OptionsExpress is running a new promotion of $100 if you open and account and fund with a minimum of $500 and execute 3 trades. First, here is some important information from the terms.

*Offer is valid for one new Individual or Joint optionsXpress account opened and funded with at least $500 by US residents on or before December 31, 2011 at 11:59 CST, and having executed 3 trades within twelve months of account opening. To receive $100 bonus, account must be funded with at least $500 cash or securities transferred from a brokerage firm other than optionsXpress. The $100 bonus will be deposited into the new optionsXpress account within one month after meeting the terms and conditions of this offer. optionsXpress may charge the account for the cost of the $100 bonus should account fail to remain open with minimum funding (excluding trading losses) 6 months from the account open date. IRAs, other tax-exempt, linked, or shared accounts are not eligible to receive the $100 bonus offer. Offer is not transferable, is not valid for internal transfers, current optionsXpress accounts or with any other optionsXpress offers. All taxes related to this $100 bonus offer are the responsibility of the account owner.

First, OptionsExpress is now owned by Charles Schwab and is fully FDIC insured. So if you have never heard of them before, rest assured they are a safe investment company. I addition, I had an account with them a couple of years ago and had no issue. More on my experience later.

Next, lets say you open an account and fund with the minimum $500. I am going to assume you are only interested in a cash account buying and selling stocks, ETF’s, etc. and not buying on margin or futures.

The following is a break down of the fee structure for stocks.

So assuming you purchase under 1,000 shares of a stock, ETF, etc., and that your goal is to own zero shares at the end of the process, you will need to execute a minimum of buying and selling in four transactions (buy-sell, buy-sell). Therefore, you will need to pay at least $39.80 in fees ($9.95 * 4 trades) over a six month period.

So the $100 bonus is really a $60.20 bonus after fees. Hopefully over the course of the six months of owning shares of your choosing, you will have made enough to recoup some of the fees.

The $100 bonus is decent, but not as lucrative as the $500 bonus I got in on several years ago thanks to MyMoneyBlog. Even with taking out of the fees, it still was a hefty bonus that was not to be missed. Luckily I also made a couple of bucks buying and selling, so I came out way ahead.

Keep in mind though that OptionsXpress will issue a 1099 and you will be responsible for taxes on the bonus and earnings. So the current $100 bonus, which in reality is $60.20, winds up being only approximately $40 by the time you factor in taxes.

A better deal is to get referred by someone already a member of OptionsXpress. By being referred, you will still receive a $100 bonus, as will the referring party. However, there are two main differences which make this the better alternative.

The terms of the referring $100 offer only require you to make a minimum of 1 trade with a minimum balance of $500. Therefore, your commission costs would only be $19.90 ($9.95 * 2 trades) assuming you buy and sell once. The key here is to remember though that they want you to maintain a balance of a minimum $500. Therefore, I recommend transferring in around $600 so that after you buy and sell, you will still hopefully have a balance of over $500 at all times. This is exactly what I did during my $500 bonus promotion so as not to chance missing out on the bonus. I wanted to make sure I maintained at least $500 cash in my account at all times so there was no question that I met the terms of the promotion. If you were to transfer in the minimum $500, make a trade, and your shares lose value and the total balance went below $500, you could risk losing the promotion.

So, if you are interested in receiving a referral to get the better terms and conditions, please leave me a message in the comments, and I will get you the referral information.