In Brief

By Anamaria Wilson

TRADE AWAY Once upon a time churning your portfolio was a bad thing, and costly. Now day trading is the thing. Intense competition has prompted Fidelity Investments to lower to $14 a pop its rate for market players who make more than 240 trades in a rolling 12-month period. Fidelity joins Charles Schwab in lowering prices to compete with discounters such as Brown & Co. and Datek. These discounters offer a fixed price without a minimum number of trades. Either way you swing it, don't confuse frequent trading with investing.

Comparing The Brokerages Brokerage Number of Trades Fee Per Trade Ameritrade no minimum $8 Charles Schwab 61+ per quarter $14.95 E*Trade 30-74 per quarter $9.95 Fidelity 241+ per year $14 Brown & Co. no minimum $5 Datek no minimum $9.99

FAIR-WEATHER FEES Insurance companies, lately hit by a lot of natural disasters, are getting consumers to share more of the risk. In more than 12 "catastrophe vulnerable" states, insurers are making the deductible for catastrophic events a percentage (2% to 5%) of the home's insured value rather than a set dollar amount. This gives you a choice: you can pick either a lower-percentage deductible and pay a higher premium or vice versa. For example, if you have a $200,000 home in Florida with a 2% deductible, your annual premium is $2,372. Take a 5% deductible, and you save more than $200 annually on the premium. If disaster strikes, though, you're $10,000 out of pocket versus $4,000.

--By Anamaria Wilson