ETRADE vs Tastyworks

2022: Tastyworks versus ETRADE. Compare brokerage fees, options/futures accounts, & stock trading platforms. Which broker is better?

tastyworks vs E*Trade Introduction

Which brokerage house should you select, tastyworks or E*Trade? tastyworks advertises its educational resources, while E*Trade has bank products and robo accounts.

Here’s a more exhaustive assessment:

Cost

Broker Fees	Stock/ETF Commission	Mutual Fund Commission	Options Commission	Maintenance Fee	Annual IRA Fee
Etrade	$0	$19.95	$0.65 per contract	$0	$0
Tastyworks	$0	na	$0.50 per contract	$0	$0

Services

Broker Review	Cost	Investment Products	Trading Tools	Customer Service	Research	Overall Rating
Etrade
Tastyworks

Promotions

E*Trade: Get zero commission on stock and ETF trades.

tastyworks: $0 commissions + $75 for each friend referred with this referral code.

E*Trade Pros and Cons

Investors who choose E*Trade will get many advantages, including these highlights:

- Multiple trading platforms to choose from
- Managed account options in both robo and traditional formats
- Around-the-clock phone service with branch locations
- Excellent fund tools

But there are some downsides:

- Account minimum to use the broker’s desktop platform
- Some mutual funds have early redemption fees

tastyworks Pros and Cons

At tastyworks, investors will find these strengths:

- Low margin rates
- Good pricing for high-volume derivative traders

And these disadvantages:

- Underdeveloped software
- Lack of fund resources
- Limited security analysis tools

1st Category: Tradable Assets

tastyworks and E*Trade differ in many important areas, not least of which is in what can actually be traded. tasty customers can buy and sell these financial vehicles:

Equities on major exchanges
Option contracts
Futures
Options on futures
Closed-end funds
ETFs
Crypto-currencies

Missing at tastyworks are mutual funds and fixed-income securities. E*Trade does offer them, and in fact, the broker-dealer has over 8,600 of them, a very sizable number. E*Trade customers have access to all asset on tastyworks’ list... except one — crypto-currencies. They also get OTC stocks, which are completely absent at tastyworks.

Winner: E*Trade

2nd Category: Computer Platforms

To actually trade the assets the two rival brokers offer, you’ll find multiple software platforms at either firm. At E*Trade, it all begins with a website login that leads to many effective tools, including:

- Nearly full-screen charting with many tools and the ability to save a chart
- Advanced order ticket with several duration options and trade types
- Good IPO section

Traders who don’t find what they’re looking for on the website may find it on Power E*Trade, the company’s very excellent browser system. It offers better charting than the website delivers, plus a very advanced trade ticket.

One step above Power is E*Trade Pro. This is E*Trade’s desktop platform. It does unfortunately carry a $1,000 account balance minimum (and a subscription to real-time quotes, which is free for non-professionals). But it’s worth it because it provides tremendous trading capability with many sophisticated tools, including time & sales data and live streaming of Bloomberg News.

Moving to tastyworks, we get a somewhat scaled-down version of everything we just saw at E*Trade. tasty has a website login, but the website itself has no trading capability. The broker does have a browser platform, but the software just doesn’t have the same resources as Power. For example, Power offers 13 order types, whereas tasty’s browser platform only has 4.

And then we get to tastyworks’ desktop platform. It is largely a replica of the browser system with a similar look and feel. Charting is much improved over the browser platform, where graphs are small with no tools. But Pro’s charts are still much better than anything tasty can deliver.

tastyworks Trading Review

Winner: E*Trade

3rd Category: Day Trading and Swing Trading

Shorting: Both brokers have trade tickets with buttons for selling to open a position. Neither firm has a short locate tool, though.

HTB Stocks: tastyworks shows on its desktop platform if a stock is hard to borrow. Pro does not have this feature. Moreover, E*Trade customers need to enroll to trade hard-to-borrow stocks.

Extended Hours: It’s possible to trade before the opening bell and after the day session ends at either broker in this survey. E*Trade does offer a longer after-hours session. Furthermore, it provides overnight trading in some ETFs.

Etrade versus tastyworks

Level II Quotes: E*Trade has these, but tasty doesn’t.

Direct-Access Routing: You can’t route orders to specific market makers with tasty’s software, but you can with E*Trade Pro.

Routing Fees and Rebates: Maker-taker fees aren’t available at either broker.

Margin: E*Trade offers several margin calculators in multiple locations. These help the user know what the specific requirements are for a given security. tastyworks unfortunately doesn’t provide these tools.

tastyworks' margin rate starts at 8% while E*Trade's is at 10.45%.

Winner: E*Trade

tastyworks vs Etrade

4th Category: Miscellaneous Services

Dividend Reinvestment Program: Available at both firms.

IRAs: Although both broker-dealers have Individual Retirement Accounts, E*Trade offers more IRA types (7 versus 3).

Automatic Mutual Fund Investing: Available at E*Trade, but not at tastyworks.

Winner: E*Trade

Finally, Our Recommendations

ETF and Stock Trading: E*Trade’s website has a very good ETF section with hand-picked funds and good ETF profiles. By comparison, tasty offers far less ETF data. However, tasty has lower margin rates.

Beginners: We pick E*Trade for its 24/7 customer support. We also like its educational materials better than tasty’s. Plus, its software platforms are easier to use than tasty’s.

Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: E*Trade has more retirement account options. For example, it offers a self-employed 401k and a profit-sharing plan, neither of which are available at tastyworks. We also like its financial planning services, which are available for a small fee. To top it all off, E*Trade also has target-date mutual funds, which are completely absent at tasty.

Small Accounts: Small IRAs should go with tastyworks (E*Trade has a $25 fee for early distributions). Taxable accounts will do well at either firm.

Promotions

E*Trade: Get zero commission on stock and ETF trades.

tastyworks: $0 commissions + $75 for each friend referred with this referral code.