Year End Promotions Expiring

I hope everyone had a great holiday and if you are like me you are dreading those pending credit card bills from all the Christmas shopping you did! If you are looking to make a little cash before the end of the year, you might take a look at a few of these promotions that are ending on 12/31:

• OptionsXpress Promo – OptionsXpress is giving away $100 when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Chase Sapphire Card Promo – Chase is offering a $100 bonus when you open a Sapphire Card and make one purchase. (See post for more details)
• Optionshouse Promo – Get 100 free trades when you open a new account, with $2.95 flat rate stock trade commisions. (see post for more details)

There is nothing better after Christmas than a little extra cash in your pocket. So if you are interested check out the associated post to learn more about the promotion and how to qualify.

Optionshouse Promo 2009 Get 100 Free Trades With New Account

There is a new Optionshouse promotion where you can get 100 commission free trades when opening a new account. To qualify for the Optionshouse bonus, you must open a new account with $3000. You will then receive 100 free trades that can be used within 60 days of opening your account. Make sure you fund your account with the $3000 within 45 days of your account approval. You must use the promo code FREE100 when during the account opening process.

Optionshouse is a full service discount brokerage that specializes on options, however they have the lowest stock commission I have ever seen. They let you trade stocks for a flat rate of $2.95 per trade.  Optionshouse is also protected by SIPC insurance. SIPC will cover the securities of customers of its members up to $500,000 of which $100,000 can be cash. This protection does not cover loss due to market conditions however.

I have never used them personally, but with such a low stock trading commission I may consider them as an option for my trading account.

Sign up for a Optionshouse Account

Virtual Trading Account

Have you always wanted to start trading stocks, but are worried about losing all your money? One way to be able to play around in the market without taking on any of the risk is to use a Virtual Trading Account. A Virtual Trading account allows you to place trades using virtual money so you can see how well they do over time. These accounts are pretty handy so that you can do a dry run using fake money before actually risking real money in the market.

OptionsHouse.com offers a fully functional virtual account for you to try your luck in the market. Their virtual stock account allows you to buy stocks or options and follow their performance just as you would if purchasing sotcks and options with real money. They also give you access to the full suite of OptionsHouse idea-generation and risk-management tools, including streaming charts and news and volatility tools.

I have always wanted to start trading options more aggresivelly and now I have the tools to practice. It sure beats throwing real money away. Optionshouse does not have any maintenance or minimum balance fees so you can open an account just to use the Virtual Trading feature. But since OptionsHouse.com offers $2.95 commission for stocks and $9.95 for options, you will probably want to use them as your main broker. Dollar for dollar they have some of the lowest comissions out there.

There are also a few Optionshous promo available where you can get up to $100 in transfer fees rebated when you transfer your account to them from another broker. They are also picking up the $25 for your first funds wire when funding your account. They have an ACH feature that allows you to transfer money between account for free, but the free wire will get your money there faster so you can start trading sooner. Another promotion being offered is a “refer-a-friend” feature where you can get $50 or 10 free trades for each friend you refer.

OptionsHouse.com is a full service discount broker with very low commission, as we all try to cut costs why purchase stocks and options for a lot of money when you don’t need to. Take that saved commision money and spend it elsewhere!

OptionsHouse Brokerage – $2.95 Commision on Stocks

EDIT: Their latest promo can be found HERE.

This morning, in my everquest to find a cheaper discount broker, I stumbled upon another online brokerage called OptionsHouse Brokerage and noticed that they have a commission of only $2.95 on stock purchases. After reviewing this, this is not an OptionsHouse promo. This is the standard commission and there is no limit on the number of shares you can buy for 2.95!!! For those of you that want to invest a little money over a time, a $3 commission can really lower the percentage of each purchase you make.

After looking into this a little deeper, I also noticed that their commisions on options is great since they don’t charge you per contract. Most brokerages charge you a trade commission as well as a per contract fee. If you are a big options trader this could add up to huge cost savings.

OptionsHouse Brokerage does not charge any monthly maintenance fees or has any minimum balance to worry about. They even will reimburse you up to $100 on transfer fees when you transfer your account from another brokerage to OptionsHouse.

OptionsHouse is a member of SIPC, which will cover customers of its members up to $500,000 of which $100,000 can be cash. Also they maintain SIPC Insurance over all customer accounts, so you can be sure your money is safe with them.

I don’t not have an account with these guys, but will be openeing one shortly. I will post about the process once I have a chance to sign up. If you are a beginning trader and don’t have a lot of money to invest, OptionsHouse brokerage may be  a good fit, with no fees and lower commissions it will allow you to invest more money with a lower overall cost.

Check out OptionsHouse’s Web Site for more details.