Brokerages and investing platforms are competing for your business by giving you great deals and bonuses on your investments. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
I put off investing for a long time because it seemed so hard. You had to choose which stock to buy and then find out how to buy it! You can’t deal directly with corporations, so you need a “broker,” which is a middleman that can sell you stock from any company or mutual funds that mix a bunch of equities into one basket.
There are a lot of brokers these days. Some are old-school organizations like Charles Schwab, where you work with a local office and a person. Others are newer giants like Vanguard and Fidelity, and some are even newer startups like Betterment that want to automate the whole thing. There are also a lot of free apps for investing.
But how do you pick a broker? You need a technique to tell these companies apart because many of them are well-known and reliable (that is, they won’t steal your money as Bernie Madoff did).
If you want to tell whether companies are trustworthy, I think you should think about these three things:
What kinds of costs do they have?Is it possible to invest for free?
What kinds of help do they offer? Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
What kinds of rewards do they give you to entice you to choose their firm over a competitor?
The third aspect is especially shining in the age of the Internet! Every month, brokers come out with fresh deals to try to get individuals to shift their money or start investing for the first time. Now is a good time to think about starting a new investing account. Many of the top brokerages are matching each other’s prices and offers because it’s so easy to look up fees and offers. This makes things better and better for customers.
I looked around and found some of the greatest stock brokers and investment deals available right now:
TradeStation – Up To $3,500
TradeStation is one of the best platforms for active traders that are looking for research tools and easy trade execution. And right now that they are offering a great partnership with TradingView.
They are offering a promo where you can earn up to $3,500 when you transfer funds into your TradeStation account. The amount you get depends on how much you transfer in. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
Up To $1,000 With J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing
J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is offering up to $1,000 when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money. J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing allows for unlimited commission-free investing with stock, ETFs, and options trading when you open an account.
Cash promotion is limited to one per customer and can only be applied to one new J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account (General Investment, Traditional IRA, or Roth IRA). To enroll in the up to $1,000 offer, you must open an account through this page. This offer does not apply to J.P. Morgan Automated Investing or any account opened with a J.P. Morgan Advisor.
Right now, get up to $1,000 when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money by April 21, 2026.
Here are the bonus tiers:
Merrill Edge – Up to $600 & Free Trades
Merrill Edge is Bank of America’s brokerage firm (the result of Bank of America’s acquisition of famed trading firm Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis of 2008). It’s a fine overall choice for anyone, but if you already have a banking relationship with Bank of America, it might be especially tempting due to the “Preferred Rewards” status you can get. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
Merrill is one of the last remaining brokerages that hasn’t adopted commission-free trading for all. However, if you qualify for Bank of America Preferred Rewards, you can get $0 commissions.
Their current bonus offer includes up to $600 in cash. Here are the levels of upfront investment you need to qualify:
As you can see, they have one of the lowest minimums to get started – and their top tier bonus of $600 is less of a requirement than most on this list. However, the product and costs don’t really align with the rest of the industry anymore.
Wealthfront – $50
Wealthfront is a robo-advisor that is consistently on our list of the best ways to automatically manage your portfolio. With Wealthfront, you simply deposit your investment dollars, and their service takes care of the rest.
Right now, you can earn a $50 bonus when you open a new taxable investment account and deposit at least $500. You must keep the funds there at least 7 days, and you’ll receive your bonus 30 days after that. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
Acorns – $20
Acorns is the popular “round-up” investing app that allows you to invest your spare change over time. They also offer banking options so that you can do everything within one super app.
Right now, Acorns is giving you a $20 bonus if you open an account and successfully deposit a minimum of $5 into your new account within 14 days of opening it.
eToro – $10
eToro is the investing app making waves for offering a full range of products and services – including $0 commission stocks, and crypto trading. It’s been known worldwide for years, and has recently been making headway into the United States.
Right now, eToro is giving you a $10 bonus if you open an account and successfully trade $100 in your new account. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
Moomoo – Up To $1,000 In NVDA Stock
Moomoo is a new investing app that is looking to make a splash for those interested in trading on their phones. They offer advanced trading features, and even the ability to invest in overseas markets.
To encourage users to sign up, they are offering the following bonus offers. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
Deposit $100 and get $20 in NVDA stock, Deposit $2,000 and get $50 in NVDA stock. And if you deposit $10,000, get $300 in NVDA stock. Finally, if you deposit $50,000, get $1,000 in NVDA stock.
Robinhood – Free Share Of Stock
Robinhood is the popular commission-free investing app that a lot of young traders have been making headlines in the news by using. We also rate it as one of our favorite free investing apps.
One of the cool things about Robinhood is that, when you open an account, you can get a free share of stock. This stock could have a value of anywhere from $5 to $200! You never know what you’ll get.
Webull – Free Share Of Stock
Webull is a direct competitor to Robinhood that also offers commission-free trading on an app. Were they differ slightly is that Webull offers a lot of more advanced features and analysis that you don’t see on the Robinhood app. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
Webull gears itself to more advanced traders. But they also offer a similar promotion – get a free share of stock when you open an account!
Who Is This Guide For?
This guide is for anyone looking to open a new brokerage or investing account. If you’re already shopping for a new investment account (whether a brokerage, trading tool, or investment app), many of these companies will offer you a bonus for doing so.
If you’re already going to open a new account, why not get a promotion or reward for doing so? It so easy! But you just have to know about these offers. That’s why our team focuses on curating these offers to make it easy for you.
Combined with our in-depth investing app and brokerage reviews, you can know that you’re making a smart choice when opening a new investment account.
Why Trust Us?
I have been using and reviewing investment apps and brokerage accounts since I started The College Investor in 2009. We stared crafting our “best brokerage lists” in 2015, and have continued to review and follow the industry since then.
Our team also has extensive investment knowledge, and we follow the industry to find the latest promotions for you. Furthermore, our compliance team reviews these promotions regularly to ensure they are the latest offer and accurate as of our latest update.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of brokers out there that didn’t quite make the cut for this list. Either they aren’t offering cash promotions right now, or they’re offering much smaller promotions that didn’t seem as worth it. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
However, my research shows that right now, with the stock market fairly hot and several newer entrants into the stockbroker business (including Wealthfront, which is on this list, and others, like, say, Vanguard, which is not) stockbrokers are pretty keen to offer incentives. Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers
My guess is that cash back, free trades, and other incentives to switch services are going to keep improving for a while. Just in the last month, TradeStation and J.P. Morgan are starting to offer really significant cash back if you move a lot of money to their platform. I think others are going to be compelled to at least consider keeping up.
All in all, it’s a pretty good time to be shopping for a new stock broker! Best Brokerage and Investing Bonus Offers