Free Palm? Tungsten? E Handheld w/ $5K 6 mos deposit

[mdcrab]

Found a similar post but was for a Tungsten 3, but had no link for "E".

Free Palm? Tungsten? E at Ameritrade.

Offer valid for new Individual and Joint accounts opened and funded with at least $5,000 between 12/26/03 and 05/31/04. Please allow 3-6 weeks for delivery of Palm handheld computer. Ameritrade reserves the right to replace the Palm handheld computer with a gift of equal or greater value. Account must remain open with minimum funding for 6 months.

mdcrab

 

[Agamar]

If I only had enough time to spend managing my $5k after investing, it might be worth it. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to browse the net while working.

 

[ponyo]

I did the T3 deal. Got my T3 in less than 2 weeks! I like the deal so much that I'm opening another account under my wife's name.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Agamar
If I only had enough time to spend managing my $5k after investing, it might be worth it. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to browse the net while working.

Why would you need to micro manage $5k? You can't daytrade w/ that small amount. Commission costs would eat you alive.

 

[ttown]

I'm looking to ditch tdwaterhouse because of fees....
been with them for a long tiime. was a happy customer, but they keep raising their trade rates and now have inactivity fees, too (they introduced inactivity fees a year or so ago, but I'm just now getting irritated with the idea)

can anyone w/experience with waterhouse and ameritrade comment on pros/cons

i also have money at etrade... who i'll probably ditch as well

thanks

 

[mercuryswitch]

errr...

i dont want to sign up =/

 

[wiredspider]

So just leave 5K in the account for 6 months bascially? Any fees or anything? Just losing interest on my 5k for 6 months?

 

[redass1876]

no, leave 5K invested in something for 6 months, not in some bank account

 

[J1600B]

Originally posted by: Naustica

Originally posted by: Agamar
If I only had enough time to spend managing my $5k after investing, it might be worth it. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to browse the net while working.

Why would you need to micro manage $5k? You can't daytrade w/ that small amount. Commission costs would eat you alive.

Got any numbers to back that up? I was planning on doing a little day trading with only $2k and as long as the trades are always profitable I don't see any commission costs causing problems.

 

[DigitalDiscord]

Originally posted by: ttown
I'm looking to ditch tdwaterhouse because of fees....
been with them for a long tiime. was a happy customer, but they keep raising their trade rates and now have inactivity fees, too (they introduced inactivity fees a year or so ago, but I'm just now getting irritated with the idea)

can anyone w/experience with waterhouse and ameritrade comment on pros/cons

i also have money at etrade... who i'll probably ditch as well

thanks

I have 3 TDW accounts and now 1 new Ameritrade account (took advantage of the T3 promo). TDW's siet is a bit easy on the eyes and has cost basis which I like. Ameritrade has free Streamer with realtime quotes. I leave it up at work and peek at it everyso often. If you trade on options, Ameritade will be sbetter suited with the amount of tools for that. The only problem I have with Ameritrade so far is that there aren't B&M offices to drop checks off (I dont like sending 3rd party checks via snailmail). And yes the fees at TDW are pissing me off too, they keep raising the bar on minimum accounts even though my 3 accounts total over those limits, just not individually. So far i'm liking Ameritrade so no complaints...plus its 10.99 per market order trades

 

[DigitalDiscord]

Originally posted by: J1600B

Originally posted by: Naustica

Originally posted by: Agamar
If I only had enough time to spend managing my $5k after investing, it might be worth it. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to browse the net while working.

Why would you need to micro manage $5k? You can't daytrade w/ that small amount. Commission costs would eat you alive.

Got any numbers to back that up? I was planning on doing a little day trading with only $2k and as long as the trades are always profitable I don't see any commission costs causing problems.

