TD Ameritrade is running a promotion now where it seems fairly easy to get a nearly risk free $500. Sign up for a new account, fund it with at least $10,000 (that's the one big catch) and you get 45 days of free equity trades (online only). To qualify for the free $500, you must reach Apex status within the first 3 months of opening the account. This requires an average of 5 trades per month over a 3 month period. So, buy and sell 1 share of some stable dow industrial stock 15 times in a row one day (thus reaching your average of 5 per month for 3 months), the trades are free so at worst you lose a couple bucks from tiny minute by minute price changes. End result is a free $500 (minus a few dollar potential loss) and Apex status for the next 3 months which means you get free Level II quotes and some other goodies.

Check out details here:
http://www.tdameritrade.com/offer/apex.html?a=krw

Note: Ripped from SD. I haven't actually done this, but I don't see how they could refuse to honor it. The minimum share purchase may be higher than 1, but even at like 5 or 10, if you purchase a well known, non-volatile largecap stock that doesn't move much intraday, (example: C, KO, JNJ, etc) at the extreme the most you would probably stand to lose is on the order of $20-$30...still a good deal for $500.

Cool, but just a MINOR detail of LITTLE importance:

Your account must remain open with minimum funding for 9 months after $500 credit posts to account or TD AMERITRADE may charge the account for the cash awarded.

HKnight said:Cool, but just a MINOR detail of LITTLE importance:

Your account must remain open with minimum funding for 9 months after $500 credit posts to account or TD AMERITRADE may charge the account for the cash awarded.Should be ok if there is a decent MM fund that you can go into. In that case, you can consider the $500 a 5% increased yield spread over the MM rate of return.

Agree I have a tough time seeing a downside. Only trick is I've done the mine/spouse/joint accounts with amertrade. Nonetheless I closed my individual account a month ago and will probably try a new tdameritrade one.

One can certainly trade in and out of a short term bond etf - i'm too shy to say which one - with large volume and small spreads.

And for a frequent trader like qwe123 it sounds even better.

Sounds like the downside for me would be the spread on 5-10 trades over 45 days or so to see if the bonus posts. If it never does seems like the commishes will be free - tough to quantify but a tiny fraction of $500.


Note - this simpler one for $100 is still out there too:
http://www.tdameritrade.com/offer/100.html

Do you think it will it work if you were prev a Ameritrade customer 2-3 yrs ago?

The following is quoted from the offer terms and conditions, just can't figure it out what it means,anybody can clarify??

Feel like it is saying, U have to pay fees for data, don't know if it is true that I pay $0 if I don't subscribe any data, I can get it from elsewhere.....

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Access to real-time data is conditioned on your acceptance of the exchange agreements. Professional access differs. Professional subscribers that are not Apex-qualified can access real-time services for the following monthly fees: options quotes $32.25, NASDAQ Level I $20, NASDAQ Level II $50 (includes Level I data), AMEX quotes $43.80, NYSE quotes $127.25 and Streaming News $99. -->

Does the minimum funding requirement include the value of your portfolio? i.e. $10,000 including the 15 etfs?

And - at least in general - brokerage bonuses are not taxable. Or to be more specific I've never gotten a 1099 on them.

A stupid question.
What does $10K balance mean?
Do we need to have a $10K cash balance in the account?
Or a combined balance with the value of the stocks we have purcahsed?
If the later, what if the stocks invested in, lose their value and your net worth goes below $10K?

What do they charge you to close the account?
A lot of stock brokers will charge you to close your account.