Bank of America Free Trades

[tokyopua]

BOA cripled Ameritrade and Etrade stocks yesterday by announcing free trades for customers with a minimum of $25,000 in their combined accounts.  Its apparently limited to 30 trades per month free, after which I suppose there is a charge but I dont know yet how much.  But currently I pay $7.99 per trade with Etrade, so as long as its not more than that, I will save up to $2880 per year with this 

I bank with BOA so I plan to try this out.  Its apparently also only available to begin with to customers in the Northeast.  If you are interested in trying it out, here is the online information and signup link:

www.bankofamerica.com/invest

[Terliso]

Zero Commission if  you maintain a combine balance of 25,000  .... wow I like that baby

[tokyopua]

Zero Commission if  you maintain a combine balance of 25,000  .... wow I like that baby

Tested it out this morning, bought 2000 CNXT at 1.90.  The interface seems a bit clunky still, there are even some places where the text is squeezed into a box, etc.  It is also a bit different than Etrade in that you dont transfer a block of money into your brokerage account, instead it only gets taken out of your main checking account when you buy a stock, and gets put back immediately (well, subject to the usual 3 day clearing I guess) when you sell it.   

I talked to the rep on the phone and he said you have to make 60 trades per quarter to qualify for active trader status and be able to get Level II quotes.

Another slight negative for those of us who trade penny stocks or even sub penny stocks is that you cant buy or sell more than 100,000 shares of a stock.  I was going to buy 150,000 of ETIM at .005 this morning, but ran into that limitation.  Wound up trying it out and it worked on 100,000 at .0055 (its at .0047 now, maybe I should be glad for the limitation lol).

Otherwise seems OK, I guess these current limitations can be the price of free trades    I am still going to be using Etrade for most my trades until I feel more comfortable with BoA though.

[jorgegr]

Do you know if this is also available for foreign residents ??

[tokyopua]

Do you know if this is also available for foreign residents ??

Well, they didnt ask me anything in the online form I filled out about whether I was a foreign resident, though maybe that was something they already knew based on my bank account.  The only restriction I knew of so far was that I think they are rolling this out on the East Coast to begin with.

You can call them to get more information, here is the number and hours:

"Please call 1.800.926.1111 to talk with an investment agent about the products and services available through Self-Directed Investing. Hours are 8am to 12am EST, Monday - Friday and 8am to 9pm EST on Saturdays."

[jorgegr]

Thanks for your reply tokyopua

[tokyopua]

Interesting update on my BoA account.  I found that I couldnt buy SKNN with my Etrade account, but was able to do it with BoA, that surprised me. 

Also, BoA sends a lot of physical paper trade confirmations.  That could be a negative if you dont like a lot of paperwork, but on the other hand I like it because if my account ever got hacked, I have a constant paper trail proving where my account was to fall back on.