Traders who make more trades than the ones who don\'t, are more inclined to open an account with E*Trade as the commission decrease with increasing number of trades. However, active traders would find the value for their money, basically from the quality research and excellent trading tools. One thing to keep in mind is that Etrade charges $25 quarterly account maintenance fee if the account balance is less than $5,000 or if the trader executes less than 2 in the last six months. The website provides users with good information and easy navigability.
For more information, browse through our detailed ETrade Reviews below.
What Type of Accounts you can open with E*Trade?
Opening an account is easy and doesn't takes more than 20 minutes to complete the procedure. You would require U.S. Permanent Residential Address, Date of Birth, Social Security number or Tax ID number, and Employer name & address while you are opening an account. E*Trade offers the following types of accounts to start with:
- Complete Investment Account: This is an ideal account for any newbie as well as the experienced traders. The minimum deposit is $500.
- Complete Investment Account [Plus Pro Elite]: This account is for the Elite traders who execute more than 30 trades per quarter, with special benefits and pricing.
- IRA's: Traditional IRA | Roth IRA | Rollover IRA | E*TRADE OneStop Rollover IRA |
In addition to the investment and retirement accounts, E*Trade also has savings accounts for the customers.
E*Trade offers the following selection of investing products:
- Stocks
- Options
- ETF's
- Mutual Funds
- Futures
- Forex
- Bonds & Fixed Income
By offering to Trade all these products at one place, E*Trade has consistently been a good choice for the traders.
E*Trade: Fees & Commissions
E*Trade is not a cheap broker when it comes to charging commissions. Traders who execute less than 150 trades per quarter, the stock and ETF have to pay $9.99 per trade as commissions but for more active traders it drops to $7.99 per trade. The commissions on options is $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract for less than 150 trades per quarter, and $7.99 plus $0.75 (over 150 trades per quarter). If you think that the commissions are on a higher side and you would like to settle down for lower commissions, please visit Cheap Discount Brokers, but E*Trade offers you the value for your money. All trades are flat-fee. E*Trade offers more than 8000 mutual funds with competitive commissions, which run $19.99 per trade.
E*Trade's Platform Performance and Tools
One of the reasons for which the traders choose E*Trade is their good research and excellent platforms. Etrade's third party research reports are from Thomson Reuters, Standard & Poor's, MarketEdge, and SmartConsensus. They provide with the following platforms:
- E*TRADE 360: It is a browser-based platform with good features such as free streaming quotes for all customers. You can view your accounts and performance. This platform enables you you access your accounts, track the markets, and make trades all on the same page.
- E*TRADE Pro:
It is a software-based platform which is only available to the premier traders, who trade at least 30 stock or options trades per quarter or have a portfolio balance of $250,000 to be used for free. Otherwise, Etrade Pro can be accessed for $99 per month. This powerful platform has many powerful tools which help traders to scan markets in seconds and find top performing sectors, industries, and companies. The charts are customizable according to the needs. One of the quality features is the access to Live CNBC4 streaming to keep a track of the market.
- E*TRADE Mobile: The mobile platform enables you to stay connected to the market
at all times.
How good is their Customer Service and Support?
The quality of customer service stands tall and is certainly among the best. Emails are replied quickly with asked information. The phone reps are knowledgeable and answer queries. With more than 30 retail outlets across US, you cane easily make an appointment and visit them.
Education & Training for Traders
E*Trade gives good emphasis on learning. The education resources can be found in the "Education" section on the website. They also have live events like webinars, timings & topics of which are available on the website. Moreover, there are courses on different instruments such as stocks, funds, ETF's on their website which are quite rich in knowledge.
Miscellaneous information about E*Trade
E*Trade was founded in 1991 by William A. Porter and is headquartered in New York. They have more than 4 million customer accounts.
29 October 2012
Does E-trade have a virtual simulator??
01 November 2012
Etrade currently does not have a virtual simulator. If you are looking for a virtual simulator to try out, please look at OptionsHouse or OptionsXpress
27 October 2012
Does ETrade still charge 40 bucks maintenance fee?
27 October 2012
ETrade is no longer charging the maintenance fee. They got rid of that almost two years back
27 October 2012
No ETrade does not charge the maintenance fee anymore. They got rid of that fees almost two years back.
03 June 2010
On Saturday, I received an email from [E*Trade] saying that my order to sell ten contracts was rejected. This order had been in place since May. Since they provide only limited email service on weekends, I called them to inquire where their collective heads were…. The gentleman I spoke with was very polite but had no clue why it had happened. He told me that… I would have to wait until Monday, suffering the consequences if the price I set was reached. I then received two more emails telling me that it would take anywhere from one to four days to discover the problem. Obviously, that was unacceptable. I then started to dig on my own to see if I could determine why it happened. I discovered that the symbol on my portfolio was different from the order symbol. Their system changed it on my portfolio but the trading system obviously does not speak with the portfolio system. I then communicated this to them. The only response was that they were glad that they did not have to make the trade for their book. So much for trust.
03 September 2009
eTrade is excellent for avid investors. They got lot of tools which you can use on day to day basis. For basic investing, I would also recommend checking out Zecco & TradeKing
14 July 2009
Horrible experience. It took about 10 business days just to place my first trade! I had the money ready in my account, I deposited the first day, then they required additional information – Through fax only – faxed the next day and STILL wasn’t able to trade. Finally they "Corrrected" the problem and I can begin trading "Over the next few days" The 100 commission trade is contigent on keeping "$1000 in your account minus any losses for 6 months" I WANTED TO TRY THEM AND NOT USE THEM IF I DIDN’T LIKE THEM… Kept $1,000 tied up for 6 months…