As others have said, you’d have to make $10 to break even. But you also have to pay attention to how your website handles this. For example, Sharebuilder integrates the buy commissions directly into your Gain/Loss for that Company. So, the minute you buy a company you’re immediately down $6.95. Once I get to $6.95 in the black, I’ve broken even.
Some places don’t do that. When you buy something it puts you at zero, so if your commission is $5, you have to hit $10 before you break even.
No big deal either way, you just have to know which way it works.
I use Scottrade, which has $7 fees per transaction (buy or sell). They’re fast, and they have a local office here in the city. You can do stocks or bonds on their site. It’s a good thing you don’t want anyone to help you, as nobody will look at you for a $1K investment. You’ll have to do your own research on stocks. I’d suggest picking something fairly conservative for starting out, like Boeing (BA), which is a strong buy recommendation right now.
I’ve used a few of them, and most of the big names are pretty equivalent. TDAmeritrade is my personal favorite because their tools and offerings are so broad; they give you an excellent place to “grow into” as your skill and interests grow. But for such a small investment, which you’re likely to buy-and-forget, I don’t think it matters much.
OP, 1K is not enough to play with for day trading, unless you plan on getting 10% returns, which is an unreasonable expectation. I suggest starting with 10K per trade, that way if you gain 1% for a trade, you have netted 100$, a significant portion of which (say, 10%) can go to brokerage fees for trading.
There is a free trading platform coming up, but you have to sign up on the waitlist. Go here:
I like Charles Schwab. The fees are $9.00/trade (I think) but they do have some mutual funds that do not have a trading fee if held for 90 days or more and are only $100 to start.
I have a checking account, brokerage account, and my IRA with them. That reminds me, I get the out-of-network ATM fee refunded on my bank card.
I have been very happy with their customer service.
Vanguard stops raising the price to $20.00 per trade after 25 trades at 50K, but the big benefit is at 500K when you go to $2.00 a trade. At $1MM you get 25 free trades and $2.00 after that.
Edited to add, that 25 $4.00 trades might have been an introductory special or something, I now see it’s $7.00 for the first 25 trades and $20.00 after that.