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ETrade Review

You have probably heard of Etrade, they have been around a long time and currently claim to have over 4.5 million accounts and $100 billion in customer assets.

To start off this ETrade review let's first look at the trading fees:

Their fee structure is quite easy to understand, they charge $9.99 per stock trade or $7.99 if you make more than 150 trades in a quarter. There's a fee of 75 cents for options contracts. These prices are fairly completive.

Broker assisted trading

If you are looking to make broker assisted trades (trades over the phone), Etrade is absolutely NOT the broker for you. They clearly do want to do business with you this way as they charge a staggering $54.99, more than five times as much as an online trade.

100 FREE Trades

As an incentive to get new clients, Etrade,ETrade are currently offering a promotion offering up to 100 free stock trades. Basically, the number of paid stock trades you make in the first 30 days of opening your account, you get that same number of stock trades free, up to 100. You are also required to open an account with at least $1,000. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Support

I have dealt with the support online and over the phone. When getting support online I was put in a queue for about five minutes which was a little annoying. The same was true when I tried to get support over the phone. However, once it was my turn, I spoke to a friendly knowledgeable individual who was able to help with my query.

Mobile Trading

One thing I do like about ETrade is they have an Iphone and Blackberry app, so you can execute and check on your trades easily whilst on the move.

International Customers

Unlike many brokers, Etrade welcomes international traders. ETrade have offices in many countries in the world including US, Canada, UK and Australia.

Awards

Etrade have won some prestigious brokerage awards:

Smart Money (Wall Street Journal) rated them as:

#1 Online Broker in 2007 and 2008.

5 Stars for Trading Tools, Mutual Funds and Investing Products, Banking Services.

4 Stars for Customer Service, Research

Barons have award them:

Barron’s gave them 4 out of 5 stars in 2008 and rated them in the top 10 in their 2008 online brokers survey.

Penny Stocks

I've never personally traded penny stocks with Etrade. However, I asked their support team and they informed me that there is no additional fees associated with buying penny stocks.

Conclusion

There are many things I like about Etrade,. The fees are very reasonable, there are no inactivity fees and they have a great promotion for new clients.

As well as stock trading, they also offer many other financial instructions on the same platform including forex and futures.

One downside is they do not currently offer virtual trading and some of their competitors like Zecco and Tradeking offer cheaper trading.

Click here to open an account with Etrade