How to get promotional $5 per trade rate from TD Ameritrade?

I am receiving questions from our blog subscribers re best brokerage to use for penny stock trading. There is tons of comparison information, reviews, analysis, etc. And it all depends on what tools you are using, frequency of trading and personal preferences. I personally believe that TD Ameritrade offers really good service at a decent price, especially if we consider only long trading of penny stocks. $9.99 per trade is not bad at all, however, there are ways to reduce it even further and make it super attractive - $5 per trade. Sounds good? At least I know 2 ways how to get it and here is how it works.

Option 1. Sign up for Cool-trade robot trading. Cool-trade robot fee is $49.99 per month. Even if you don't use cool-trade robot, you are eligible for $5 per trade promotional from TD Ameritrade.

Here is the link with details: http://www.cool-trade.com/partners/tda.asp.
Step 1: Sign up for Cool-trade for $49.99 per month: link
Step 2: Using this link, open account with TDA and get $5 per trade: link (you may try to use a regular TDA Open Account link, but I am not sure it will automatically code your new account for $5 per trade. Check with TDA and Cool-trade customer support)
Step 3: Call TDA customer support to make sure your account is coded for $5 per trade (just to verify)
Step 4: Enjoy great $5 per trade promotional price from TDA.
If you are concerned that this offer works only for the first 12 months - you just need to open a new account with TDA a year later :) You understand my point, right?
By the way, Cool-trade robot is a really good tool to use. Even if you don't use it in real trading, real time market backtesting they offer is unique. Basically, this option is how to get $5 per trade from TDA by paying only $49.99 per month (just for the price of 5 one-way trades per months with the regular $9.99 pricing) + you get great real time backtesting robot for free!
And another interesting piece of information for super savers. Here is what I found on official TDA website: "CoolTrade offers a 20% discount off the monthly subscription for TD Ameritrade clients." link. So what it means - save another $9.99 per month, now with Cool-trade, after signing up for for TDA and get Cool-trade robot for just $39.99. So, lets add another step in our sequence:
Step 5: Call Cool-trade customer support and request 20% discount for being TDA customer ($39.99 per month)

Quick calculation of annual savings, for example, for an imaginary trader (us) using our Pennystocks100 strategy in 2010:
2 trades per day on average. x 252 trading days (in 2010) = 504 trades
Regular $9.99 per trade each way, means $19.98 two-way
Annual REGULAR transaction cost of trading with TDA = 504 x 19.98 =$10,070
Annual PROMOTIONAL ($5/trade) transaction cost of trading with TDA = 504 x 10 + (39.99 x 12) = $5,520
Net savings = $10,070 - $5.520 = $4.550 per year.
Imagine your trading account is $50K. Saving 4,550 per year, means increasing your annual return by +9%! Isn't it cool? (Thanks to Cool-trade robot ;-)

Option 2. Even cheaper than the 1st one, but without a cool automated robot
- Download and register for free "Quote tracker"

Here is the link:  http://www.quotetracker.com/registration.shtml
Step 1: Download Quote tracker for free: link
Step 2: Open a new account with TDA (follow regular TDA open account path)
Step 3: Register Quote tracker (read Set-up instructions carefully): link
Step 4: Verify your new $5 per trade price with TDA by calling to customer support.

Enjoy!

By the way, savings with the later option would be $480 per year larger than with Cool-trade option... but without a real time backtesting robot...

Anyway, hope you found this info helpful.
If someone knows other great ways how to save money on trading transaction costs with TDA or any other brokerage, please share with us in your comments below. Thanks in advance!