ETrade reviews, ratings, pros and cons, complaints from brokerage customers

ETrade Ratings

ETrade average user rating: brokerage firms reviews

ETrade BrokerageReviews.org rating: 3-star brokerage firm rating

ETrade Review: Stocks, ETFs & Options Trading Commissions

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

Minimum To Open ETrade Online Brokerage Account

For general trading and investing accounts, the eTrade Complete Investment, investment club, and trust and estate accounts require a minimum opening deposit of $1000. For active trading accounts, Power eTrade accounts also require a minimum opening deposit of $1000, while Futures Trading accounts require $10,000. There is no minimum balance to open most individual retirement accounts (IRAs) or educational accounts. However, IRA CDs require a minimum opening balance of $1000. For banking accounts, there is a $1 minimum to open a Complete Savings account. Money market and Max-Rate or e-Trade Checking accounts require at least $100. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) require at least $1000.

ETrade Promotional Code/Offer/Bonus 2012

ETrade Reviews


by countdowne, 11/22/2011 Pros: Cons: I am not a US resident and have been an ETrade customer since 1997, actively trading the US stock market (both ways) since then. Couldn't be more satisfied, best broker by far, extremely fast executions, great tools, customer service has improved A LOT lately, etc. I just can't understand why their own stock (ETFC) languishes the way it does. It used to be a very hot stock, and could double or triple easily.
by techvstr, 10/17/2011 Pros: Plenty of tools, Cons: higher cost of trading, little incentive to fund acct, no promotions for loyal customers Makes more sense to move cash into new/other accounts to take advantage of 100's of free trades. Why would I fund my etrade acct? There is no incentive.
by brokerage-review.com, 5/8/2011 Pros: Very good trading tools Cons: High commissions on all investment products With Etrade, 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 commission drops to $7.99 per trade. Options commission is $9.99 plus $0.75 (up to 150 trades) and $7.99 plus $0.75 (over 150 trades). Read full review at Etrade review.
by Sojournor01, 2/8/2011 Pros: None Cons: Eventhough they say you can, they won't let you trade options! I've been an etrade customer for about 15 years, and just recently I wanted to start trading options. But etrade will not let me. They've approved me for options level 1 which doesn't even allow me to purchase a standard call option contract. No rhyme or reason why. I can only suspect it's account value of less than $100K. I think its discriminatory practices. I've applied for 3 of my accounts now and each time I filled out their application differently, and even after seeking advice from a customer service rep...but still they keep turning down my application for level 2 Options. DO NOT believe them when they say you Can trade options through your etrade account!!!!!!! I'm now shopping for a new online broker.
by WaveRider, 2/2/2011 Pros: Trading platform (Etrade Pro). Cons: Equity trade prices could be lower. Not as much inventory to short compared to other firms. I've been with Etrade for 10+ years. For the last 1.5 years I've been a day trader. I really like using Etrade Pro because of its easily customizable charts (no ticks though) and their clean look. I've played around with Ameritrade's and ThinkorSwim's platforms; while they may have more bells and whistles, they're not as user friendly or clean looking (but of course I could trade with them if I had to). When day trading, simplicity is key for me; I need the few analytical tools that work for me, and I need them in the cleanest viewable way possible. Order execution is another important matter for trading. In my 200+ trades, I haven't encountered problems in this area; when I'm ready to move, I enter a limit order at the ask (I want to get filled now) and if it's still at the top of the order book I get filled. When I've used market orders, my fills have been almost instantaneous (and at a price at the top of the order book, unless prices are shooting up or down, so I've never felt cheated). You never know how good/bad a brokerage firm is until you have a problem. I haven't had this experience yet, so I can't say how Etrade would react. My guess, unless I had absolute proof that they were negligent about something, I would get the short end of the stick. I think this applies to most, if not all, brokerage firms. It would be nice if Etrade had lower equity trade prices. They moved down to $9.99, but $7.99 (regardless of the number of previous trades) would be more competitive. It also would be nice if they had a higher inventory of stocks to short. Many times I've wanted to short an equity or etf and couldn't because of a lack of inventory (not price). Out of curiosity, usually I'll call Ameritrade to see if I could have shorted there; almost always I could have. If you're an investor, looking to buy and hold for a few days, months, or years, any major discount brokerage firm will get the job done. However, if you're into day trading ($25K account minimum) Etrade Pro works very well for me; it's my preference over the others I've tried.
