I have had a brokerage account with E*TRADE for a little over 6 months. This account is very easy to use and has relatively cheap trades.

The company I work for has stock options so they opened my account at E-trade. I never had any problems, but then the company I work for was bought and all my stocks were cashed out. I decided to take the money out of E-Trade. They did not make this easy and customer service was not very friendly. I did eventually have the money electronically transferred out, but they kept the change. Not that it was that much, but I find this practice of only transferring out whole dollar amounts suspect. I don't know how many people close their accounts each day, but I don't like the fact that they kept $0.88 of my money and everyone else's who closed their accounts.

I'm not especially savvy about the market, so I don't know what terms like "stop" and "limit" mean, and it could be easier for novices to find helpful information in the context of placing an order, etc. But for the basic operations of buying and selling stocks, this account is serviceable and reasonably inexpensive.

Etrade has a great real-time platform, offering a true in-depth view of the market and offers commissions that are reasonable if you trade often. While you can certainly make your own decisions, Etrade has an options desk that will help you place the more complex trades. If you're a novice, keep it simple.