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Free Stock Trades

N

nocash

Senior member
About to take the plunge, $2500 seems a bit steep but can invest with that with that money and fall below that level without them locking you out. Free trades 10 per day 40 per month over that is only $3.50. they started up back in October but i just found out about it. Did a search didn't see anything on here about it. No cost to ach transfer funds in or out. My first hot deal 😉

Text
 
Googled "Equinox Securities Inc"

Detailed Company Profile

Year Started: 2005
State of Incorporation: CA
URL: N/A
Location type: Single Location
Stock Symbol: N/A
Stock Exchange: N/A
Also Does Business As: N/A
NAICS: All Other Business Support Services
Est. Annual Sales: $130,000
Est. Employees: 2
Est. Employees at Location: 2
Contact Name: Stephen Olivera
Contact Title: President

Info from Manta: http://www.manta.com/comsite5/bin/pddnb....pl?pdlanding=1&referid=3550&id=gqdc8h

Not a very large parent corporation (2 employees, Annual Sales $130K, started 2005)

I think I might be a little skeptical. Don't think I would want to put my money there.

Another lost cost brokerage is Sharebuilder, but have researched then at all.

mdcrab
 
I have an account at sharebuilder but the $4 fee only apply to automated trades done on tuesday. Normal trade is $15.95, was looking into lowtrades.com $5 trades and choicestrades.com $5(not available in my state WV) Settled on zecco.com if my account goes through. Its a startup company founded by one of the guys from Skype.com and former VP of Charles Scwaub. I plan on playing in some penny stock, yeah huge risk but is extra money i am willing to risk would never risk rent money ect 😉 plan on never touching the $2500 other then putting it into AGG 4.7% dividend use those dividends and a $200 extra play money for the pennys. Free trades should help alot with just small buys. They rely on advertising and margin accounts to make their money. Ill let you guys know how it turns out
 
Originally posted by: nocash
I have an account at sharebuilder but the $4 fee only apply to automated trades done on tuesday. Normal trade is $15.95, was looking into lowtrades.com $5 trades and choicestrades.com $5(not available in my state WV) Settled on zecco.com if my account goes through. Its a startup company founded by one of the guys from Skype.com and former VP of Charles Scwaub. I plan on playing in some penny stock, yeah huge risk but is extra money i am willing to risk would never risk rent money ect 😉 plan on never touching the $2500 other then putting it into AGG 4.7% dividend use those dividends and a $200 extra play money for the pennys. Free trades should help alot with just small buys. They rely on advertising and margin accounts to make their money. Ill let you guys know how it turns out
Click to expand...

Another alternative is MBTrade. Very cheap and great service. I use TD Ameritade and MBTrade and it is a great combination for me.
 
When they say you need a $2500 opening balance, do you use that to invest or are you only allowed to invest money in addition to the $2500?
 
What are the associated fees, limitations and downsides?

For example: Izone is Ameritrade without telephone support (email support only): $5 a pop or $3 a pop if you pay $50 annual fee.

Unlimitted buy sell any amount any price any time free $ transfers in, two free $ down transfers per month that are in your account the next day.

Trades executed fast (it's Ameritrade after all) so downside?

Miimum is $5000.


There are also these guys but last time I looked they didn't have their act together http://www.sogoinvest.com/Home/Pricing.aspx

What's the deal with them now vs. others, anyone know?
 
Fatwallet on zecco:

jpsfranks said:
Here's my experience so far. (...) they withheld at my marginal tax rate (28%) from the proceeds of the sale (the proceeds not the gain). So they withheld ~$160 from the ~$600 sale. This seems very sketchy. The only way they would know my tax bracket is by the income that I declared on my application form.

Needless to say I was a little miffed about the withholding. I sent a two emails over the course of the next week. Neither received a response. So I phoned them and they informed me that they had not received my paperwork (this was about a month after I had opened the account and mailed in the form). I decided that at that point that I was pretty much done with Zecco. But then I noticed a couple days later in the "Account Overview" section that the "Outstanding Paperwork" field (which previously had been blank), now said "No". So apparently it took them about a month to process the paperwork. I called them up again and they said they had received my paperwork, but they also told me that the ~$160 had already been forwarded to the IRS and I would be unable to get it back. It's not a huge deal, since it's only $160 lost until tax time, but it could have been worse, obviously.

Anyways, I have made a couple more trades since with most of the remaining of my original deposit and have not had any more problems. The trading part of there website is fine.

If you open an account with them just learn from my mistake, don't make any trades until your account says "Outstanding Paperwork: No" no matter how long that takes. And then make a small trade in and out to verify no withholding.

So for me I think it boils down to this:
PROS:
Free trades (really!)

CONS:
Difficult setup.
Inconsistent service.
Questions about long-term viability.
Click to expand...
 
Rememebr posting it like that doesn't mean much. We need associated fees, limitations and downsides.

