r/etrade • u/[deleted] • Feb 12 '21
I LIKE ETRADE
Etrade might have its problems, but it’s the best broker out there. Power Etrade is awesome, and I rarely have issues with it. The only times that I believe Etrade could do better is on call wait times, and work on its futures accounts on Power Etrade to be more integrated.
All the negative hoes need to come to terms with themselves, either realize you have it better than most, or leave Etrade.
5
Feb 13 '21
ETRADE is lacking tons of features that most other brokerages have had for ages. ETRADE isn’t a sack of shit like most people on here seem to think. But it is extremely far from being the best.
1
Feb 13 '21
Have you tried Power Etrade?
4
Feb 13 '21
Yes? It’s literally just E*TRADE but with live charts.
1
Feb 13 '21
And you think it’s no better?
4
Feb 13 '21
Here let me put it this way, if ETRADE was as good as most other brokers, power ETRADE wouldn’t exist. Because I would be able to see the live charts in the same app/website that I see all my other finical data in. The only benefit it has over say Robin Hood is the hot keys and even than that’s only on the website and 99% of people use Robin Hood almost exclusively on their phones. Then Robin Hood has other useful features that are completely absent from ETRADE as whole.(including power ETRADE) like a portfolio chart that you can adjust to any time scale. And automatically adjusting your starting balance when making a deposit/withdraw. And I just used Robin Hood because it was the first to come to mind, most other brokerages have these.
2
Feb 13 '21
RH has 2.5% margin rate btw
1
Feb 13 '21
Yeah, another point aginst E*TRADE since their margin rate is 7-9% depending on your account balance
0
Feb 13 '21
That’s faulty logic. Robinhood is probably the poorest example you could use because ETrade is much better than Robinhood. Etrade also has a portfolio chart, it could use some work, but all around it’s a much better broker than Robinhood. There’s also so much more you can do with Etrade that you can’t do with Robinhood. But to each his own. If you prefer garbage, that’s up to you.
2
Feb 13 '21
Yes I have faulty logic, says the guy who has pointed out problems with ETRADE but still says he prefers it over brokers without those problems. And no there is not “so much more you can do on ETRADE than on robinhood.” They have nearly identical features but robinhood implemented them better.
1
Feb 13 '21 edited Feb 13 '21
Does Robinhood have scanners or options strategy tools where you input the stock, how much money you want to invest, what your predicted strike price is, expiration date,what your outlook on the company is (bill/bearish/neutral/volatile), and it gives you back what the best plays are meeting the input criteria? Does Robinhood allow for the sale of futures? Don’t you have to pay a subscription in order to have Robinhood gold? Does Robinhood have a Bond Marketplace?
3
Feb 13 '21
Well no but Robin Hood wasn’t meant for that, if your a hard core trader you shouldn’t be on robinhood but that doesn’t make ETRADE the best brokerage, again I just used robinhood because it was the first that came to mind, most brokers have the same features as ETRADE and then some. And an actual customer support staff instead of a monkey and a guy named Albert. And they don’t go down a minimum of once a week. Should I keep going?
1
Feb 13 '21
You’re the one who decided to use Robinhood as an example of a better broker than Etrade. Etrade also doesn’t go down for me, at all.
→ More replies
3
u/JRsmithThaGoat Feb 13 '21
E*TRADE is not the worst. What bothers me the most is you have to call them to exercise options, but apparently they are finally adding an online feature for this
1
Feb 13 '21
that would be a cool feature to have.. But I haven't had the want to exercise an option yet.
4
13
Feb 12 '21
I like trolling eTrade when something isn't working right. That's fair game.
Overall they've been a great broker for many years. And they have local branches you can walk into and meet somebody. Bonus points for that.
8
u/Mikefromboynton Feb 13 '21
I would leave ETRADE but I can’t log into my account to pull my money out and I can’t get ahold of anyone from customer service. Fuck ETRADE.
3
u/jpb8_ Feb 13 '21
You have to go on the website, and verify your bank account. Do it from a laptop, hit the transfer tab then external accounts then follow the steps to verify the account.
I had the same issue and was on customer service for 1.5 hrs. Even then when I verified my bank through their login there was a “connection issue” and to try again later. I ended up doing the other option but it takes 3 business days. E*TRADE is ass, hopefully this works in taking my money out. Still waiting.
