Reaching financial independence requires sound decision-making, determination, and effort. However, we can also use a little luck to work in our favor. In that case, learning to invest in stocks is paramount, but why not enlist some help to get us started by scoring some free stocks?
Believe it or not, several companies offer free stocks online through their services and apps. For those interested in getting some of the most popular stocks in their portfolio for free, consider reviewing the services listed below and see how you can earn free stocks with minimal effort.
This article looks at the best ways to get free stocks, which you can choose to hold for the long-term or sell for a quick profit. Some may even pay dividends which qualify for the passive income tax rates (long-term capital gains).
1. Webull
- Free stock value: Account Opening and $100 Deposit: $14.50 – $1,650
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
Consider Webull as the new kid on the block (launched in 2018) in the online brokerage space. The company offers free trades of stocks and ETFs through their mobile app or desktop site. In other words, no commissions for the trades you would like to make in your portfolio.
As another added feature to Webull’s commission-free trades of stocks and ETFs, Webull also provides powerful tools and reports for in-depth investing analysis useful for making the best rational decisions with your investments.
For traders, in addition to the commission-free trading benefit, the brokerage offers a subscription to Nasdaq TotalView for $24.99/month, allowing you to see Level II quotes and gain a better sense for the full supply and demand for a stock outside of the national best bid offer (NBBO).
Traders find this information useful to gain a better sense of market direction and any potential supply and demand imbalances for a security.
In other words, traders using Level II quotes have a visualization of the price range and liquidity (number of shares available for purchase or looking to be sold) at each price level. Combined with stock research software, this information can be powerful capturing alpha.
If these account features sound attractive, the best part might also come with knowing setting up a Webull account is free and comes with no account minimums you must meet or maintain. Free and no account balance requirements combined with tools and reporting make Webull a great choice for any investor, new or experienced with investing.
As a further bonus, they offer extended trading hours (pre- and after-market trading) and 24/7 online help and now tax-advantaged investments in individual retirement accounts (IRAs).
If all the free listed above isn’t enough, Webull also runs frequent promotions which involve you receiving free stock.
How to Get Free Stock on Webull
Currently, Webull has chosen to offer new platform users the opportunity to get two free shares of stock worth up to $1,650 ($14.50 – $1,650).
To claim this potential bounty, you will first need to sign up through this link, open your account within 24 hours and deposit at least $100. If you do, you will receive a two free shares of stock (worth $16.50 – $1,650). If this sounds like a good use of your time and a platform worth exploring, consider signing up with the link below.
2. Robinhood
- Free stock value: $2.50 to $500
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
Webull offers commission-free trading, stock analysis tools and reports. Robinhood has index fund, stock and bond information as well, however, where Robinhood differs is the ability to trade options and cryptocurrencies, whereas Webull only allows the trading of stocks and ETFs at this time.
If you choose to open an account with Robinhood, you can know you are investing with the brokerage which has led the industry down its current path toward commission-free trading. Many brokerages now feel the pinch to offer free trades on certain assets in order to remain competitive in the industry.
To learn more about Robinhood’s business model, find the answer to “How Does Robinhood Make Money?”
Further, Robinhood’s app offers a simple and easy to use design. There aren’t numerous features called out and distracting you from what you are using the app to accomplish: trade commission-free and manage your investment portfolio.
Like Webull, Robinhood has no fees upon account opening and includes no minimum balance requirements. These brokerages have been at the vanguard for eliminating the common barriers associated with investing in the stock market.
Making investing accessible to the masses and educating the population could serve as a step in the right direction for democratizing building wealth.
Finally, Robinhood also was the first to introduce Cash Management, a savings-like account which comes with up to $1.25 million in FDIC coverage. The APR varies with market interest rates but remains in the top tier of competitors.
Like your Robinhood brokerage account, after you make it through the waitlist for this offering, there are no associated minimums for keeping your cash in this account.
How to Get Free Stocks on Robinhood
Like Webull and other Robinhood alternatives listed in this article, Robinhood offers an incentive of earning a free stock valued between $2.50 and $200. The service boasts a 1 in 250 chance of getting a free stock from Berkshire Hathaway (Class B), Apple or Facebook and a 1 in 150 chance of getting a free stock from GE of Ford.
To receive your Robinhood free stock, sign up with this link and open your account within 24 hours. Upon approval for your account, you will receive your free share of stock by playing their pick-a-card game of chance.
3. Nvstr
- Free value: $8 to $1,000
- Available via desktop and mobile site.