Cost per trade, limits on trading, limits on value of trade/stock, cost of transferring money, speed of executions, time to setup an account, margin fees reasonable or unreasonable, and of course then the minimum $ required.
 
I have a buyandhold.com account. I am leaving them because I have invested all of my stocks as long term and don't want to pay their 6.99 a month fee. 2 free trades per month though. It was great for me as I have a low trade rate.


I am moving everything to my etrade.com account. No monthly fees for me and 14.99 a trade which isn't too bad. My cash there gets 5.05%.
 
10 free trades a day, 40 per month, with a $2500 minimum is a lark.

You'll quickly be tagged a pattern daytrader by sec rules (about 4 round trips during any week), which will then require a minimum of $25k in the account to do any more opening trades.

Pattern daytrader rules
 
This deal used to be hotter. I think the $2,500 minimum to open is a new rule. I opened my account a couple months back with only $1,000.
 
Originally posted by: McPhreak
This deal used to be hotter. I think the $2,500 minimum to open is a new rule. I opened my account a couple months back with only $1,000.
Click to expand...

If you can't afford to invest $2,500, you really shouldn't be investing in stocks.
 
Originally posted by: austin316
Originally posted by: McPhreak
This deal used to be hotter. I think the $2,500 minimum to open is a new rule. I opened my account a couple months back with only $1,000.
Click to expand...

If you can't afford to invest $2,500, you really shouldn't be investing in stocks.
Click to expand...

Why not? If you have a little money lying around and you think you can make more money in stocks than in simple interest alone, or just want to do it for fun, it shouldn't matter how much money you can or want to invest.
 
Originally posted by: McPhreak
Originally posted by: austin316
Originally posted by: McPhreak
This deal used to be hotter. I think the $2,500 minimum to open is a new rule. I opened my account a couple months back with only $1,000.
Click to expand...

If you can't afford to invest $2,500, you really shouldn't be investing in stocks.
Click to expand...

Why not? If you have a little money lying around and you think you can make more money in stocks than in simple interest alone, or just want to do it for fun, it shouldn't matter how much money you can or want to invest.
Click to expand...

General rule of thumb is to keep 3~6 months of living expenses in a liquid account (Savings). So I guess if you you have really low living expenses, then yeah, but otherwise, you could just pull out a month or two of living expenses.
 
Originally posted by: McPhreak
This deal used to be hotter. I think the $2,500 minimum to open is a new rule. I opened my account a couple months back with only $1,000.
Click to expand...

Me too, Bummer that it went up to $2500, but its still nice to be able to see a stock go up 5% and say, Hey, I just made 5%, instead of Hey, After commissions I just broke even. The two drawbacks are that the user interface is so bad that its hard to figure out how to do anything, and it takes at least until the next business day for a sell to clear, and up to four days. If you don't have a margin account, you have to wait until it clears before you can invest that money. I use this account to make half a dozen trades a month and its so nice to not have to pay commissions. I would recommend Zecco to anyone that can live with these drawbacks. I don't see an advantage to other brokers that provide the same service, but charge a fee for it.
 
Originally posted by: jjsole
10 free trades a day, 40 per month, with a $2500 minimum is a lark.

You'll quickly be tagged a pattern daytrader by sec rules (about 4 round trips during any week), which will then require a minimum of $25k in the account to do any more opening trades.

Pattern daytrader rules
Click to expand...

$2500 is the minimum, and yes, at that level you probably cant use up the free trades/day. However, its useful for someone who wants to put in a lot more.

You act like they're forcing you to trade w/ unsettled funds.
 
Well, my experience so far. Applied for account on Monday, approved on tues, Faxed and mailed my info tuesday. Setup ACH account Tuesday, received 2 small deposits Wednesday. Sent ACH transfer for $2500 said ACH transfer was approved by broker. Has not left my checking yet. They have not received my paperwork yet.

Be sure to not make any trades before they receive the paperwork and post the you have no outstanding paperwork in account. Seems some people are having problems when they do so. As they are getting hit with a tax withholding of entire sales not just profits from sales. Since without the W-9 on file they do not know if you are subject to backup withholdings. I do not know if this is still the case, but im not willing to test it.



 
Originally posted by: nocash

Be sure to not make any trades before they receive the paperwork and post the you have no outstanding paperwork in account. Seems some people are having problems when they do so. As they are getting hit with a tax withholding of entire sales not just profits from sales. Since without the W-9 on file they do not know if you are subject to backup withholdings. I do not know if this is still the case, but im not willing to test it.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of a brokerage allowing trades without a social security number processed, but either case have never had to fill out a w-9 and always have just submitted my SS# with the application. I don't think that is appropriate.

A customer is not an employee, and all capital gains taxes, if applicable go to the IRS when taxes are filed by the customer, not the brokerage. Brokerages simply don't submit taxes to the IRS on behalf of their customers (unless perhaps due to a lien?). I'm curious what form they would even give to the customer to represent taxes that were paid to the IRS on behalf of their transactions.
 
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