How does the Automatic Investment Plan work?

Automatic investing allows a user to set up a recurring set of investment instructions with the objective of building wealth over the long term using dollar cost averaging. ShareBuilder is proud to offer you the Automatic Investment Plan to help you meet this objective. Here's how it works:

1. Select your securities and investment amounts. You can select from more than 7,000 stocks and ETFs included on the ShareBuilder Stock List.

2. Set the frequency and schedule of your plan. Investments are made on Tuesdays - you can choose to invest once a month, every week, twice a month, one time only or when the funds are available.

3. Transfer funds to cover your investments. You can fund your investments automatically with a transfer from your checking or savings account.

Note: Dollar cost averaging won't ensure a profit or protect against loss. Investment experience will vary with stock selection and changing market conditions. You should consider your financial ability to continue investing in periods of declining markets.

Once you have followed these three steps and saved your Automatic Investment Plan, ShareBuilder will automatically process your scheduled instructions, including transferring funds (if using this option), creating open orders and executing your trades. If you need to make an adjustment to your investments or schedule, go right ahead – you can edit your plan as often as you like.

Note: Changes to your plan must be entered prior to 5:00pm (ET) on the business day before a scheduled investment to be applicable for that week. Any changes entered after this deadline will be applicable to future weeks only.

Commissions for your Automatic Investment Plan are determined by the pricing program you are enrolled in. If you have any trade credits, these will be used first, with the remaining commissions being deducted from the investment amount set for each security.