OptionsHouse is one of the best online stock brokers that offers affordable commission rates. This broker was founded by PEAK6 Investments, a well-known options-trading firm that aims to make investing and trading stocks and options more accessible to the retail investor.
This broker has a whole slew of great promotions for their customers. There are actually nine offers here. But it’s important to note that for the most part, you can only select one promo when you sign up (except for one case, described below). Unfortunately, unless otherwise stated, these offers may NOT be used together. There are lots of options, so choose which method offers you the best deal. Regardless of what you select, you’ll get something for becoming an OptionsHouse customer.
Full List Of OptionsHouse’s Active Promotions & Freebies
Promotion #1: OptionsHouse is offering 100 free trades for those who open new accounts. Each stock trade costs $3.95, so this is not bad at all. You’re simply required to fund your account with at least $3,000 to earn the free trades. The promotional code in use here is FREE100. This freebie is cumulatively valued at around $400.
Promotion #2: On this note, a new IRA with this broker also comes with 100 free trades, but there’s also a little more: they’ll throw in some cash to cover your transfer fees. If you decide to open an OptionsHouse IRA or roll over a 401K over to a new brokerage account, you’ll get the commission free trades PLUS $125 to help reimburse you for any account transfer or wire transfer charges. The minimum balance you’ll need is $3,000. The promo code to use here is IRAFREE.
Promotion #3: You can “refer a friend” to OptionsHouse and receive your choice of $150 or 30 free trades. As far as I know, you are eligible for up to 50 referral bonuses per year, which means that you can refer up to 50 people annually to enjoy the maximum rewards. This is one promo I know that may be used in conjunction with other offers. To be eligible, you’ll need to be an existing OptionsHouse customer with a funded account.
Promotion #4: When you transfer an existing investment account that you have elsewhere to OptionsHouse, you’ll be entitled to a reimbursement fee of up to $100. For each account you transfer over, you can get back up to $100. Just use the promotion code ACAT100REFUND when you visit the OptionsHouse page.
Promotion #5: You can get a rebate of $25 when you wire your funds over to OptionsHouse from some other account. The promotional code for this is WIRE25REFUND when you visit the OptionsHouse page.
Promotion #6: If you’re up for a new piece of hardware, then you’ll appreciate this promo. If you open an account with OptionsHouse and fund it, you’ll receive a free high def, wide screen desktop monitor from Dell. More specifically, the size of the monitor you’ll get will be based on your funding balance.
| Funded Amount | Bonus Reward |
|---|---|
| $10,000 to $99,999 | 24 Inch Dell Full HD Monitor |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 27 Inch Dell UltraSharp Monitor |
| $250,000 and over | 30 Inch Dell UltraSharp Monitor |
Promotion #7: If you’d like to beef up your market knowledge and keep up with the investment markets, you may appreciate a year long subscription to Financial Times Online. Access is unlimited and free for one year.
Promotion #8: Along the same lines as the previous offer is this one that gives you access to four Investing Newsletters from Morningstar. These four newsletters will be available for free for one year. Take your pick of these subscriptions: ETFInvestor, DividendInvestor, StockInvestor, FundInvestor, OptionInvestor and OpportunisticInvestor and use the tools and analysis available from Morningstar.
Promotion #9: If you prefer a little hand-holding as you learn the ropes with trading stocks or options, then you may find this more appealing: 60 days of free investment coaching via the OptionsHouse Investment Coaching Program. You’ll only need at least $1,000 in your regular account (or $2,000 for a margin account) to get going. You can actually get unlimited coaching sessions through the program’s Learning Lab, which is just one of three services available through this in-house program.
About OptionsHouse
OptionsHouse offers free, helpful investment resources and trading tools that are available to an investor who signs up with them. Their tools include streaming quotes, news, trading charts, investment calculators, options hotlists, and so forth. Note that a good number of these investment tools were developed by the options traders behind PEAK6, and have been licensed for use in other platforms.
OptionsHouse also has a Virtual Trading Platform, where you can invest in the stock market without having to risk your own money. If you’re a new investor, this is one sensible way to learn how the market works and how stocks and options are traded, before you actually decide to put your own money on the line.
Pricing for OptionsHouse is one of the cheapest you’ll find in the brokerage industry. They offer a flat rate of $3.95 per stock trade and $5 for your first five options contracts. If you trade over 10 options contracts, then you’ll be charged $8.50 plus .15 per contract. For more information, you can check out our OptionsHouse review as well.
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Heard a lot about OptionsHouse — about them being a great broker. It’s great to see they are giving away some extra perks to new customers. Should be a good way to get started with becoming an investor. These brokers were not this aggressive about freebies before, but I suppose times have changed and in order to stay competitive they’re giving some goodies away. This can only be good news for the investor.