Highly Recommended For
Our Assessment
E*TRADE is a well-established name in the online brokerage world, and for good reason. It provides a broad spectrum of investing options and powerful trading platforms, accessible on their website, desktop application, and through two distinct mobile apps.
E*TRADE performs admirably across all its platforms, but its mobile apps truly stand out. The availability of two dedicated apps enables E*TRADE to serve both novice investors seeking a simplified experience, and experienced traders, including active day traders. Despite their advanced features, E*TRADE’s mobile apps maintain a clean, intuitive interface. This combination is why we’ve ranked E*TRADE as the top online broker for mobile investing.
Editor’s Note
In addition to this analysis of the E*TRADE brokerage, we have also evaluated their automated investment management platform, E*TRADE Core Portfolios.
Overview
E*TRADE has been a prominent player in the brokerage industry since its founding in 1982, consistently adopting innovative solutions to transform the trading landscape. In the early 1990s, E*TRADE was among the first to leverage the internet’s rise to develop and enhance its online platform, solidifying its reputation as a dynamic and powerful trading service. In 2020, Morgan Stanley acquired E*TRADE for a substantial $13 billion.
E*TRADE attracts both newcomers and experienced investors by offering a comprehensive suite of trading tools that remain intuitive and simple to use. The 2020 acquisition further strengthened its robust research capabilities, with Morgan Stanley’s analytical resources now integrated across all E*TRADE platforms.
Users gain access to a wide range of tools to facilitate different forms of trading, including stocks, options, and futures. Investors with a passive approach can benefit from pre-built portfolios and automated portfolio creation tools. It should be noted, however, that the platform currently lacks direct cryptocurrency investment options and trading on international exchanges.
E*TRADE’s educational resources have been upgraded, providing both experienced and new traders with even greater resources to move quickly from research to investment. Users can access E*TRADE through their preferred interface: the website, desktop application, or one of two mobile apps. While the desktop and website platforms offer full trading functionality, the mobile apps cater to various investor experience levels and trading preferences.
Overall, E*TRADE blends a clean, user-friendly design with a comprehensive range of trading features appealing to all types of investors.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Benefits
- Best-in-class mobile apps for both casual investors and active traders.
- Pre-designed and automated investment portfolio alternatives.
- Excellent educational resources for beginner and advanced traders alike.
- Extensive selection of tools and investment information.
Drawbacks
- Lacks access to international stock exchange trading.
- Uninvested cash earns a very low rate of interest.
- Direct cryptocurrency investing is unavailable.
- Limited fractional share purchases outside of robo-advisor or dividend reinvestment.
Advantages In Detail
- Best-in-class mobile apps for investors and traders: E*TRADE’s offering of two mobile apps is a powerful asset that has earned the platform our highest rating for mobile investing and trading. The Power E*TRADE app includes robust options tools that benefited from the OptionsHouse integration in 2016. The standard E*TRADE mobile app is user-friendly and allows investors to conveniently manage their investment accounts from anywhere.
- Pre-built and automated portfolio options: Ready-made and automated portfolio options offer simplified investment strategies, ideal for beginners and hands-off investors. E*TRADE provides automated investing through its Core Portfolios robo-advisors.
- Strong educational content: E*TRADE provides a comprehensive collection of educational materials that addresses numerous trading topics, investment advice, and market analysis. This is neatly categorized into key life stages, such as preparing for retirement and managing family finances.
- Excellent range of tools and resources: E*TRADE offers a wide range of trading resources, research insights, and investment options that enable various investors to execute the strategies they want to implement.
Disadvantages In Detail
- No international exchange trading: E*TRADE does not grant access to foreign stock or foreign exchange markets.
- Low interest rate for uninvested cash: E*TRADE does pay interest on uninvested funds through its cash sweep program, however the interest is very low compared to other platforms. Most users accrue only a negligible amount of interest.
- No direct crypto investing: While E*TRADE offers access to crypto ETFs, it does not enable direct cryptocurrency investing. For those who prefer to invest directly in cryptocurrencies, alternative brokerage platforms are needed.
