Etrade Review

Scroll down to Etrade promotional codes/offers/coupons

Etrade Review 2012: Commissions, Fees and Investment Products

Stocks and ETFs: $9.99 if 0-149 trades per quarter; $7.99 if 150+ trades per quarter
Options: $9.99 plus $0.75/contract if 0-149 trades per quarter; $7.99 plus $0.75/contract if 150+ trades per quarter
Mutual Funds: $19.99
Futures contracts: $2.99 per contract, per side + fees
Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, options, ETFs
Minimum to open Etrade account: $2,000 for margin account. For securities accounts (except retirement accounts), an account minimum deposit of either at least $500 in cash or a deposit of securities is required within 60 days of account opening for the account to remain active. There is no initial minimum deposit requirement for retirement, custodial, or employee stock plan accounts. Accounts not meeting the minimum deposit requirement will be closed after 60 days.
All Etrade fees

Etrade Account Application

Etrade new account online registration is fast (around 10 minutes) and well-organized, though the forms are not as clean-looking as they could be. The company offers Sweep Options (is where your money is held until you invest it) and the default is ETRADE Financial Extended Insurance Sweep Deposit Account (Offers daily interest and FDIC insurance up to $1,250,000). There are also other options but neither of them specify what interest (if any) they offer.

The company gives customers access to free debit card and check writing - a minimum of $1,000 balance is required for that. What we also like, is that right away all documents are set to electronic delivery and there is a $2 fee for each document one chooses to deliver through regular mail - let's not forget about environment.

After we finished application we were given four options for funding an account: wire (1 bus. day), ACH (3 bus. days), check (5 bus. days) and account transfer (8 bus. days). We chose ACH, completed bank information and clicked the button. The message appeared - "You have requested access to a customer-only feature". It looks like an error and is confusing. But when one logs in into their new account, everything is fine - all information has been saved.

The money one deposits through ACH will appear to be available almost immediately - Net Account Value on the main Etrade screen will show them. But in reality they will become available for trading 3 business days later. Etrade customer service representative will also call on that day and offer advice.

After creating account, users could immediately access the website and start exploring its features. Unlike optionsXpress (optionsXpress review), Etrade does not offer virtual/paper trading, so users will have to wait until their money transfer is complete to start trading.

Etrade Website (Etrade.com)/Trading Tools Review

Etrade has 18 powerful trading tools, including:

Chains: all-in-one screen for real-time quotes, intrinsic and time values, and complex spread construction.
Chart PatternsSM: up to twenty stocks ranked by how closely they meet your interests and spending limits.
XpressCharts®: mix and match technical studies until you find a picture that best suits you.
The DragonSM: scan the market for stocks and options that match your chosen criteria.
FleXCharts®: streaming charts let you customize your view of the market.
Xspreads Spread Book: view open spread orders by underlying security, month of expiration and strategy type with the Xspreads Spread Book
StrategyScanSM: strategy that aligns with your investing goals, trading experience and risk level.

Active traders could use Etrade Pro - the firm's direct-access desktop trading platform that lets users find the top performing sectors, industries, and stocks in just 3 clicks. Customers could also watch fully integrated live streaming CNBC right from the desktop.

Etrade offers great mobile applications for customers wanting to trade or access their account from the smart-phone. Among other features, clients can track the markets with streaming real-time quotes, securely buy, sell and place conditional orders with just a few taps.

Trading screens sometimes don't show the updated price of security one is trading and that could lead to less than desired execution price. Make sure to double check the price with some other tool.

Etrade Review: Pros

Very good trading tools
No IRA account fees, no minimums with electronic statements and confirms
Minimum to open: $1,000 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
Banking products: checking, savings, money market accounts, CDs and credit cards
No surcharges on large orders, penny stocks and extended hours trading
Great research amenities

Etrade Review: Cons

High commissions on all investment products
High margin rates
Customer service complaints

Etrade Review Summary

Etrade is one of the best-known online brokerage firms in the country and it is a publicly traded company. The firm offers banking services to its customers, though the interest rates are not as good as with best online banks.

Etrade have lowered its commissions and is now much more reasonably priced than it used to be. The company even canceled the notorious account service fee so many customers complained about.

With Etrade, very active traders could get lower commissions than those who rarely trade. For clients making up to 150 trades per quarter, stock and ETF commission is $9.99 per trade. For anyone making over 150 trades per quarter (not that many investors could do that) commission drops to $7.99 per trade. Options commission is $9.99 plus $0.75 (up to 150 trades per quarter) and $7.99 plus $0.75 (over 150 trades per quarter).

Since there are no IRA, account maintenance and inactivity fees, it makes Etrade a decent option for a brokerage retirement account as well as for "buy-and-hold" investors (provided they rarely trade). But the company was not included in our list of Best IRA Accounts in 2012.

Etrade made a lot of improvements but the only thing we really like about the company are its promotional offers. We encourage investors to research Top Rated Brokerage Firms before making final decision.

We end Etrade review with the list of the company's promotional offers. They are very impressive and most other online brokerage firms could definitely learn a thing or two in this area from the Etrade.