How to Get 500 Stock and Option Trades for Free

If you trade stocks like me, you could trade ten or twenty trades a week. Assuming ten dollar commission per trade, you might end up paying $800 a month just on commission. That's not chump change! One way to look at it is that your account has to increase by $800 just to break even for the month. Ten dollars a trade might not seem like much but it adds up for an active trader.

One way to get a head start on your trading is by looking for deals that online stock brokerage firms are offering. Sometimes these firms offer cash bonuses to sign up and sometimes they offer free trades.

Free Trading for 60 Days

Right now, E*Trade (ETFC) is offering a special deal of 500 trades free of commissions for stock or option trades during the 60 day period after funds have cleared in the new account. This offer is available for Individual, Joint or Retirement accounts. Restrictions include:

the account must opened by 12/31/2013

the account must be funded within 60 days of opening the account

account must have at least $10,000

There are some other restrictions. However, one additional bonus the company is offering is a $200 bonus if you deposit at least $25,000 and higher bonuses if $100,000 or more is put into the account.