- Fractional shares only available through a robo-advisor portfolio or dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP): This limited access to fractional shares may restrict optimization of portfolio allocation in a self-directed format.
User Friendliness
E*TRADE’s online brokerage platform is remarkably user-friendly and customizable, providing helpful features and tools across its website, desktop platform, and mobile apps.
The broker offers two distinct web-based platforms: Power E*TRADE and E*TRADE Web. Each has respective mobile app counterparts that emulate the features of their desktop versions, creating a consistent experience across devices.
Beginners and passive investors will enjoy the simplicity of the E*TRADE web version, which provides easy access to portfolio analysis, quotes, and educational materials for constructing a portfolio. Basic screening tools enable filtering for various asset types, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or exchange-traded funds aligned with their investment approach. The top-tier E*TRADE mobile app mirrors these features, while offering watchlist integration across all devices.
Power E*TRADE is a sophisticated platform tailored to experienced traders. It provides extensive screening capabilities, technical analysis tools, and charting capabilities. No minimum balance is required to utilize Power E*TRADE, making it available to all investors, including those with smaller portfolios.
The Power E*TRADE mobile app also offers all the same robust features as the web version. In a space where brokerage apps often overcomplicate with needless additions, E*TRADE has recognized that simplicity is key. The company has streamlined the app by removing underused tools for a more intuitive experience, as highlighted in our online demonstration.
Trading Experience
E*TRADE prioritizes trade experience and offers tools that enable traders of all skill levels to apply strategies that are personalized to their preferences.
Trades can be entered and executed efficiently by selecting an asset, specifying order type, and selecting the desired quantity. Execution status and other trade details can be monitored once the order is confirmed and placed.
The platform also lets users create custom watchlists. You can quickly trade listed securities by clicking the adjacent trade button.
The options trading interface is similarly intuitive. Options traders can select from an array of options strategies from a menu prior to submitting the trade. In addition, new options traders can use the platform to select a strategy based on their risk tolerance.
The Power E*TRADE platform is an easy-to-use tool for stock, options, and futures trades. A trader’s favorite tools can be quickly accessed through a consolidated page that can be personalized. Further emphasizing the role of social media in investor behavior, E*TRADE launched a tool that monitors positive and negative social media trends to identify trade ideas.
Charting tools automatically come pre-loaded with technical analysis, research, and guidance that help investors in their trading analysis. Power E*TRADE’s trade ticket also includes projections of maximum profit and loss.
Market data is delivered in real-time, or may be delayed by 15 minutes. Investors can execute trades directly from charts and choose tax lots from the ticket or portfolio. Various order types such as conditional orders, trailing stops, and stop-limit are supported on any E*TRADE platform.
Mobile Trading Experience
Both the E*TRADE and Power E*TRADE mobile apps are fully customizable and can be tailored to a user’s individual strategy. Their intuitive layout makes them accessible for new users.
The E*TRADE mobile app is geared toward new investors, with features such as watchlists, research, quotes, and account management. Both proprietary and third-party research are provided. Recent updates allow users to view open orders directly from the trade screen.
The Power E*TRADE app includes advanced charting, analysis, and screening features. E*TRADE continues to carry over web version features to the mobile app, such as the Market Depth view that displays bid and ask prices, as well as Level II visualization for stocks, options, and ETFs. Another addition is a Quote Detail screen, which lets users compare companies to quickly analyze key metrics against their main competitors.
Options strategies can also be implemented from the app through an options chain. Charts can be customized in a number of ways. The mobile apps share feature parity with the web versions, and include access to third-party investment research, streaming market news, and watchlists. If you have more than one E*TRADE account, you can switch accounts on your mobile device.
Trading directly from a chart is unavailable, and you cannot draw directly on the mobile app. However, functionality carries over from other platforms. The settings section offers a broad range of trading preferences.
Investment Choices
E*TRADE provides investors with access to a multitude of assets, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, futures, and commodities across all platforms. Trading forex and investing directly in cryptocurrency is not supported, although crypto ETFs can be traded.
