How’s Zecco? Zecco’s like this

Titled as promised.

Here’s the current status of my attempt to enter the stock market as a first-time, poorly-informed trader during what people are saying is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. (I like to do silly things.)

This morning, both my Zecco and TradeKing accounts were approved. Now I have three approved trading accounts from E*TRADE, Zecco, and TradeKing.

E*TRADE
My E*TRADE account is funded, but I cannot invest until Wednesday because for reasons that may not be E*TRADE’s fault, they delay funds transferred using the method I used. So now my money is sitting there (it’s already gone from my checking account) and I can’t get it out for a few more days. Hopefully closing the account and getting my money won’t be a tough process.

Zecco
I was about to fund Zecco the same way when I read that while not the easiest way to fund the account, using a wire transfer was the fastest. Considering all of the delays I’ve had to deal with so far, and the fact that I never really planned on investing much of my time in this process, I decided to try the wire transfer. What’s funny about a wire transfer is that the process, which is electronic by its name, requires one to actually visit a physical bank branch. So I did, and filled out the form as best I could using the information given to me by Zecco. Half of the form was a series of questions asking me if I had fallen for an advance-fee scam. Hopefully I got enough of it right that my money will get to the right place, and I can get going at this on Monday. After the many delays in getting started, it looks like I have to reevaluate my initial stock picks thanks to recent news. Great.

TradeKing
My TradeKing account will probably just be cancelled assuming Zecco goes well on Monday when the money is transferred. I only signed up for it after I feared that my Zecco approval would never happen, and they have good reviews for customer service.

I’m just not used to inefficient dinosaur industries like banking. You’d think that the Internet would make all of this dead simple, but it doesn’t work that way. I still can’t get over the fact that I can’t do what I want with my money (beyond limited ATM withdrawals) outside of banker’s hours. And why does it take so long for stuff to be approved? And why do I have to go to a branch to make something happen faster? And why is it so confusing? What a broken system.

Anyway, I need to get back to filling out and then dropping off my ballot. I’m not mailing it because that requires something like 59¢ of postage, and I don’t see any 59¢ stamps. That’s another confusing business, but I must say I’m amazed how reliable it is.