What is E-Trade?
E-Trade is a company that provides various services to traders and investors. You might have already heard of this company because it is one of the most well-known online brokerages. You can choose from various account types such as brokerage, retirement and managed portfolios. You can invest in stocks, futures, options, ETFs and much more. It is clear that their aim is to help all types of traders and investors in making the best use of their money.
The founders of this company are William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb. This company was founded in the year 1982, and now, several million people are getting benefit from the brokerage accounts of this company.
Pros
Plenty of features, tools and education: You will never feel like something is missing because this platform provides everything that you need.
Support: Their support is really good. They are willing to provide support through various methods for your convenience.
Mobile Apps: They have two different mobile apps to help you in investing and trading.
Research: They are really good at research, and their research will surely help you a lot if you use it well.
Cons
Higher Commissions: The commissions are not the lowest, but I think that they are fair. You can end up paying lower commissions by trading more.
What does E-Trade offer?
The company has three trading platforms, which are E-Trade Web, Power E-Trade and E-Trade Pro. Let us take a detailed look at them.
E-Trade Web: This is the place where you will buy and sell stocks, options, ETFs and more. The exciting part is that you can do a lot more than just buying and selling. You can get the information you need through streaming real-time quotes, news, charts and daily market commentary. You can get ideas from free independent research or use stock, mutual fund or ETF screeners to generate them.
You can download the E-Trade mobile app to connect with the markets and your accounts wherever you are.
They also provide plenty of education to help you in getting started if you are new to investing. They offer videos, articles, classes, monthly webinars and live events to help you learn the basics and advance to complex trading strategies.
E-Trade Pro: E-Trade Pro is for professional traders, and you need to meet high requirements to have an account. To get access, you need to have $250,000 in assets in your account or make at least 30 trades per month. It will give you access to advanced features such as strategy scanner and back-testing capabilities.
Power E-Trade: Power E-Trade is for making the most of the market opportunities. It has features such as interactive charts, technical pattern recognition, snapshot analysis and live action. I like the fact that it offers plain-English translations of industry jargon. You can download the app if you want to exploit market opportunities even when you are away from your PC.
In addition to the trading platforms, the company also offers the following.
Education: They have a complete educational library to help people in investing and trading. You can access their library for free and explore the topics that you find interesting. Free education is always good especially when it comes from a reliable source such as this one. Obviously, you will learn a lot more when you open an account with them.
Support: They provide various support options. You can visit any of their 30 branches in the country to talk one-on-one with a Financial Consultant. You can chat live with their representative to clear any doubts that you have. If you want to email them or talk to them on the phone, then you can do that as well. I am sure that you will be impressed by the quality of their support.
They offer a lot more like margin trading and prebuilt portfolios.
How much does E-Trade costs?
The prices are really simple. You can find the prices below.
Stocks, Options and ETFs: $6.95 (plus $0.75 per options contract) for 0-29 trades quarterly and $4.95 (plus $0.50 per options contract) for more than 30 trades quarterly
Futures contracts: $1.50
Bonds: $1.00
Mutual Funds: $19.99
You can see the website for more information about any additional fees. I have already covered the major fees above. Remember that you need at least $500 balance to open a standard account.
What do the customers think about E-Trade?
I can’t say that all of the reviews are positive, but most of the people are satisfied with what this online brokerage offers. People are impressed by their features and find their platform easy to use.
Some people are surely concerned about their fees and find them to be higher than the majority of online brokerages. Still, a lot of people choose to stick with this platform because of what they provide.
Who should try E-Trade?
People who are beginners should definitely try this platform because it will help you with education and tools. You need to be willing to pay a higher fee than most online brokerages, but I think it is worth it.
The advantage of this platform is that it will suit all kinds of investors. People who are frequent traders will find this platform quite impressive and even get discounts on their fees.
Final thoughts
When it comes to online brokerages, E-Trade is surely one of the best and the biggest online brokerages. It has been around for several years, and it will be around for a really long-time. They are not only trustworthy but they will exceed your expectations for sure. It would be very hard to find an online brokerage that offers so much.
I recommend them because they are pretty good, especially for beginners. Maybe, people who are looking for the lowest fees won’t like them, but I would still suggest trying them to see if the extra fees are worth it. In the end, the final decision is yours.