Free stock shares are the trendy bonus nowadays – WeBull, SoFi, Robinhood, Public, and more – but how about 100 free shares? Tastyworks wants your attention by offering 100 free shares of a randomly-picked stock valued between $1 and $6 per share. That means the total value will be between $100 and $600, with an average total value of $200-$220. Offer now extended until 6/30/2020. Details below.
The odds of specific stock allocation is implemented as follows: there is a 70% chance of receiving Stock priced under $2.00 per share, and a 30% chance of receiving Stock priced over $2.00 per share. The value of Stock received will average $200-$220 USD based on the price of shares at which the Stock is purchased by tastyworks.
Tastyworks is a discount brokerage targeted at active options traders. They offer $0 comission stock trades and options commissions at $1 to open and $0 to close. That means a open/close roundtrip on options costs $1.00. TD Ameritrade, Schwab, Fidelity, and E-Trade all charge $0.65 per contract, which is $1.30 for open/close roundtrip. Thus, Tastyworks is 30% cheaper than the big brokers for options trading while also having the full fancy options interface.
For this promotion, you have to fund a new account with at least $2,000. You get the 100 bonus shares after a week, but you have to keep your $2,000 plus the value of the bonus shares for at least 3 months (otherwise they yank it back). See quoted fine print below:
The funds deposited to Qualified Customer’s account, plus the initial value of the Stock received (less any losses on the Stock) are required to remain in Qualified Customer’s account for a minimum of three months starting the day shares deposited into account, subject to extension from date of entry, before withdrawal in order for Qualified Customer to receive the value of the Stock (“Three Month Period.”) The value of stock Qualified Customer receives will be credited to their account upon deposit, but will be debited out of Qualified Customer’s account if the Three Month Period requirement is not met, and will not count toward Qualified Customer’s buying power until the end of the Three Month Period. Qualified Customers can sell their Stock once deposited into their account, but the proceeds will be subject to the foregoing Three Month Period requirement.
All that fine print aside, a $200 average payout on a $2,000 deposit with a minimum 3 month holding period is a good ratio. Just don’t go nuts with the options trading!
Probability of a $1-6 stock going to 50% to 100% down in the next 3 mos is over 75%.
So you get the $600 (for example) as a 1099 item. It goes to $50 in 3-mos. You sell at a loss of $550. Short term capital loss can be claimed. Useless you have none – in which case you pay taxes on $600.
You can sell the shares the same day that you get it. You just can’t withdraw the proceeds for 3 months.
Imagine typing this into TurboTax when their integration inevitably does not work lol
It’ll be 100 shares of the same stock, it’s not 100 shares of 100 different companies. That would just be mean 🙂
This does look familiar; TastyWorks was at The Money Show in Philly last year. I went specifically to see the editor of IQT speak, but I checked out the booths as well. And they had free delicious pretzels!
Signed up today; we’ll see what stocks I get. I use Firstrade right now, and I’ve been content with them, but who knows.
Thanks!
looks like this was extended until 6/30/2020
Thanks, updated the expiration date.
They didn’t alert me when my 100 shares of NR posted, but I got lucky and it went up in the meantime. 100 shares sold @ $2.45. Not bad.
I signed up last week. When do we receive the free 11 shares? The interface is not simple for beginners.
They show up shortly after your $2,000 deposit posts. You won’t get an e-mail, so keep checking back in the app so that you can trade them if you wish.