New to online trading and short term investing

Hi zomgrey, welcome to hotstockmarket!

Zeeco seems to get good reviews, these days almost all the brokers are pretty much on par because they have to compete for business.
 

Depending on how much you plan on trading, will it really make a big difference if you change brokers?

If you are an active trader, then yes, you need cheaper commissions, but since you are new, you are will not flipping stocks around, so you are probably ok staying with sharebuilder for now while you get your feet wet.

Just to let you know, Zecco and Tradeking are in the process of merging together so they'll be the same thing in a few months. 

Welcome zomgrey! I have used Zecco for years, way back when they had 25 free trades a month. I like the platform as it is easy to use, but I hate the charts. I always have open other sites to watch stocks. I am curious what is going to change, if anything, with the Tradeking merger. I also have a Sharebuilder account, but don't use it for trading, just have some stuff sitting there. It's not a bad platform either.

I'm curious about your investing goals. Are you looking for some quality stocks to hold for a while, or looking to start trading often? I've been holding CAT since 2009. I'm up 197% right now on the small position I started with. It was more but they have pulled back recently. I really like the company.

Good luck!