Before You Invest Your Money

Publicly traded optionsXpress (OXPS) is one of the more mature online brokerages.It consistently ranks highly in broker comparisons conducted by Barron’s and others. But, we are not too concerned with outside ratings. We are more concerned with how optionsXpress may or may not fit with your trading objectives and style.Let’s take a look at who may benefit the most from opening an optionsXpress account and who may find better luck elsewhere.Target AudienceThe target audience for optionsXpress seems to be active investors who are looking to diversify their portfolio across a broad range of investing products.For instance, if you are a trader who places a few options and futures trades per month while holding some longer-term investments in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds, you would be an ideal candidate to open and optionsXpress account, because you can manage everything within one account.Of course, optionsXpress or any other broker will say that they want to work with any investor, regardless of their holdings, but the product offering and commission and fee structure seem to benefit active to semi-active traders who want to invest in a broad range of products.Products Available at optionsXpressThe product lineup at optionsXpress is one of the broker’s strong points.