FreeTrade Brokerage: 20 Free Trades/Month, No Maintenance Fee

While I am busy implementing my asset allocation, I am still looking ahead to learning more about stock trading - including extended-hours trading, options, calls, and margin trading. I don’t necessarily think I can beat the market, but I am still curious as to how it all works.

In order to do that with minimal transaction costs, I just opened an account with FreeTrade.com, an affiliate of Ameritrade that offers 20 free trades a month, and very reasonable commissions after that. You must open an account with a minimum of $5,000 via a bank wire transfer or brokerage transfer. I’m going to transfer my E*Trade brokerage account, as I am very unsatisfied with their customer service. After that, there are no minimums and you can transfer money between your checking accounts easily via ACH.

The catch is that everything has to be done electronically. Trades, statements, even questions are all done online. Some trades, such as no-load mutual funds or options do cost money. You also need to have been with a discount broker such as E*Trade or Ameritrade at least two years first, I guess so they know that you don’t need too much assistance in doing trades online. I’m comfortable online and as long as their e-mail replys are prompt I’ll be happy. I haven’t seen too many reviews of FreeTrade, and I am curious as to their trade execution speed and performance.

Now to do some research before playing around with trades…

Find more in Deals & Offers | 1/16/05, 5:54pm | Trackback