In The News
On April 14, 2025, E*TRADE announced the addition of five index mutual funds with no fees. The new funds will be available for E*TRADE clients and managed by Morgan Stanley. These funds do not have minimums, commissions, or expense ratios.
E*TRADE’s asset list is as follows:
- Stocks (both long and short positions)
- OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB)
- Mutual funds (totaling nearly 6,000)
- Bonds (corporate, municipal, Treasury, etc.)
- Futures and Commodities
- Futures Options
- Single-leg and multi-leg options contracts
- Bitcoin and Ethereum futures
- Robo-advisor services
Survey Insight
According to Investopedia’s latest Reader Survey, readers still hold their favorite stocks despite economic concerns.
Order Options
E*TRADE provides a variety of order types, available on the desktop, web, and mobile versions. Investors can input bracketed orders, one-triggers-the-other (OTO) orders, one-cancels-the-other (OCO) orders, and one-triggers-a-one-cancels-the-other (OTOCO) orders. Contingent and OTO orders are supported on the mobile app.
The support for advanced order types is important for managing risk, efficiently entering and exiting positions, and securing gains.
E*TRADE supports standard order types, such as market orders, market on close, limit, stop limit, stop on quote, and trailing stop orders. Tax lots can be specified at the time of trade or from the portfolio.
Trading Platform
Order routing affects trade execution quality. E*TRADE manages routing to balance speed with quality.
E*TRADE uses an advanced smart order routing system to optimize investor trades. The average execution time is 0.15 seconds for S&P 500 and 0.22 seconds for non-S&P 500 performance.
E*TRADE provides a few options for backtesting strategies. A demo account helps you evaluate trading performance under historical conditions. The Options Income Backtester tool lets users analyze returns for income-focused options. Power E*TRADE users can find real-time investment opportunities using the Live Action Scanner. While E*TRADE provides tools to build automated portfolios, ongoing management is left to the user.
Costs
In line with industry trends, E*TRADE fees are competitive.
E*TRADE costs include:
- $0 commission for online stock, ETF, and mutual fund trades.
- Options contracts are $0.65 each, or $0.50 each if more than 30 trades per quarter.
- $6.95 to trade OTC stocks, reduced to $4.95 with 30 or more trades per quarter.
- No mutual fund commissions.
- Margin interest rates range from 13.20% (balances under $10,000) to 11.20% (balances of $250,000 or more) as of April 11, 2025.
- Bond transaction fees are $1 per bond (minimum $10, maximum $250).
- Futures transactions are $1.50 per contract per side plus fees, cryptocurrency futures are $2.50.
- No account closure fee, maintenance fee, or minimum balance.
- Account transfers out of E*TRADE are $25 (partial) or $75 (full).
- $25 for a live broker, waived for extended hours trades placed between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET.
- No fee for incoming wire transfers, $25 for outgoing.
- No fee for check requests.
- Free access to the E*TRADE platforms.
Revenue Generation
Brokerage earnings are not always straightforward. Traditional commissions have been replaced with alternative revenue sources.
- Payment for order flow: E*TRADE receives payment for order flow (PFOF). E*TRADE’s PFOF is $0.0014 per share for equities and $0.39 for options.
- Stock loan programs: Revenue is generated from stock lending to traders shorting the stock. E*TRADE shares stock loan revenue with investors.
- Margin interest: E*TRADE earns income from margin trading interest, with rates ranging from 13.20% to 11.20% (as of April 3, 2025).
Account & Research Tools
E*TRADE offers tools, screening functionality, and research capabilities that support many investment strategies. Stock, mutual fund, ETF, and options screeners are available. Resources are continually improved.
Stock Research
E*TRADE’s Stock Screener is customizable by price/volume, market segment, technicals, metrics, analyst opinions, and earnings/dividends.
The Live Action scanner includes 100+ pre-defined screens to find oversold or overbought stocks.
ETF and Mutual Fund Research
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