I have just finished my application for a Firstrade account, my first equities trading account, and soon will be funding it with some cash to take advantage of the free trades made available for new-traders. Granted, these trading comissions are very low, and I could probably gain the same amount from putting the money in a CoD for 6 months, but it’s a fine gesture nonetheless on the part of my new broker, and in the mean time (hopefully) I will make money on the money invested through my account far surpassing a modest CD interest rate.

This will be my second actual brokerage account, my first being my Vanguard account with some holdings in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Mutal Fund (VTSMX). This new account through Firstrade will be for my holdings in specific equities, and thus riskier. Only time will tell how well it will pay off, and given that I am young, I have quite a bit of time to wait.