Brokers
Here is a list of every broker I’ve tested, including those that will round up reverse splits and those that do not. While I do earn money from affiliate links from some of these brokers, I only recommend those that I personally use to trade reverse splits, and I only link to the deal that gives YOU the best sign up rewards.
Quickly, though: DO NOT USE E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, or TradeStation! E-Trade and TD Ameritrade charge a $38 fee for each reverse split. While TradeStation does round up fractional shares, if you purchase a single share the day before a split, they will charge you a $20 fee and set your account to “liquidate only.” They are not fans of reverse split arbitrage as a strategy.
Brokers That Round Up
I’ve put them in order of order of best rewards for the least effort. Deals change often, and if you see a broker offering a different deal than I’m showing, let me know and I’ll update immediately.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: 1 free stocks worth $2.50–$250 immediately. Deposit $100 and get 1 more worth $8–$1600, no hold required.
Multiple Accounts: Yes, can have one cash and one margin account plus an IRA. Can also open a second account using a different phone or email address.
Time to process RS: 1–2 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: Orders of less than 100 shares are prohibited if stock is less than $1 per share. My workaround is to buy 100 shares then immediately sell 99 shares, leaving me with one share.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: 1 free stock worth $3–$225, can sell after 3 days, no deposit needed.
Multiple Accounts: No.
Time to process RS: 2–3 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: None.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: 1 fractional share worth up to $15, no deposit required.
Multiple Accounts: No
Time to process RS: 12–18 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: None.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: 1 free stock worth $2–$200, no deposit required. 2 additional free stocks if you deposit $100, no hold required.
Multiple Accounts: Yes. Firstrade supports individual, joint, education, and IRA accounts. You cannot have two of the same type.
Time to process RS: 1–2 days.
OTCs: Yes, must be over $0.10/share.
Weird things: I only get a commission if you deposit $500. Absolutely no pressure, but if you can I’d appreciate it!
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: None currently, but check the site as they run short-term promotions every couple weeks and I might be slow to update.
Multiple Accounts: Yes, individual and IRA.
Time to process RS: 1–2 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: They share the profits from payment-for-order-flow, so expect to earn a couple cents here and there.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: Get 100 shares worth $200 total when you deposit $2000 and hold for 90 days.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 1–2 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: None.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: Free stock worth $50 when you deposit $1000. Can withdraw the $1000 immediately after.
Multiple Accounts: Yes, self-directed individual and self-directed IRA.
Time to process RS: 1–2 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: None.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: Get $50 when you deposit $10000 and hold for 300 days. Goes up from there.
Multiple Accounts: Yes. They allow individual, joint, and custodial taxable accounts, as well as Traditional, Roth, Rollover IRAs, and Coverdell accounts.
Time to process RS: 1–5 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: They charge a fee for trades where stock price is under $2. It ends up being equivalent to the cost of the single share, so a $0.80 share costs $0.80+$0.80 fee = $1.60.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: Get $150 when you deposit $20000 and hold for 45 days and enroll in Preferred Rewards (free but requires Bank of America checking account).
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 10–15 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: None.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: Get $100 when you deposit $25,000 and hold for 45 days.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 1–2 days.
OTCs: Yes, but they charge $6.95 per OTC trade so almost never worth it.
Weird things: Schwab is consistently one of the fastest brokers at processing reverse splits.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: None.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 1–3 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: The branding is all over the place: technically it’s called YouInvest, sometimes they say JP Morgan, but the app is just the Chase app.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: None.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 5–10 days.
OTCs: Yes.
Weird things: They can take a couple weeks to round up, but otherwise are excellent. They seem to process round ups on the same schedule as Vanguard.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: None.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 5–10 days.
OTCs: For now, but not after April 28, 2022.
Weird things: They can take a couple weeks to round up, but otherwise are excellent. They seem to process round ups on the same schedule as Vanguard.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: None.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 2–3 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: They charge an inactivity fee if you have less than $2,000 or less than 2 trades per year. Trade twice per year and you’re fine.
Minimum Investment: $0
Rewards: None.
Multiple Accounts: Yes.
Time to process RS: 2–3 days.
OTCs: No.
Weird things: They charge an inactivity fee if you have less than 2 trades per year or less than $10,000 of assets in your account. I only get a commission if you deposit $1000 and hold for 45 days. Absolutely no pressure, but if you can I’d appreciate it!
Brokers to Avoid
First, brokers that that should be avoided. Some won’t round up, others will but charge big fees to process reverse splits. They are:
- Alpaca: Pays fractional shares, no round up.
- Dough: Used to be on the list, but closed and moved all accounts to Tastyworks.
- E-Trade: $38 fee for each reverse split.
- Interactive Brokers. Pays fractional shares, no round up.
- M1 Finance: They have rounded up at least once, but you have to trade the day before as all trades execute by 9:30am unless you have M1 Plus ($125/year). They also have very few stocks listed, which is why I no longer use them.
- Moomoo. No round up.
- TD Ameritrade. $38 fee for each reverse split.
- SogoTrade. $2.88 commission for each trade, unsure if they round up.
- Stake. Gives equivalent fractional shares, no round up.
- Tradeup. Pays cash-in-lieu, no round up.
- Tradestation. Does round up, but has said they will charge a $20 fee and set to “liquidate-only” any accounts that purchase single shares of a stock the day before a reverse split. This rule is not on their site, but was communicated to several of us over the phone.
- Wellstrade. Charges inactivity fees, and not sure if they round up.