Nvstr, pronounced, “investor,” is another trading platform offering no minimums and a community of investors who share their collective wisdom. In fact, Nvstr builds itself around an investing community who seek to invest through collaboration by sharing ideas and recommendations.
Nvstr offers a tool called Portfolio Optimizer, which relies on Nobel Prize-winning research. In short, it aligns your portfolio with your risk appetite and has an intentional design with position sizes for creating the best projected portfolio risk/reward.
To build your optimal portfolio using the Optimizer tool, you simply need to select which stocks you want in your portfolio and then allow the tool to trade into the optimal allocations of each to meet your risk tolerance.
Of note, and unlike Webull or Robinhood, Nvstr does charge trading commissions of $4.50 per trade. However, signing up for an account with Nvstr is free and this makes you eligible for the signup bonus.
How to Get Nvstr Free Stock
By creating an account with Nvstr, you will earn the chance to receive a bonus worth between $8 – $1,000. To earn this free opening bonus, you will need to make a trade within your first two months of account opening. As another note, you cannot withdraw this free stock within the first 12 months.
Per the Nvstr website, the odds for earning a bonus fall along the following intervals and probabilities:
4. M1 Finance
- Free value: $10
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
M1 Finance offers free automated investing as would any robo-advisor. And while it classifies as a robo-advisor in terms of features and functionality, it varies in a few key ways. For example, services like Betterment, Wealthfront, Wealthsimple, etc. assess fees for managing your assets. M1 Finance, on the other hand, does not charge a fee in this manner.
Further, M1 Finance also differs in that you select the specific stocks and index funds you invest in for your portfolio or you can opt to choose from 80 plus expert portfolios. Another quirk with M1 Finance is the ability to buy fractional shares.
If your desired stock carries a high stock price, making it hard to finance purchasing an entire share (e.g., Google, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Class A, etc.) M1 Finance allows you to buy fractional shares of any investment offered on the platform.
Finally, investing with M1 Finance can be as simple as depositing money, setting your stock and index selections and having the platform automate your investments on your behalf.
Over time, M1 Finance will also rebalance your portfolio in line with your stated asset allocation targets. Regular rebalancing has been shown to improve portfolio performance over time, all things equal.
How to Get Free Stock from M1 Finance
Receiving your free $10 bonus from M1 Finance is as simple as signing up through this link. From here, that $10 can be invested according to your preferences established at account sign up.
5. Acorns
- Free value: $5
- Available via Apple iOS and Google Android.
Acorns is a financial app for young adults wishing to start small and grow their portfolios into large amounts. Much as you would an acorn maturing into a mighty oak tree. The app works by investing in tiny increments through rounding up your purchases on linked credit cards to the nearest dollar.
As an example, if you purchase a $4.25 latte from Starbucks, Acorns will round this amount up to $5 and invest the $0.75 on your behalf if you have automatic roundups enabled on your account.
The idea behind the app is simple: over time, you fit money into your investments through your regular purchases. The service automates your investing through small roundups, masking the decision to invest.
The service takes your contributions and invests them into professionally-created portfolios to ensure your investments align with your financial goals and remain diversified.
For a small monthly fee (as low as $1/mo), you can use this service. Acorns also offers Acorns Later in addition to Acorns Invest, a service meant to set aside money in an individual retirement account (IRA), one of the best investments for young adults.
Combined, Acorns Invest and Acorns Later only costs $2/mo until you have $1,000,000 in assets under management. Further, you can also sign up for an Acorns Spend checking account that will allow you to earn and save more money.
How to Get Free Stock from Acorns
To entice people to begin using their product, Acorns offers a $5 bonus when you sign up for a new account. After completing your signup, Acorns will deposit $5 into your account. From there, it can be invested according to your stated preferences.
6. Firstrade
- Free stock value: $25 – $600
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play.
Firstradeis a leading online brokerage firm offering a full line of investment products and tools designed to help investors improve their financial position through sound investing practices. Firstrade provides high value and quality services meant to inform your investing strategies and build long-term wealth. And it does so with free trades.
Firstrade combines proprietary trading technology with an intuitive user interface, available customer service and sleek mobile applications. In short, the platforms offers access to over 11,000 different investments, including index funds, stocks, bonds, target date funds, mutual funds, and more.
Firstrade offers a comprehensive solution for all of your investing needs, whether you are just learning how to start investing money or an active day trader, Firstrade commits itself to excellence and putting customers first.
