I just signed up for a new online trading account at optionsXpress. I was debating going with ETrade, because they have a great iPhone application, but in the end went with what was recommended to me. I'm quite happy, it's a big one-up from the Scottrade account I had (their interface leaves a lot to desire). The registration process was really nifty, though.

It's two part, they automatically save your progress as you fill out the application. I didn't know this at first and went away from the computer half-way through. I got back and figured, "Well, my session definitely timed out by now," and proceeded to hit cancel. Turns out when I started the registration process over it said that my account name had been taken, which was curious to me since I've never had that problem with my usernames... ever. It was to my utmost delight that they actually had saved my old application, so I just picked up right where I left off. I know this isn't a tremendous deal, a lot of sites do it, but it's rare that I'm ever on a site where the registration process is longer than an OpenId textbox so I appreciated it.

The really cool part, though was the screen asking me to verify that I am in fact myself. There's the traditional route of sending in a picture to them and waiting for weeks which I'm used to, but then there is the other option. I figure they got the information about me from my social security number, but they provided a series of questions that only I or someone extremely close to me could figure out asking about my history and providing an array of radio options for me to select from. The coolest part is they throw curve balls in there of faulty information as well that you have to get around. Pretty nifty.

I've never seen that before, so I thought it was blog worthy. I would've taken screen shots, but it had personal information on it (who knew).