E-Trade Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, offers an electronic trading platform to trade financial assets including common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, options, mutual funds, and fixed income investments.
E*TRADE offers value to both beginner investors and frequent traders with a library of educational resources, professional-level trading platforms, and tools to help assemble a risk-appropriate, balanced portfolio. Active traders will appreciate the firm's $0 commission for all stock, ETF and options trades.
The Etrade website is easy to use and is extremely intuitive, making it a great resource for beginners who may be a bit “skiddish” when it comes to investing online for the first time. Users have access to a ton of free trading tools such as Etrade 360, Etrade Pro and Etrade Mobile.
Etrade does not charge monthly or inactivity fees on all of its brokerage or IRA accounts.
For general trading and investing accounts, the E-trade brokerage account and trust and estate accounts require a minimum opening deposit of $500. For active trading accounts, Power E-trade accounts also require a minimum opening deposit of $1,000, while Futures Trading accounts require $10,000.
Pros
Low trading fees (free stock and ETF trading)
User-friendly mobile trading platform
Great research tools
Cons
Slow live chat
Only bank transfer
Only US markets, no forex
Download our free VIP Access app for added security via two-factor authentication. You’ll get a unique six-digit code to enter each time you log on.
How does it work?
Download our free VIP Access mobile app to your device..
Upon launch, it will give you a unique credential ID and six-digit security code.
Follow the prompts to link the app to your E*TRADE account.
The next time you log on to your account:
Open Etrade Login Page
Enter your E*TRADE user ID and password.
Check the box next to “Use security code”.
Enter the six-digit code from your VIP Access app in the Security code field.
Click Log on.
To create a login for the first time, you’ll need to set up an account. The brokerage offers retirement accounts — one example is the E-Trade individual retirement account — as well as investment options such as stocks, futures and exchange-traded funds. Before setting up your E-Trade account, you’ll need the following information handy:
U.S. permanent residential address
Social Security number
Employer’s name and address
Email address
Phone number
Date of birth
Once you have everything set up, logging in is as easy as one, two, three. Simply go to the E-Trade Login website and select the “Log on” link in the upper right corner. You’ll only need your user ID and password.
Should you ever lose your credentials, you can easily reset them by providing your user ID (to retrieve your password) or email address (to retrieve your user ID).
If you continue to have trouble, you can call etrade customer care to try to get in touch with a representative.