Chase Brokerage Review
Chase Bank's brokerage service, called J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing, offers low-cost brokerage
services that attempt to rival competing securities firms. Sometimes J.P. Morgan Investing succeeds,
but other times it falls short.
JPM Investing Pricing and Minimum Deposit
| Investments | Commissions |
|---|
| Stocks and ETFs | $0 |
| Options | $0.65 per contract |
| Mutual funds | $0 |
| U.S. treasury bills, notes and bonds | $0 (secondary trades only) |
|
New Issues (brokered CDs)
|
$0 |
|
Secondary Markets (corporate bonds, municipal bonds, brokered CDs)
|
$10.00 / Trade + $1.00 / Bond Over
10 Bonds ($250 Maximum)
|
| Investments | stocks, mutual funds, money market funds, options, bonds, treasuries, brokered CDs, ETFs |
| Minimum deposit to open an account | $1 to open a self-directed account; $2,000 minimum equity required to trade on margin |
| Fees | Chase brokerage fees |
Bulls Rave About
Zero commissions. It’s not just stocks and ETFs here. Mutual funds, money market funds, and Treasuries can also be traded online for $0 commissions, while options have a $0.65 per-contract fee.
Account linking. One login is all it takes.
Bears Rave About
Lack of built-in cash management tools. Surprising, given the broker’s relationship with the J.P. Morgan family of companies.
No robo option. There is no robo-advisor service inside Self-Directed Investing.
Elementary software. Definitely time for an upgrade.
Chase Brokerage Investments
The Chase brokerage accounts have no minimum deposit requirement and cost nothing to open. They also offer a solid list of investment vehicles. Besides exchange-traded funds, there are mutual funds, money market funds, stocks, options, Treasuries, and bonds.
Most trades inside a Chase brokerage account have no online commissions, although there are a few exceptions. Option trades have a per-contract fee of 65 cents, while some secondary-market bonds cost $1 per bond with a $10 minimum and $250 maximum. Mutual funds offered through J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing have no loads and no online transaction fees.
There are no flat annual fees on the standard self-directed brokerage and IRA accounts. A joint or individual account can be opened in taxable mode.
J.P. Morgan Investing does not offer annuities, futures, forex, or direct cryptocurrency trading.
Some account types are also missing, including custodial accounts.
Retirement Choices
Besides taxable accounts, J.P. Morgan also offers Individual Retirement Accounts. For Self-Directed Investing, the currently available IRA types are Traditional and Roth. SEP, SIMPLE, inherited, and custodial IRA options are not available in the self-directed lineup.
Investors will find target-date mutual funds from several fund families, including Fidelity and T. Rowe Price.
J.P. Morgan Investing charges $75 to close or fully transfer out an IRA.
Margin Borrowing
J.P. Morgan Investing does offer margin accounts. Their margin rates are tiered:
|
Debit Balance
|
J.P. Morgan Margin Rates
|
|
$0.01 - $4,999
|
11.5%
|
|
$5,000 - $9,999
|
11.5%
|
|
$10,000 - $24,999
|
11.5%
|
|
$25,000 - $49,999
|
11.25%
|
|
$50,000 - $99,999
|
10.75%
|
|
$100,000 - $499,999
|
10.5%
|
|
$500,000 - $999,999
|
9.75%
|
|
$1,000,001 - $3,000,000
|
9.25%
|
Banking Tools
Another weak point for J.P. Morgan Investing is, quite surprisingly, cash management. A J.P. Morgan Investing account does not come with built-in checkwriting or a debit card, which puts it at a disadvantage versus many brokerage firms.
The J.P. Morgan Investing website, which is the same site that Chase Bank customers use, does have an ACH transfer tool. It can set up repeat transfers, one of the few highlights in this category.
Thanks to the relationship between Chase Bank and J.P. Morgan Investing, a checking or savings account with the banking arm can easily be linked on the website. In many cases, this is done automatically. The downside is that these deposit accounts are not especially competitive when compared with the cash-management features at some brokerage firms. Chase Bank accounts, for example, can still have fees, which many brokerage houses have eliminated.
Website
Speaking of the website, we found it easy to use, although there are no major trading tools to report on.
The Accounts tab is a good place to start if you have multiple accounts with the company. Deposit accounts, credit cards, and brokerage accounts will be listed here.
The Investments tab is where the brokerage activity takes place. Clicking on the tab produces a drop-down window with many choices. Under the Trade section, there are several order tickets.
The order ticket for equities offers 4 trade types: market, limit, stop, and stop limit. Limit orders have 5 duration choices, including on the open and on the close.
Charts on the J.P. Morgan Investing site are fairly simple. On a security’s profile, a chart has only one format (line) and no tools. Thirty years of price history can be displayed, though.
On a chart next to the timeframe choices, there is an expand icon. Clicking it generates a new page with several widgets. These include technical indicators, drawing tools, and multiple plot styles.
The website has a watchlist, but alerts are missing.
Mobile App
As with the website, J.P. Morgan Investing uses the same mobile app that Chase Bank customers use. This creates a great convenience because multiple accounts can be accessed with a single login. Touch ID is available on Apple devices.
After logging into the app, there are two tabs: one for business and the other for personal. Business accounts, if any, will obviously be found on the business side, and personal accounts will be on the personal side. Since all J.P. Morgan Investing accounts are personal, that’s where we need to go.
