While this isn't the worst article I've seen about Sharebuilder, it isn't the greatest either. The author does bring up some good points; namely that you could end up paying more in fees than you would really ever want to. However, he then goes on to suggest Mutual Funds instead, and we all know how unFoolish they can be.

The bottom line is that Sharebuilder and/or BuyandHold can be very useful, as long as you do research before you buy in. You can DRIP INTC with no fees, whereas you'd have to pay $2 per trade using Sharebuilder. Doesn't make much sense in my book. Then again, you can buy shares of MSFT for $2 using Sharebuilder. Since MSFT has no dividend, they have no DRIP, nor do they have a DSP, so the only way to purchase MSFT that cheaply is to use Sharebuilder.

Another thing the author of the article brought up was the fact that you can't buy shares immediatly using Sharebuilder (you can buy twice a week, if I'm not mistaken.) He rightfully states that this should not matter to a long time buy and hold investment, yet you somehow get the feeling he thinks it's a drawback. It really isn't. Market Timing is a no-no, so having to wait to buy or sell all but prevents you from even trying to time the market.

Fool on!

Mike