Comments on: Should I Grab Those Online Broker Sign Up Bonuses?

By: health insurance rates

health insurance rates — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:39:36 +0000

$50 is not worth the time and effort in depositing money, waiting for it to clear, making a trade, collecting, cashing out, etc. Hassle.

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:20:17 +0000

It’s the same thing with checking and saving accounts. If you want to try a new bank out to possibly switch, then sign up an account by all means, but $50 is hardly justification to have ANOTHER checking account that will be doing nothing because more accounts mean more management.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:27:47 +0000

What do you think about free $25, $50, and $100 bonuses for checking and savings account? I know ING always has their referral bonus, but I’ve seen Bank of America, Chase, and others offer a decent amount of money to open and use a checking account. For $50, is it worth it to change your direct deposit option? Or to use a debit card 10 times? Why not link it to Paypal and send a friend some penny transactions? Or is it not worth the hassle?

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:48:48 +0000

Yikes. Hopefully, your friends are back on their feet and thinking about the bright future ahead of them.

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:47:23 +0000

It’s maybe because of what I’ve seen from friends and peers who’ve lost a lot of money trading online. One acquaintance literally lost like $200,000 trading, and another person who is a talented piano teacher decided to QUIT his job b/c he thought he was so good at trading. He lost a lot of money too.

Once you’ve got one account, they don’t need another, but since there’s a carrot, they join.

Forgive me as I’ve been tainted by my surroundings, and from my own experience. I’ve traded like a banshee before and have lost $10,000+ easily on trades.

I just want everybody to be careful, that those clicks of a button are real not a game.

Best

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:24:18 +0000

I thinking the casino analogy is a little harsh because many of us already have online broker accounts and the requirements (in TradeKing’s case) is only 1 trade within a month after you fund the account so we may or may not be doing that amount of trades already.

However, I want to make sure that everyone knows why they are opening an account, and not get tempted to open one just because there’s a bit of free money since the advertisements everywhere these days.

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:54:04 +0000

I’ve noticed the flurry of offers from online brokers as well. More often than not, it’s like an invitation to a gambling casino. They’ll tempt you with the $50 free “chip” until you get hooked and trade away your portfolio.

Times like this are GREAT for brokers. Volatility means people are just wigging out buying and selling. That’s party of the reason why Wall St. profits are likely to be strong.

Nothing wrong with punting your portfolio online. Just don’t get carried away.