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Etrade review 2010: good service, but high commissions and annoying maintenance fee
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- 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 account: $1000
- All Etrade fees
Etrade new account registration is fast and well-organized. After creating account, users could immediately log in
into the website and start exploring its features. Unlike
Zecco,
Etrade does not offer virtual/paper trading, so users will have to wait until their money transfer is complete to
start trading.
Etrade.com Trading Tools Review
With Etrade, active traders could get lower commissions and more advanced trading tools than those who rarely trade.
Etrade Complete Investment account is automatically upgraded to a
Power Etrade account, if user makes at least 10 trades a month, or a minimum of 30 stock or options trades
a quarter. Clients then have the features of the Power Etrade
available for as long as this trading frequency is maintained. Power Etrade is
fully customizable desktop trading software which includes free access to powerful
trading tools, advanced charts, technical studies, scanners and analytics tools.
- 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
- High commissions
- Extra $0.015 per share will apply to that portion of the order that exceeds 2,000 shares
- $40 Account Service Fee might be charged each quarter in some instances
- Very high margin rates
- IRA premature distributions: $25
Etrade Review Summary
Etrade is one of the best-known online brokerages 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 is more expensive than most other
discount stock brokers we reviewed.
Because of high trading costs and Account Service Fee, Etrade is not a good
brokerage for small and medium investors.
If one doesn't have at least $50,000 account balance or make at least 150 trades per quarter, than it's going
to be expensive to invest with Etrade.
The firm has a surcharge of $0.015 per share for all shares above 2,000. That makes Etrade unacceptable
for buying penny stocks and for large-size orders. Clients with margin accounts will be disappointed with the
firm's higher than average margin rates.
Etrade was named one of the three Most Expensive (highest cost) Brokerages For Occasional Trader by Barron's magazine in 2010.
Due to high costs the firm is not as attractive as many other
discount brokerage companies in the industry.
Etrade Promotional Code: none right now:
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