ah, the good old dot-com days). It has always been rock solid and reliable for me, as well as very affordable. This year, Ameritrade merged with TD Waterhouse, and after reading horror stories from people who suffered through the HarrisDirect / E*Trade merger, I was nervous that the classic, reliable Ameritrade would be destroyed or swallowed by an inferior broker system.
In fact, the new TD Ameritrade is as good as it was before, and in some cases even better. The web site is nearly unchanged, and is as sleek and fast as ever. But now trade data is available for download to Quicken on the day of the trade, rather than the next business day. New research tools are gradually coming online (I love the S&P Star Ratings list), and best of all, the trading fee for stocks has dropped by a couple of bucks.
Bravo to TD Ameritrade for the smooth transition. I hate to think of what would have happened if Ameritrade merged with E*Trade instead (as was considered last year).
Say, isn't it interesting that a company named "TD Ameritrade" is actually half-Canadian?
