US Finance

US Stocks and Shares

Exchanges

These include NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX

For a stock to be listed on the NYSE there is a rule that it's price must remain above 1 USD. During the sell off in 2009, this rule was temporarily suspended.

Pattern Day Trader

This is annoying. I apparently did too many day trades and suddenly need to have a balance of 25K USD. I can fill this soon, but I am wondering if I can wait 5 days and it'll be OK again. Nope, it looks like the account was flagged. If you maintain a 25K balance in each of your accounts you can avoid this rule.

ETFs

IVV - S&P 500 Index Fund

IVV has an expense ratio of only 0.09%. It is listed on the NYSE

Bonds

I couldn't find an easy way to buy bonds. ETFs seem easy enough to understand. Here's a quick table of collated info on iShares fixed income (bonds) funds.

IB provides access to bonds directly. There's also preferred stock which are similar to bonds.

iShares Fixed Income funds

Ticker	Name	MER	Net Assets (M USD)
AGG	Lehman Aggregate Bond Fund	0.24%	9702
SHY	Lehman 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund	0.15%	9156
IEI	Lehman 3-7 Year Treasury Bond Fund	0.15%	824
IEF	Lehman 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund	0.15%	2843
TLH	Lehman 10-20 Year Treasury Bond Fund	0.15%	118
TLT	Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund	0.15%	1564
SHV	Lehman Short Treasury Bond Fund	0.15%	1438
TIP	Lehman TIPS Bond Fund	0.29%	8148
GBP	Lehman Government/Credit Bond Fund	0.20%	91
GVI	Lehman Intermediate Government/Credit Bond Fund	0.20%	215
HYG	iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund	0.50%	939
LQD	iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund	0.15%	4061
CSJ	Lehman 1-3 Year Credit Bond Fund	0.20%	584
CFT	Lehman Credit Bond Fund	0.20%	87
CIU	Lehman Intermediate Credit Bond Fund	0.20%	295
CMF	S&P California Municipal Bond Fund	0.25%	114
MUB	S&P National Municipal Bond Fund	0.25%	686
NYF	S&P New York Municipal Bond Fund	0.25%	30
MBB	Lehman MBS Bond Fund	0.36%	781
EMB	JPMorgan USD Emerging Markets Bond Fund	0.60%	117