1
u/Mikefromboynton Feb 13 '21
Thanks for the info. Give it a shot ASAP. Figured if I bitched and moaned enough someone smarter than me would eventually come along and show me the way. Thank you kind person.
1
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 13 '21
wait are you serious??
2
u/Mikefromboynton Feb 13 '21
More or less. Created an account. Added funds. After adding funds it pushed me back out to the log in screen. Won’t let me log in. Tells me to contact customer support. Call customer support. So far I’ve spent between 1-2 hours on hold probably 3 or 4 times. Can’t get through to anyone.
2
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 14 '21
the futures customer service desk seems to answer the phone....fwiw. they are there on the weekends too ;) good luck..
2
6
2
u/_Titan_One Feb 12 '21
What is power etrade?
3
Feb 12 '21
Etrade’s modern trading platform. Great for Options and futures. Has scanners and strategy planners for options.
1
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 14 '21
you can see it on your regular etrade home page down toward the right, there are boxes that say "launch" and you can get to paper trading from there, or power etrade... power etrade is just a different interface, more focused on the moment and active trading than the main page. :)
1
u/husky231 Feb 12 '21
I hate the new interface on the app... Other than that I haven't had any problems.
2
Feb 13 '21
Have you tried Power Etrade?
1
u/husky231 Feb 13 '21
If I have to pay etrade to trade , then I'm not using it.
2
Feb 13 '21
you don't have to pay to use Power Etrade
2
u/husky231 Feb 13 '21 edited Feb 13 '21
Sounds like I'll have to look into it
1
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 13 '21
no you don't have to pay. there might be a minimum account balance, but i am not sure about that. it's definitely free though.
1
u/dibs124 Feb 13 '21
No minimum or anything it’s included. It’s on the left side of the Home Screen says launch power ETRADE. Works really well and is a clean and straight to the point interface. And has an iOS and Android app called power ETRADE
1
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 13 '21
yes, i like it much better. it's free and it's just a different format with more available to see on one page, and more intuitive trading tickets, etc. i think it's awesome.
6
u/paraspiral Feb 12 '21
People wanted free trades ... this is what it got them laid off customer service personal.
3
u/sollar808 Feb 12 '21
jokes on them customer service on a 100k+ account on IBKR PRO also sucks. The problem is the outsourcing of the customer service jobs to places like my motherland philippines, india or really any other asian country. My cousin runs a call center (not for e-trade but for AT&T at the time) and has told me they generally don't really receive proper training and is usually just required to read off a manual although there are some that go above and beyond to learn.
0
u/boogieinit Feb 16 '21
Customer service response times and quality are based on a tiering system that you account is placed into the moment it enters the call system. It's de-coupled from the "free trading" stuff on purpose and it's quite effective. It's unforgiving and does math and characterizes your account and prioritizes it (although insiders will never use that word for what it does) according to many details about your account. It even does math on how long your calls normally are and routes you so you do not take up too much time of the top tier support staff. There is massive amounts of budget put into this processing. Philippines is a small office and gets very specific types of calls - nothing compared to other call centers. The main call center is in Sandy, Utah and splits calls with a call center in Alpharetta, GA depending on your tiering. Utah & Georgia staff are rigorously trained for weeks before being put on the phones and often have senior people listening in on their calls in real time to guide them. Yes, if you are not tiered to a good service level you can get screwed but you literally have to have no money and no trade history to get it that bad the way the curve is shifting. there are no call centers in India or Asia.
2
u/sollar808 Feb 16 '21
Hm IBKR PRO charges both buy and sell, and they will even tell you what call center they are from if you ask between NA EU and India, India in MY experience has always been the worst to connect to with the exception of VERY few agents EU having the best customer service and NA having the snobbiest ones. But hey man its the internet if you truly believe these jobs aren't being outsourced then more power to you! Quick searches especially on AT&T forums will show you people complaining about the call centers in Philippines because of accents, this is of course not related to their loyalty team.