On the personal side, there are lots of useful tools. Zelle transfers are available from bank accounts only. There is also a mobile check deposit tool, which is also limited to Chase bank accounts.
On to actual investment tools, the order form is the same basic one that appears on the website with the same duration options and order types. Asset profiles have the same information from the website profiles with the same general format.
A chart cannot be displayed horizontally, which we consider a major blunder. Nevertheless, some charting tools can still be used on a mobile graph.
The watchlist from the website will also be found on the mobile app, synced with the same positions. It’s possible to edit the watchlist on the mobile app and change the view.
Other Software
J.P. Morgan Investing does not have a desktop platform, smartwatch app,
or browser-based trading platform.
Options Trading
Call and put contracts can be traded either on the website or the mobile app. We did not find advanced options tools.
J.P. Morgan Investing also does not have many advanced derivative tools. During our investigation, we did not find profit-loss diagrams, an options screener, a volatility calculator, Greek values, or other professional-level option widgets.
To trade a call or put contract on the website, click on the Investments tab in the top menu and then select Options underneath the Trade section. This will pull up the options trade ticket. Enter the ticker symbol and then fill in the parameters.
On the website, it’s also possible to pull up option chains on a security’s profile. Just click on the Options chain link. Clicking on a bid, ask, or midpoint price will produce a drop-down menu for order entry or exit.
On the mobile app, there is no Investments tab, so the second method just described is the way contracts are traded. Tap instead of click. The format is the same.
Chase Brokerage Commissions and Fees
Every new account with J.P. Morgan Chase comes with $0 online commissions on stocks, mutual funds, money market funds, ETFs, and Treasuries. Options are
$0.65 per contract.
J.P. Morgan Chase charges nothing for online U.S. Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. For primary issues of corporate bonds, munis, brokered CDs, and government agency debt, there is a markup or markdown, but no commissions. On the secondary market, it’s $1 per bond with a $10 minimum and $250 maximum.
J.P. Morgan charges $75 to transfer out a
brokerage account or to close or transfer out a retirement account. There are no annual fees on standard self-directed accounts.
Customer Support
Chase brokerage clients can reach a customer service associate over the phone Monday through Friday from 8:00 am until 9:00 pm ET, and Saturday from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm ET. The phone number is (800) 392-5749.
Although there are branch locations that service J.P. Morgan advisor-led wealth management accounts, these offices are not designed around self-directed brokerage support. They can answer some general questions, but support is more limited than at a traditional branch-based brokerage.
On the J.P. Morgan Investing website, there is an internal messaging widget, which creates a way to reach out to the broker outside phone hours. The mobile app has the same tool. There is no live chat feature on either platform.
Mutual and Exchange Traded Funds
Both the website and the mobile app have screeners for ETFs and mutual funds. The search criteria are similar on both platforms. Examples include:
- Morningstar style boxes and ratings
- Fees and management
- Return history
- 30-day SEC yield
- Fund family
- Socially responsible fund
Scrolling through the results is easy on either platform. Results can be sorted by the original criteria chosen and by several other pre-installed choices. These include net expense ratio and fund category.
Profiles for funds have a decent amount of information on them. Mutual fund profiles have graphs that can be toggled between NAV history and growth of $10,000.
Morningstar style boxes and ratings are both shown. We did not find other ratings from groups like Lipper. We also did not find research reports.
Return histories, both unadjusted and load-adjusted, are shown in bar-chart format. Other details, like expense ratio and dividend yield, are displayed.
Portfolio composition is broken down into a pie chart with details on geography and top 10 holdings.
J.P. Morgan customers have access to thousands of mutual funds with no loads and no online transaction fees.
Research and Education
Although security profiles don’t have as much information on them as we would like to see, J.P. Morgan Investing does put noticeable emphasis on investment education. Both the website and mobile app have many articles and market news items on a variety of topics.
There are also videos with transcripts on a variety of topics, including retirement and how to avoid financial fraud.
J.P. Morgan Investing sends out several e-newsletters.
Miscellaneous Services
Fractional Shares: Stocks and ETFs can be traded in fractional shares starting at $5.
DRIP Availability: Dividend reinvesting is available free of charge.
Initial Public Offerings: IPOs will not be found at J.P. Morgan Investing.
Extended Hours Trading: Only the regular market hours are available.
Periodic Mutual Fund Investing: Recurring purchases of mutual fund shares can be set up on autopilot.
Our Recommendations
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: J.P. Morgan Investing has a decent selection of
target-date mutual funds. But with only two self-directed IRA options, it falls short of the broader retirement lineups at larger brokers. We would go with
Charles Schwab, which has
more account types and tools.
Beginning Investors: There are several other options out there that we think
would be better, including
Robinhood.
Small Accounts: J.P. Morgan Investing is attractive due to the lack of commissions and account minimums.
Mutual Funds: With thousands of mutual funds, Chase brokerage is decent, although other firms offer larger fund supermarkets.
Active ETF and Stock Trading: Without a strong trading platform, J.P. Morgan Investing doesn’t
quite seem up to the task. We like Charles Schwab
much better, which has an advanced desktop program and fractional-share trading.
Chase Brokerage Review Recap
J.P. Morgan Investing has done a decent job rolling out low-cost brokerage accounts. Nevertheless, we
expect much more from such a large financial conglomerate, which underperforms smaller companies in many areas.
Updated on 3/26/2026.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
|