Is opening an account with TD Ameritrade just for the 30 day free trading worth it?

Question

I am going to be an investor, not a trader, but i have an urge to try trading and it seems like a perfect opportunity.

Answer 1

I've been with TD Ameritrade for years and am very happy with them. I also am not a trader, but a long time holder of stock. They also have a DRIP service they can provide which I do with some of my high dividend stocks. Great research, low commission and lots of trading tools if you wish to use them.

Answer 2

It certainly COULD, but that would largely depending on how you want to use it.  Ifyou plan on buying for some long term holdings, yep. If you plan on some serious trading, well, it will be a very short term savings that you will soon forget about.

Answer 3

If you are going to make money with your investments, go for it. You might also want to try zecco.com--they offer free trades each month.

I wish you the best! http://jsforex.blogspot.com

Answer 4

Flatly, no.  I am sure the wire in, wire out, account closing, account startup fees, etc. cover the costs.  And since you seemed concerned about commissions, I'm sure your capital is relatively low for this.  In reality, real trading is done with a lot of money, so that the difference between $5 and $15 commissions over $20,000 is negligible.  If you are a serious investor, you will diversify your portfolio enough to give back those saved commissions anyway.  There may also be a catch, such as only able to trade round lots, or specified conditions of keeping the account for a set amount of time or something.  You may be better off looking at TradeKing, I had plenty of problems setting up my account with Zecco and gave up after a month, so I would not recommend them.

You have to remember that for every given deal the company gives they expect to make all that money back.  And if you earn a lot of money trading or investing quickly enough to make the deal worthwile, then that's great.  But the odds are highly against you.

As for your desire to "try trading," I think this is the worst mistake someone could make in the market.  I would not even think about it until you have had a thorough understanding of the markets and 200+ hours of specialized trading research behind you, and then I would paper trade for a while more.  Once you do this, I would suggest you create some hard rules for trading such as limited capital and relatively strict stops.  You may benefit from reading "Mastering the Trade."  It's a great walkthrough.  I'm reading it myself.  Don't remember the author but I have more information on my website.  It's a good place to learn about the market and brokers (I think I have links to 40+ brokers or so).

http://www.stockmarketresources.blogspot...

Best of Luck