Which one is better, Scottrade or Ameritrade?

Hmmm short-selling, good idea... oh wait incredibly risky way to gamble is what I meant to say.

I have always used Scottrade, they have always had everything I needed and I would definitely recommend them. Since you are new, I will make one correction on your terminology. You said that you want to have a short term investment, i.e. short sell. I believe that everyone here understands what you mean, but when you say short sell someone could confuse it with selling short... two VERY different investments. What you are trying to do really is trade a stock. That is, buy it with the expectation that there will be a quick rise in the price due to an event such as an earnings report or a product announcement, or maybe because you think its valued too low and the market will soon realize it. Once you have your price increase you plan on selling and you are expecting this to be a small amount of time, less then six months or maybe one year. This is opposed to investing in a stock where you are looking for long term gains and multiple dividends. Again, Scottrade has always been awesome to me. Good luck with your future in the stock market.

Sounds great, except that if you buy at $6/share, then sell at $6.50/share, you make 8%, minus your $16 brokerages fees ($7.95 to buy + $7.95 to sell), minus short term capital gains your talking about $120 profit. Either brokerage will provide the same services, so I'd pick one that maybe offers some free trades to new clients. If BOA survives, you might want to place Stop Sells on the stock. You can raise them as the stock goes up, allowing higher gains, while reducing your downside.

I have an Ameritrade account and the amount of tools is incredible. I don't have experience with Scottrade but since these companies compete with one another I expect that Scottrade will have a lot of software, charting, etc. I think the difference between the two is probably not significant. Both are good. Your idea of short term trading is not unusual. As far as advice, I would say don't get emotional about a stock (ie don't fall in love with it). Also, buy and sell based on some rules that you've setup for yourself. Pick your buy and know your sell. My other piece of advice, don't invest more that you can afford to lose. If you're investing with money that you can't afford to lose you tend to make emotional decisions. You have to lay your bet on the table without any fear. I like that fact that you wrote that you have a spare 2-3 K to play around with, to me this is the right attitude for short term investing. It means that your not down to your last dime and your not desperately seeking to strike it rich. Last advice, invest in an companies in industries that you know a lot about. That way you can quickly assess a company's strengths. Then look at companies' fundamentals and finally the technical stuff. Good Luck!