How to Get Free Stock Trades!

We took a look around and managed to find a way to get 10 free stock trades per month with a minimun $2500 balance at Zecco Stock Trading . It’s not a big secret or anything. It’s just the deal they have going! Instead of charging trading fees, Zecco makes most of their money from the interest on margin accounts (margin accounts trade with borrowed money).

Trade King also has cheap trades for $4.95 and free dividend reinvestment (great for long-term investors), but they can’t beat the offer mentioned above. A long term strategy with well established companies and dividend reinvestment is probably one of the safest ways that you can make money in the stock market. This is especially true when you apply dollar cost averaging .

A Word of Advice

If you happen to be a professional trader then both of these companies can cut down on your trading cost significantly. If you’re an average joe, we would strongly suggest subscribing to an investment service for a few hundred bucks a year. It is better to do your own research than to listen to the guy at the bank. He probably does not have your best interest in mind.

There are plenty of reputable companies around like Zacks, The Motley Fool, Morning Star, etc. Magazine companies like Smart Money also put together model portfolios and there are many free resources such as MSN Money and Yahoo Finance. We’re not big Microsoft fans, but their investment center is one of the best free resources on the web for tracking your trades!

Trading on your own without a planned entry and exit strategy is simply grounds for disaster. Your emotions will be the key factor in your demise and you will rue the day you chose stock trading over that easy 5% certificate of deposit . Just find a balanced portfolio that you like and stick to a simple investment plan.

What’s Dollar Cost Averaging?

Simply put, dollar cost averaging is just an scheduled investment plan where you invest a certain amount of money at a certain interval (Example: $100/month). Because stocks are at lower prices more than they are at higher prices, when you invest on a monthly basis you are buying at a average lower price.

• Month 1 = $30/share
• Month 2 = $40/share
• Month 3 = $50/share
• Month 4 = $40/share
• Month 5 = $30/share
• Month 6 = $40/share

In this simplified situation, you invest $100/month for 6 months. After the 6 month period you have 16.16 shares of stock purchased at an average price of $38.33/share. Your $600 investment is now worth $619.41. On an annual basis this is a 6.6% interest rate; higher than a CD, savings, or checking account. It may not seem like much but there is more to this than meets the eye.

Assuming that you pick a good company that pays an average 3% dividend (a stock form of interest). Your annual interest rate would essentially be 9.6%! Keep in mind that this is an investment approach for the long haul and your dividends can be reinvested to buy more stock. Considering that you can get 10 free trades/month with Zecco it would be feasable to do your own research, pick your own stocks, and avoid all trading fees (:

Want More Tips?

To learn more about stocks and open a free practice trading account you can visit our friends over at How The Market Works . They have some great trading competitions, a friendly community forum, and it’s all completely free!

Rate this website!

Trade King is highly rated by third parties such as Smart Money Magazine, offers great technical analysis, free dividend reinvestment, a high yield sweep account, and very inexpensive trading. They also offer traders a more complex trading system than Zecco which allows you to set stop and sell limit orders simultaneously without expensive software. You could not ask for much more from a broker with all trades costing only $4.95. Trade King is a nice option for frequent traders of just for the use of their free dividend program is you like the long-term approach. This one of the best discount brokers for the money. We would recommend checking them out and comparing them to Zecco . This will ensure you of the best brokerage for your needs.

Rate this website!

Zecco offers 10 free stock trades per month with a minimun balance of $2,500 and some excellent community features. After that trades are just $4.50 and low-cost options contracts are available. Zecco makes most of their money off of margin accounts, which also have reasonable interest rates. This allows room for your free trades. You can also be assured that competent people are running the company considering that they hired the former COO of BrownCo (one of the first online brokerages bought by Etrade). Their website has recently been revamped to include a more user friendly dashboard and Gains Keeper makes record keeping easy for a small bi-annual fee.