At 10.99 for every market trade, $21.98 per buy/sell thats about 1% profit in your trade to cover that cost plus any short term capital gains tax. So say for example 100 shares of a $20 stock ($2000) goes up .40 in a day and you sell. $2040-$21.98 (Ameritrade commission) = $2018.02 leaving you $18.02 profit before capital gains tax (10% to 35% depeding on your tax bracket), leaving you with $16.22 - $11.71 in profit. Don't forget your accountants fees for organizing all your trades come tax time or if you're doing your taxes all your basis info for every trade.

There's also wording in your terms agreement with Ameritade that minimum balance for a day trading account is $25,000. Plus the SEC defines day trading as...

The NASD provides that a pattern day trader is any account that executes four or more round-trip day trades within any rolling five-business-day period, provided the number of day trades represents at least 6% of the total trading activity during the same five-business-day period. Day trading is the practice of purchasing and selling, or short selling and purchasing to cover, the same security in the same trading day within a margin account.

With $2,000 you're better off throwing it at QQQ and letting it sit there.

 

[Almighty1]

Or just use Ameritrade's freetrade.com which has no commission charges.

 

[jhu]

i got my tungsten e. it works great with linux too

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: wiredspider
So just leave 5K in the account for 6 months bascially? Any fees or anything? Just losing interest on my 5k for 6 months?

Pretty much. No fees or anything unless your account has less than $2,000 in total liquidation value. Otherwise, a $15 quarterly account maintenance fee will be assessed.

Link to their FAQ's

 

[jhu]

actually, the tungsten e retaills for $200. that's a 4% gain over the course of 6 months (i think that's how long you have to leave the money in for). not bad for a guaranteed roi.

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: jhu
actually, the tungsten e retaills for $200. that's a 4% gain over the course of 6 months (i think that's how long you have to leave the money in for). not bad for a guaranteed roi.

Was thinking the same thing. It's like earning an 8% APR on your $5,000 deposit for 6 months. Not bad.

 

[JohnVM]

Wanna daytrade with 5000$ invested? It's absolutely doable. WWW.FREETRADE.COM

I daytrade and make about 50 trades a day, it costs me 1$/trade - regardless of the # of shares. It's a great brokerage, it's owned by AmeriTrade.

The first 20 trades a month cost 0$/trade. The next 80 cost 3$/trade. The next 100 cost 2$/trade. Everything after that - 1$/trade.

For someone like me who makes ~1000+ trades/month it REALLY saves a LOT of money.

 

[cmetz]

I did this deal. Tungsten E came quickly, but was DOA - big hassle to fix that problem. The Tungsten E is pretty disappointing, I'd suggest folks do the $10k Tungston T3 deal if they have the cash, you get a lot more useful device as the freebie. I think there's also some free initial trades involved in this deal...?

Ameritrade has good service as brokerages go, all and all I've been happy with them and have recommended them to others. Their fees are going up over time, esp. with the Datek merger, which is a bummer... but nearly everyone else's are too.

I looked at Freetrade, emailed a couple of questions to customer service, never got any response at all. That left me really skeptical of them, since email is the only way to get in touch with them and they didn't ever bother answering email. It seems to me that if you do a mutual fund buy and hold, take the $200 or $400 freebie and then spend $20 or so in commissions on the buy and the sell, you are much better off with the full Ameritrade deal.

 

[lordex]

Was thinking the same thing. It's like earning an 8% APR on your $5,000 deposit for 6 months. Not bad.

Actually even better than 8% - you don't need to pay tax for it.

 

[Tired of the Bull]

cmetz,
is the 10k deal still alive? do you have a link?

 

[cmetz]

Tired of the Bull, I have no idea. Check this forum and other hot deals forums around the web. I don't know of it being a limited time offer.

 

[ponyo]

I think 10k deal ended in May. 5k deal is active though.

 

[J1600B]

You can daytrade with any amount and it could be worth it. Maybe not through Ameritrade, because of all their BS fees, but Freetrade or something like that while 'day-trading' penny stocks could be very profitable. Obviously you aren't going to make much money day-trading a $10 stock, but it's all about ratios when dealing with less money.

Anyway, I just hate seeing people say it isn't possible just because they can't think of a way to make it work.