History

• eTrade was an early adopter of Internet technology. The company was founded in 1991 to provide an online trading platform for personal investors delivered through the early Internet service providers of the day. The company made deals with providers such as America Online, Prodigy and Compuserve to allow online trading execution from home. It grew rapidly, particularly as relatively higher speed Internet connections became more common in homes. It helped to spark trading volumes in the mid-1990s that far exceeded anything that had been seen in the past.
  
  

Function

• eTrade charges for trades depending on the number of shares exchanged. Traders who move in higher volumes get far better value, making it far more appealing to larger investors. Small investors can end up spending substantial amounts of their funds just on fees, as opposed to the larger customers that are only spending tiny percentages of their total trading volume on making transactions. This can make it relatively challenging for small customers to get ahead when they use eTrade.
  
  

Features

• One advantage of eTrade--particularly for new investors--is the amount of information arrayed for each security available to investors. You can check out detailed information about individual securities that is built right into the trading interface. Independent analysis from a variety of sources is there, providing buy, sell and hold indicators as a great starting point for beginning investor research.
  
  

Effects

• eTrade also provides connections to their own licensed brokers, allowing either people who are not certain about their decisions or those transitioning from a more traditional broker relationship to ease into the new trading environment. They also offer no-fee mutual funds that many investors will find appealing. Traders can choose among many funds and trade them in any volume that they like.
  
  

Considerations

• For smart phone users, eTrade also offers mobile trading. Signing up for an account through eTrade gets all new users 100 free stock and option trades. The service also comes packed with investment calculation tools for more convenience. They have an investing optimizer graph that allows you to see the visual allocation of your entire portfolio with a single click. Rather than fiddling with complex software, eTrade gives you everything you need in a single package.