Because Jones will fire you if they find out you have online accounts.  You are suppose to transfer your accounts to your broker dealer unless they have a written agreement with another BD.  I have heard jones has no such agreement, call compliance before opening an account.  But yes, I agree, paying 30 bucks on the buy and sell sucks, plus Jones will not let you buy a stock for under $1, even for yourself. 

Yes, open an outside account without compliance’s approval. You’ll have a very short career. 

Don’t listen these Schmucks , open an account with IB or TOS , get blackberry and trade , and you can say that you are a truck driver or better wealthy barber in a new account form.

Yeah, but if you buy a stock online you don’t get to advise yourself on the purchase.

[quote=A-Ron]This may be a random question and maybe there is just something I’m not understanding but why would anyone buy stocks for themselves that works at jones.  $29.95…really?  I’m still new and there may be something I just don’t get or have overlooked but I really don’t know why anyone would pay that when they could just go online to any one of a hundred different sites and buy stocks for $7.  Please someone help me with this.[/quote]

You are getting at least a 40% discount from what your clients will pay for a trade.  If you don’t have enough money to take a decent position wait for commission free day or buy the same mutual funds you are selling to your clients, only at NAV - you probably should be anyway if you can’t get proper diversification.

I don’t know about associate trading costs everywhere besides Jones, but the rule about having accounts elsewhere is industry wide.   If you want $7 trades you might just have to go get a job at Etrade.

[quote=A-Ron]This may be a random question and maybe there is just something I’m not understanding but why would anyone buy stocks for themselves that works at jones.  $29.95…really?  I’m still new and there may be something I just don’t get or have overlooked but I really don’t know why anyone would pay that when they could just go online to any one of a hundred different sites and buy stocks for $7.  Please someone help me with this.[/quote]

If the difference between $30 and $7 a trade is material to you…you are either trading too often or trading in lots that are too small.  If you’re trading in tiny lots like that, you probably would be better off putting your money in a good mutual fund or a diversified index ETF for a longer term hold.

There is no industry rule prohibitting outside trading accounts.  The rule is that these must be disclosed.