by jody whittel, 12/3/2010 Pros: none - they're horrible Cons: the representatives are foreign and rattle on and on they don't help you like ameritrade's american reps do on the phone, they're very unskilled and very robot-like. i hate that! changing back to ameritrade asap.
by cyndi whitely, 12/3/2010 Pros: None they suck Cons: etrade 60 days free trades my ass etrade said they'd refund within 2 weeks the trade fees on my new account, well it's over 2 weeks and no refunds at all....I'm changing back to ameritrade. they suck bad - also your money won't be settled in your account after selling a stock until 3 days or so, ameritrade it's instant and you can go onto the other stock you want to buy asap
by gone4ever, 11/24/2010 Pros: Cons: Etrade refused to grant me full option access even though I am an experience option trader (I had 2 other brokers with full option access and had been very active with those two). Not sure what is the deal with them. I was one of the first customers since 1999. Their fee is too expensive for what they can offer, and watch out they will charge you an inactivities fee. I am looking for another broker to transfer my account out.
by mikrobson, 7/16/2010 Pros: Cons: E-Trade completely BLOWS! I am SOOO pissed about the way they do business! They DO NOT deserve even the single star thata is required...BOOOO HISSSS They SUCK! YUCK! STAY AWAY! First, DO NOT BELIEVE THE ADS ABOUT 100 FREE TRADES ---- IT'S A COMPLETE LIE!!! I have argued with many people there about it (non of whom are Americans or even speak decent English!), and they will not honor the terms of what originally brought me to them...the 100 "Free" trades...it's complete crap! They should be sued and somebody needs to file a claim with the FTC for false advertisement! I NEVER got a single trade for free, and I started my account with $5000, and it currently has over $20k in it that they will soon be loosing! I smell Class Action Law Suite! Anyone game for that? Second, their REDICULOUS policy of holding MY money hostage for 4 business days if FREAKING INSANE!! I was going to buy 500 shares of Microsoft at $16+, but they are still hold my money, and it's now almost at $20!!! That's almost $2000 that I am losing because the bastards are pirating MY money! By the time it clears, the stock will most likely be well over $20 and I wil have lost the difference! And last, the theiving Cyber Thugs that they are now want to charge me an additional $60 to transfer my funds away from them to take it to an Ameritrade account. Personally, 60 bucks is a small price to pay in order to be able to use MY money when I want too! Hang 'em all, I say! Screw them! The strength of capitalism is still alive and well, and if enough people defect from these scamming, lieing, caniving E-Bastards, then they will hopefully go the way of the DoDo Bird...but hopefully WITHOUT MY MONEY!!!
by grrrrr, 6/11/2010 Pros: Cons: If you are still using E-trade out of inertia, I encourage you to shop around. I know they were the first online brokerage and I was an early customer and fan, but I left a long time ago. They are not competitive anymore on price, usability, or analysis tools. A friend asked me to maintain his account for a while, and I found the site to be cluttered and awkward. There were several pricing levels and I noticed the trades were so expensive compared to what I was using! There are so many better discount brokers out there now. Zecco offers much cheaper trades if you just want to trade alot. I find their site kind of buggy and unreliable though, and their reports leave much to be desired, which is unfortunate because someone probably wants to trade a lot if they use zecco, and that means lots of information to be organized. Scottrade offers reasonably cheap trades, no surprise fees, basic customer service, but you are limited in doing more complex things. They offer very limited features for trading options. Their website is very straightforward and easy to use. Their flat rate pricing is very easy to understand. I recommend them for all beginners in trading. Fidelity is all right if you have significant sums of money and want to do simple trades and analysis. They have very good customer service for a discount broker, and physical locations, which is extremely helpful if you need to occasionally see someone live to sign papers and notarized statements. Their website is easy to use. The reporting features are good. The ATP desktop trading platform is functional, but difficult to set up and start using. The interface is clunky and unorganized. You spend lots of time trying to figure out where everything is for what you want to do. If you want to hold long term low fee mutual funds, definitely go with Vanguard. That