2010 Brokerage Promotions

Now that the new year has begun a lot of new brokerage promotions have popped up to get people to open a new account. The Dow Jones is hovering around 10,000 so we are still a little off of the high from 2 years ago. If you have some extra cash to invest, now is the time to get it working for you.

Here are some of the current brokerage promotions that offer some kind of cash bonus or free trades:

• OptionsXpress Promo- OptionsXpress is offering a $100 bonus when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Tradeking Promo- Get $100 when referring a friend to Tradeking. There is no limit to how many $100 referral bonuses you can get (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. They have one of the lowest stock trading commissions out there. (see post for more details)
• ETrade IRA Promo- Open an ETrade IRA and get 100 free trades. (See post for more details). Open that 2009 IRA by April 15th, 2010.
• Zecco Promo- Zeccobrokerage gives you Get 10 free stock trades every monthif you $25,000 balance or make 25 paid trades each month. Otherwise the commission is only $4.50 / trade which is one of the lowest out there. (See more details here)
• Firstrade Promo- Firstrade is giving away 5 free trade when you open a new account. (See post for more details). Firstrade offers a low $6.95 commission per trade.

If you know of any others, please add them in the comments and I will add to this post.

Latest Hot Brokerage Promos

Now that the market has turned around online brokerage promotions are popping up all over the place to get you to open an account. Now is not a bad time to start investing since the market is still of its highs from last year but has rebounding quite a bit as the DOW is now at 10,000 again. If you are investing in the long term, now is the perfect time to get going. If you have some extra money to invest I suggest you look at one of these promos prior to signing up with anyone.

Here are a few of the current ones going on:

• Tradeking Promo – Get a $50 bonus when opening a new account (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)
• ETrade IRA Promo – Open an ETrade IRA and get 100 free trades. (See post for more details)
• Zecco Promo – Zecco brokerage gives you Get 10 free stock trades every month if you $25,000 balance or make 25 paid trades each month. Otherwise the commission is only $4.50 / trade which is one of the lowest out there. (See more details here
• OptionsXpress Promo – OptionsXpress is giving away $100 when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Firstrade Promo – Firstrade is giving away 5 free trade when you open a new account. (See post for more details)

$50 Tradeking Promo Is Back! October 2009

EDIT: This promotion has ended. Their latest promo can be found HERE.

Tradeking is once again having it’s annual Tradeking Promo where you can get $50 when opening a brokerage account. To qualify for the promotion you need to do the following:

• Open a new brokerage account by using the following link –
• Fund the account with $2,500 or more within 30 days of account opening
• Execute any one trade within 180 days of account opening
• NOTE: $2,500 must remain in the account (minus any trading losses) for a minimum of 6 months or the credit may be surrendered

This tradeking bonus ends on October 31st, so be sure to open your account by then! So if you are on the fence about opening an account, getting $50 for free should seal the deal.

For those of you that are not familiar with Tradeking, they offer a flat $4.95 commission on stocks and options. Tradeking was founded in 2005 by the founders of Suretrade.com which was eventually sold to TDAmeritrade. All accounts are SIPC protected, so you can be sure that your money is safe. I’ve had a Tradeking account since 2006 and use it as my primary trading account. Why spend $10 or more for a stock commission with the other guys when Tradeking offers the same service for half as much! There are no account minimums or inactivity fees. (note that in this special case to qualify for the Tradeking Promotion there is a $2500 minimum to get the free $50 but once the 6 months is up, there is no minimum balance). Check out my Tradeking Review for an indepth review of their service.

Some other cool features they offer is an ACH feature where you can move money in and out of your linked checking account. There is also a money market sweep that invests your uninvested money in a money market account that earns interest. They also offer loads of educational material to help you understand the basics of investing with stocks and options in case you are just starting out. I learned how to trade options with Tradeking very quickly using their helpful training tools.

You can also send them any paper stock certificates you have to them and they will add them to your account for free. I had to use this feature once with a stock purchase plan I had for a company I worked at. It was a very simple process and I was able to trade those stocks electronically in less than 2 weeks.

 As a reminder, there is no Tradeking Promotional Code required for this promotion, just click on the link below to see all the details and sign up:

Hot Brokerage Promos

Since the market has turned around a bit many of the online brokerage sites are offering promos to get you to open an account. Now is not a bad time to start investing since the market is still of its highs from last year but seems to be rebounding a bit. Sure we still may be in for a rocky ride, but if you are investing in the long term, now is the perfect time to get going. If you have some extra money to invest I suggest you look at one of these promos prior to signing up with anyone.

Here are a few of the current ones going on:

• Tradeking Promo – Get up to $150 in transfer fees credited to your account when you transfer your account from another brokerage to Tradeking (see post for more details)
• ETrade IRA Promo – Open an ETrade IRA and get 100 free trades. (See post for more details)
• Zecco Promo – Zecco brokerage gives you Get 10 free stock trades every month if you $25,000 balance or make 25 paid trades each month. Otherwise the commission is only $4.50 / trade which is one of the lowest out there. (See more details here
• OptionsXpress Promo – OptionsXpress is giving away $100 when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Firstrade Promo – Firstrade is giving away 5 free trade when you open a new account. (See post for more details)

Tradeking Promo – $150 in Transfer Fees Refunded

Update September 2009: This Tradeking Promotion is still active.

There is a new Tradeking Promo that is offering up to $150 to cover the fees of transfering your account from your current broker to try out their service. Follow this link for the promo details: (There is no specific Tradeking Promo Code required if you click through that link) I transferred my account into Tradeking from TD Ameritrade and haven’t looked back since. Unfortunetly they weren’t covering the transfer fees at that time, but it was still worth it to me. Their account transfer process is very simple. All I needed to do was open a new account, complete the transform and fax it in. My account was transfered in less than a week. To get your account transfer fees refunded, faxing a copy of your account statement with proof of the transfer charge to 561.988.0131. The credit will be deposited to your account within 30 days of receipt of evidence of charge. Very easy! From an over all service standpoint, please read see my Tradeking Review. Like I have said in earlier posts I have been very happy with Tradeking and the services they offer. I am in no way a day trader, but for what I need, they can do. They’ve got one of the lowest fee schedules in the business, so if you are itching to get in and buy in a down market, now is the time. And with up to $150 in transfer fees refuneded, this makes it that much easier to switch.

$50 Tradeking Promo Ends Sunday

EDIT: This promotion has ended. Their latest promo can be found HERE.

The $50 Tradeking Promo ends Sunday November 30th. Get in this week if you haven’t done so already. Tradeking Promos tend to only appear every so often, so there is no telling when another may happen. Besides if you haven’t started trading is this down market shame on you! Now is the time to get in low and ride the wave up.

Here are the promo details. You will get a $50 bonus credited to your account when you open an account by November 30th by using the following link: , fund it with at least $2500 and make 1 trade. They will deposit the $50 into your account shortly after your first trade is completed.

Tradeking is the only brokerage account I use. Let’s face it, I don’t have a whole lot of money to invest, so you can be pretty sure I am not going to waste in on high commissions like at other online brokerages. Tradeking’s $4.95 commission suits me just fine and there is nothing that I have wanted to buy that I could not do on Tradeking.

One feature that I thought was pretty neat is that when my last company had a stock employee purchase plan my company actually issued me stock certificates. I was like, “What the heck am I supposed to do with these?”. Well after talking with Tradeking they told me that they would take the certificates from me for free. And sure enough after a week, the shares appeared in my online brokerage account for me to sell or do whatever I wanted with them. It is those little customer service things that keep me coming back!!

Please check out my review here for more detail on there services or

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