(broker review) - Unlike many of the other online brokers E*Trade has not built a customer base through its reputation for superior customer service. E*Trade promotes itself as the low cost alternative to its competitors. In fact, due to its tiered platform, most of its customers are paying more per transaction than some of the other low cost providers.

The amount you trade must meet its volume hurdles to receive preferential pricing. If traders transact fewer trades than 1500 per quarter than the cost per trade increases depending on total account values. E*Trade has constructed a tier system that categorizes its customers from Tier 1 to Tier 4 depending on transaction volume and account balance. For those traders that don't meet volume hurdles some of the tools and research that the company provides to its elite customers may compensate some for the additional transaction costs.

E*Trade was one of the fist online brokers established. Its delivery infrastructure is sound and has led to E*Trade being recognized for service dependability. Dependability is further supported by E*Trade's transaction guarantee. They promise that every trade will be completed in 2 seconds or less. This guarantee is competitive and is only surpassed by Fidelity and Schwab.com that promise at most 1 second per transaction.

Although it has been around longer than many of its competitors, E*Trade has been slow to innovate. The general site that most customers use seems stale and does not provide the customization and features that are commonly found on most brokerage sites. This is not the case from the company's premier product Power E*Trade. Power E*Trade. For those traders that perform at least 30 trades per quarter will be offered the Power E*Trade product. Considered one of the one of the most powerful platforms at any of the online trading sites, it is fully customizable and supplies high quality charting, news, level II quotes, streaming data, and analysis tools. In addition users of this platform receive a support team available to answer any investment related questions. Managed accounts are available for clients whose account balance surpasses minimum hurdles.

E*Trade is not known for its market research. Most of the research given provides little in the form of executable advice but falls into the category of market information and commentary. It does provide some innovative tools for asset allocation and risk assessment at the portfolio level. It is puzzling that a low cost provider that encourages trading volume has spent so much energy developing tools for portfolio management.

In summary E*Trade provides adequate transaction support and a very low cost alternatives to very active traders. Most traders will have to supplement their fundamental and technicalanalysis with third party tools unless they become top tier clients.

Broker Reviews by Better-Trades.com