How to Get Firstrade Free Stocks and Sign Up Bonus
Getting a free stock from Firstrade is simple – follow this link to open your account. To receive more free stocks, simply invite your friends and receive a new stock for each opened account. Firstrade also offers an account sign up bonus for depositing or rolling over money into your new account. The Firstrade sign-up bonus ranges as follows:
Currently, the service offers a cash bonus in the following increments:
•$25 bonus with a deposit/transfer/rollover of $5,000 – $9,999
•$50 bonus with a deposit/transfer/rollover of $10,000 – $24,999
•$100 bonus with a deposit/transfer/rollover of $25,000 – $49,999
•$200 bonus with a deposit/transfer/rollover of $50,000 – $99,999
•$300 bonus with a deposit/transfer/rollover of $100,000 – $249,999
•$600 bonus with a deposit/transfer/rollover of $250,000 or more
7. Stockpile
- Free stock value: $5
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play.
Stockpile is an investing service which borrows a page from M1 Finance’s playbook by letting you purchase fractional shares of stock and ETFs. The service also allows you to share the wealth, so to speak, by granting the ability to gift stock shares to family and friends to entice them to begin investing with the service.
Also like other services on this list, the service comes with no account minimums nor monthly recurring fees. You can start investing with $5 but be mindful the service charges $0.99 per trade.
How to Claim Your Free Stock on Stockpile
Sign up for a Stockpile account by visiting this link. From there, buy your first share of stock or make a gift of at least $10 in stock to a specified recipient.
8. TD Ameritrade
- Free stock value: $100 – $1,000
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play.
TD Ameritrade is a popular brokerage which recently purchased Scottrade and now is being purchased by the mega-retail brokerage Charles Schwab. For the time being, the brokerage has managed to shed commissions on their clients’ stock and ETF trades (with competitive threats from Robinhood and Webull).
The company offers the most generous guaranteed signup bonuses of any company on this list. However, it comes with a significant capital commitment on your part. To receive the lowest-tier payout, you’ll need to fork over a minimum of $25,000. And for the largest payout ($1,000), prepare yourself for a deposit 10x larger (the payout scales nicely in this case).
How to Get Free Stock from TD Ameritrade
Currently, the service offers a cash bonus in the following increments:
•$100 bonus with a deposit of $25,000 – $49,999
•$200 bonus with a deposit of $50,000 – $99,999
•$500 bonus with a deposit of $100,000 – $249,999
•$1,000 bonus with a deposit of $250,000 or more
9. Stash
- Free sign-up bonus: $5
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play
is a mobile-friendly investing app and checking account. Stash provides a low-cost, all-in-one financial platform which caters to hands-off investors looking to automate their investing as you spend money and make recurring deposits into your account.
For those looking to combine investing and banking in one place, Stash offers several benefits you might find attractive for your needs:
Stash Banking offers:
1.No hidden banking fees
2.No minimum deposit
3.No minimum balance requirements
4.No in-network ATM fees
To add more incentive to use the platform for investing, by shopping at places like Walmart and Amazon, you can earn Stock-Back Rewards® by making qualified purchases with your Stash Banking debit card.
10. Public
- Free sign-up bonus: $10
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play
Public is another commission-free investing app which caters toward Millennials and Gen-Zers keen on investing in line with their social preferences and with good company. The stock investing app boasts an increasingly-common feature geared toward younger investors who may not have enough money to buy some pricier shares at one time: fractional investing.
This lines up with the mission of the company: making the stock market inclusive, educational, and fun by allowing people to invest alongside friends and other well-regarded investors.
Much like social media platforms who provide the standard blue checkmark logo to verify public figures, Public provides visibility into trade activity and other insights these verified investors wish to provide to the Public community.
To get you started, the service offers a free $10 sign up bonus for making an initial deposit as well as the ability to gift free stock gifts (fractional shares) to referrals you make. If this sounds like an interesting investing app, open an account and make an initial deposit to see if the app meets your needs.
Track Your Growing Net Worth with Personal Capital
With these free stocks in your hands, you should consider keeping track of your growing net worth. The best app I’ve found for seeing all of your accounts in one place is Personal Capital.
The app provides a free financial dashboard, featuring a net worth tracker (quickest and easiest way to track your full net worth), retirement planner, budgeting tools, a fee analyzer, and more.
If you want to begin tracking your net worth in a seamless and intuitive dashboard, consider opening an account with Personal Capital and linking your financial accounts for a full view into your net worth today.
Related Questions on Free Stocks
What are the Tax Consequences for Receiving Free Stock?
If you receive free stocks or sign-up bonuses from any of these brokerages, you should have awareness of the tax implications involved. More broadly speaking, let’s discuss the tax impact of investing in stocks in general by reviewing some of the applicable rules affecting investing.
