A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Where to Invest $1000 Today, which made the argument that TradeKing’s robo-advisor is a good choice for many:

I’d say that it’s probably helpful for people who fit the following criteria:

• Don’t want to hire professional help – There’s always a difficulty in vetting a professional and making sure that they are doing what’s in your best interest. That takes time and energy. Even if a friend recommends a great advisor, you still have to meet with him/her to put together a financial plan.
• Want something easy – Most robo-advisors (including TradeKing’s) will get up and running in just a few minutes.
• Want something safe – There are few, if any, guarantees in the equities market, but you know that a robo-advisor is going to invest money based on your responses to questions. Robo-advisors are going to treat everyone equally (and it really isn’t rocket science), so chances are you’ll do what the market dictates, which is usually good over the long haul.

For a limited time TradeKing is giving customers one more reason… $200 in cold, hard cash. It’s their 10-year anniversary and they’re the ones giving out the gifts. You have to open a non-retirement account, put in $3000 and make 3 trades, but I don’t think that’s particularly difficult for $200. If you do the minimum, you get more than a 6.5% return on your investment without even investing.

The promotion isn’t tied to using their robo-advisor. You could open a simple brokerage account and simply invest your money yourself.

Over the years, I’ve opened quite a few brokerage accounts (anyone remember Datek?), but I can’t remember any of them giving me $200. I wish my kids had a little more money to make the minimums, because I’d definitely take advantage of this for them.