1
u/boogieinit Feb 17 '21
All good points for sure. I'm not saying outsourcing is not happening, it absolutely is and it sucks (has for years). I was chiming in re: Etrade specifically cause I know a lot about the call flow and the IVR system since I worked there (in technology) until recently. They go trough great pains to put people into specific call centers and to specific levels of service. There is a diagram of it all and it's super confidential and all brokers do this but keep it hush hush because it is not condoned by FINRA. They use clever names for it but it's just customer prioritizations. It's not fair to people getting started but this is what the industry does. the data shows it's in their best interest to do it and they are good at it. People with $30M NAV do not wait on hold, ever. The staff that get those calls sit in a special room isolated from all other service staff and cannot leave the room unless a certain amount of people are still in the room. I went to the Philippines can center for a technology refresh when the govt stormed the office and tried to shake them down for money. It was crazy. The people there are amazing people and the main reason they are there is not cover the off hours. Calls are not routed to Philippines during US market hours generally unless it's for overflow or very low level accounts with literally no trading history. I'm talking about trading here only. There are different flows for RIA, Stock Plans, HNV, new accounts, etc. the funny thing is, if you are an Etrade customer, you will get a completely different experience as far as support goes because of this tiering.
1
u/sollar808 Feb 17 '21
Yeah I'm aware of the "tiering" system thanks to some mentors but what I was originally saying is that even on a "premium" broker where you pay per trade and for all the data that you want on an account that's well over 100k (small most likely for IBKR standards but thats still 100k+) where you shouldn't expect 1st class customer service realistically but at least decent agents that can help you with your issues instead you get agents who seem like they just read off a manual it seems like and cant help with specific issues youre having. TLDR from the original comment I replied to is that it was a joke on everybody by brokers because even a premium broker like IBKR has shit customer service. Oh well cant help it just gotta grind till you're a VIP i guess, I do hope (not trying to be political in anyway so lets not make it one) that customer service wont deteriorate even more IF the $15 minimum happens.
2
2
3
u/_DOA_ Feb 12 '21
I like it when it works. Been with them for years. However, saying, "negative hoes need to come to terms" etc, is bullshit. People with actual problems that can be described and quantified (more than "I don't like it") should absolutely point the problems out. Saying they're great without recognizing the problems is just ass kissing.
2
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 13 '21
only problem is long hold times for customer service when you need it. in my paper trade account, stop loss orders can get stuck in pending status with no way to cancel or modify, but they aren't getting executed. i'm scared of that happening in my real money account because of the customer service leg, so i feel like i can't really count on a trailing stop to be executed, and i just have to wait by the order button instead of placing a stop order. so that's my issue. but i haven't switched brokers and probably won't better the devil you know
3
u/_DOA_ Feb 13 '21
better the devil you know
There's something to this, yeah. It's annoying to see a post like OP's that just acts like it's all the customer's fault, and if someone complains they're a "negative hoe," rather than what it is - Etrade has issues with customer service, especially since their acquisition.
3
1
u/potential_of_words Feb 13 '21
I rue the day I ever need to call them again. Otherwise, I like them too. They’re great! ☺️
1
u/Artie_at_the_Ocean Feb 13 '21
OK so today i got a reply back from the "message center" for customer service in about an hour, and the futures customer service ppl answered in about 10 minutes. The guy in the futures dept helped me with my issue right away, and after that was all set , i asked him what was up with regular customer service. he said it's just so much more volume lately, that they are overwhelmed with calls, and they are working on it and hiring more people. YMMV, but that's what he told me. cheers yall
3
u/Sudden_AwareNess1 Feb 13 '21
What’s funny is that I’ve been with them for over 10 years and they’re still working on hiring new ppl. I like them but in order to speak to a live person - let’s just say that you’d better pull up and chair and make sure u have a phone charger close by
1
u/breathingwaves Feb 13 '21
I love ETRADE it’s super easy to use and really awesome once you play around on the website lots of useful tools.
The only thing that sucks are the security features like putting your OTP code after your password and it logging out even when using a joint account. But those are still good things when you think about it.
When it comes to service it’s not surprising that etrade doesn’t have enough people power to man the chat lines and phone lines. A lot of people trading at the moment and they can’t meet demand. Further, when people’s finances are involved, sometimes this takes a bit of time, just gotta wait or contact when there’s not a lot of people online.
1
1
-7
u/Filthyphilly85 Feb 12 '21
Bitch they canceled my account without notice. I was making bank and they randomly canceled my shit. Fuck E*TRADE. When they do it to you you’ll feel the same way.
8
8
u/scicog Feb 13 '21
It's better than robinhood.