In particular, the most widely-known tax consequence associated with buying and selling stocks is the capital gains tax, which occurs when you sell a stock for a profit. This tax breaks into two categories, depending on how long you held the stock before selling:
- Short Term Capital Gains: If you recognize a gain by selling an investment you held for under a year for a higher price than you originally paid, you will pay taxes on this in your usual marginal income tax bracket. This means if your top tax bracket was 22%, you will pay this amount of tax on your gain.
- Long Term Capital Gains: You face this tax when you sell an investment you held for over a year for a gain. These rates can be more advantageous than short-term capital gains because they vary from 0% to 20%.
When you receive a free stock from the brokerages listed above, this gain technically counts as taxable income and should be reported on your tax return. It will be taxed as if it were ordinary income (i.e., like your paycheck).
Another tax you may face comes from dividends you could receive from stocks which act as income-generating assets. These typically count as taxable income but you will need to understand whether these dividends count as qualified or non-qualified dividends to understand how you claim them on your tax return.
Non-qualified or ordinary dividends have you pay the same tax rate as your regular income tax bracket, while qualified dividends are taxed at the same long-term capital gains rates above (0% to 20% depending on your income and situation).
If you want to pay as little tax as possible on these investments, you will need to think of investing as a long-term strategy. Therefore, you should consider whether your investments can be held for over a year to avoid paying higher capital gains taxes.
Finally, not all investments result in gains when sold. If you incur a loss, you can use it to offset your capital gains or even have up to $3,000 of capital losses per year be used to lower your taxable income reported on your tax return.
Any unused amount can roll forward indefinitely to offset future capital gains or income (only up to $3,000 per year for income offsets).
Where Can I Get Stocks for Free?
Get Your Free Stocks from the following companies:
Can You Buy Stocks for Free?
It is now common for many stock trading companies to offer free trades. Most of the companies above offer free stock trades though some do charge commissions (e.g., Nvstr and Stockpile). Many brokers have been forced to compete on price and must now follow the race to the bottom for offering free stock trades to remain in the consumer’s consideration.
What App Gives You a Free Stock?
As described above, all of these companies offer free stock or a free bonus for signing up and possibly making some minimum deposit. Of the companies listed, Webull, Robinhood, and Stockpile offer free stocks for signing up. The remaining companies all offer signup bonuses in the form of cash or fee rebates for transferring assets into your new investment account.
Does Robinhood Really Give Free Stock?
Robinhood does give free stock for opening an account and linking a bank account. No deposit is necessary as of when this was published. The stock will vary but can be worth as little as $2.50 or as much as $500.
What Free Stocks Can I Get?
The stocks awarded will vary because the companies target a specific dollar value when granting a stock. As stock prices rise and fall, the stocks eligible for being given as free stocks will change.
For Webull, the company has awarded shares from the following companies:
•The New York Times (NYT)
•International Paper (IP)
•Douglas Emmett, Inc. (DEI)
•Vonage Holdings (VG)
For Robinhood, the company has awarded shares from the following companies:
•Sirius (SIRI)
•General Electric (GE)
•Aphria (APHA)
•B2Gold (BTG)
•Ford (F)
•Glu Mobile (GLUU)
•Zynga (ZNGA)
•Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG)
•ImmunoGen (IMGN)
•Plug Power (PLUG)
•Limelight Networks (LLNW)
•Corbus Pharmaceuticals (CRBP)
•Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE)
•Catalyst Pharmaceuticals (CPRX)
•Blackberry (BB)
•Amneal Pharmaceuticals (AMRX)
•GameStop (GME)
•Kinross Gold (KGC)
•Orchid Island Capital (ORC)
•Energy Transfer (ET)
•Caesars Entertainment (CZR)
•Sprint, now T-Mobile (TMUS)
•Marathon Oil (MRO)
•Apache (APA)
•Coty (COTY)
•Vivint Solar (VSLR)
•Ovintiv (OVV)
•Prospect Capital (PSEC)
How Many Free Stocks Can You Get on Robinhood? Webull?
Robinhood allows up to $500 per year of free stocks. Webull currently has no limit to the number of free stocks you can receive.
How Long Does It Take to Get My Free Stock?
For most of the companies listed here, the stock award can be nearly instant, while some can take a few business days for the free stock to settle in your account. Robinhood awards them instantly and will notify you each morning if you have received your free stock.
You will need to read the fine print on how long you must hold the stock in your account before you can sell it for cash. Once you receive your free stock, you may need to hold onto it for a minimum time. Nvstr, for example, requires you to hold the cash reward in your account for at least one year as well as make one trade within 30 days of account opening.
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Previously published on Youngandtheinvested.com.
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