is what they do best. However, recently I have noticed their customer service is not as knowledgeable or helpful. Last year I opened up an account with Thinkorswim, and find them to be the best experience by far, if you are an experienced trader. Their java desktop platform is vastly better and faster than Fidelity's ATP and makes ATP look like the clunky Windows program that it is. Thinkorswim's web interface is awkward and confusing (I only use it to check on my account if away from home), but I only use their desktop trading platform, which I find to be easily the best interface I have seen for desktop trading, compared to ATP and Scottrade's. It's very easy to set up and all the information is neatly organized, and where you'd think they should be. I can trade FX, options, futures. They also allow some options trading in retirement accounts, which was a major reason I wanted to switch to them. Their prices are extremely competitve, especially for single options ($3 compared to ETrade's $10 !!!!) They have great customer service too.
by darrenb, 5/16/2010 Pros: Cons: I've used E-trade for several years. Started with trading (just a few trades a year), and then IRA, and banking. They've always been very gracious on the phone when I had questions. The site has everything in one place, but visually is looking a bit dated (that's why I deleted a star). In summary, I've been moving more and more accounts to E-trade for convenience and because I'm happy with them. Just a note. I see a lot of single stars here. Two of those reviewers misspelled the word "ridiculous"the same way ("rediculous" and "rediculously"). Could be real reviews, but it smells a little fishy to me.
by bigpig, 4/29/2010 Pros: Cons: Severe problems with frozen platform for the last 3 months making the brokerage platform unusable for a trader. You can blindly enter orders on the website if your a swing trader. Once your frozen then you must do a POWER shutdown of your computer where you hold down the on/off switch for 5 seconds and it shuts everything down>>then reboot and re-login
by RobIsMad, 4/10/2010 Pros: Cons: I think Minus ***** would be more like it. I used to own a business and if I had treated my customers like E Trade treats theirs I would have failed. In Feb 2009, E Trade sold all my stocks, at a loss of $9,862.00, to satisfy $240.00 in “Maintenance fees”, without my permission or giving me any prior notice. I did not buy these on Margin either! I'm so mad I created a web site at etradesoldmystocksandkeptthemoney dot com to help spread the word about it. I even provided screen captures of my account and the emails I got as evidence of their corrupt policy.
by lowhangingfruit, 3/17/2010 Pros: Cons: Commissions are way to much. As far as transferring money to them they won't post the money to your account until they sit on it for 4 to 6 days. I have tried to work with ETRADE 3 times now. I went to them this last time because they offered me a special commission rate for returning traders. Each time they have let me down whether it was the platform freezing, executing trades that were not supposed to be filled (that one cost me $500) and now not being honorable enough to to honor their agreement on the availability of funds. When it says fund available after 4 business from time request was received, that should not mean 6 days. It is a great site if you do not trade much and don't mind being lied to.
by KINGOFSHORTS, 2/27/2010 Pros: Cons: Real fast, handles high volume days. Easy to customize and tailor the system for my use. Never lost feed or had problems with connectivity, pretty robust in reconnecting if I have a circuit problem on my line. Tech support responsive on questions. I like the platform and reliability and good fills are real important for me. I do lots of options trading on the platform.
by Muller, 2/4/2010 Pros: Cons: They advertise this platform like a computer game. This was my very first "direct access" platform back in 1999/2000 when I was a rookie trader. And it totally felt like playing a game "beating wall street". This program downloads from the internet everytime you open it, it's not installed on your harddisk. Order entries were quite okay, and the fills were quick too. Their technical analysis tools are really just toys. Back then their commissions was at 19.99 for a trade. Then you could work your way down to 9.99 if you made 500 or more trades per month. Each month I got a huge refund from ETrade which was quite sweet. Today they're starting right off with 9.99, and you work your way down to 7.99, which is still way too much if you're a serious and active trader. It's newbie toy. Don't use it if you want to make a living as a trader.
by mavericktrader, 1/3/2010 Pros: Cons: Good for the retail trader. Commissions are high for a professional though.

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ETrade reviewed by BrokerageReview.org users. 17 customer reviews. Rating: 3.

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