In response to two of your concerns; (1) not being able to buy any stock that you want- the online site does list all the stocks that one can buy through B&H. They are continually expanding the number of stocks they cover and there is a way to request for them to add a specific stock to their menu if there is enough demand for it. (2) having to pay a $2.99 fee to liquidate each of your stock holdings-- I have a Fidelity brokerage account that charges me a $10.95 commission every time I buy or sell a stock. If I wanted to liquidate a 20 stock account I would have to pay $219 (20x $10.95). Paying only $2.99 each sounds like a pretty good deal to me. You don't have to sell the whole shares first and sell the fractional shares later which would be two separate transactions; there is a way to sell all the shares at one time by clicking on the box which says "sell all shares". I would think that if you use a discount broker you shouldn't expect it to have all the ' Bells and Whistles '. That would be like buying a KIA and wondering why it doesn't ride as well as a BMW.