E-Trade Fees: All Costs Explained

E-Trade is a platform that facilitates the online trade of financial assets, including bonds, futures, mutual funds, stocks, and options. It is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley and has been operating since 1982.

In this article, you’ll see all E-Trade’s fees, pricing structures, and other payment information, getting some insights into the company’s operations and costs.

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E-Trade Fees: An Overview

E-Trade fees vary depending on how much and how often you trade. They also differ from product to product, and you’ll pay more trading bonds than you’ll with stocks and options. Take a look at the table below for a quick rundown of E-Trade fees1.

Type of Product	Fee	Other Information
Stocks	$0	Applies to stocks listed on US exchanges.
Options	$0.50 (after 30 trades) to $0.65 (for 29 trades or less)	Options regulator fees may also apply.
Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs)	$0	The price remains the same regardless of how many trades you have made.
Bonds	$0 to $1	Varies depending on the type.
Futures	$1.50	Charged per futures contract. Price increases to $2.50 for Bitcoin.
Mutual Funds	$19.99	For transaction fee funds.

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E-Trade Fees in detail

Stocks and Options

There are no fees associated with US-listed stock trades, and this is true even if you’re making your very first trades. However, you’ll be hit with a $25 fee if you’re going through a broker¹.

A charge of $6.95 (for customers with 0 to 29 trades per quarter) or $4.95 (for customers with 30+ trades per quarter) applies to trades of OTC stocks2. This refers to trades that occur through a dealer network, including small companies and those listed on international exchanges.

Option contracts cost $0.65 if you have made between 0 and 29 trades and $0.50 if you have made 30 or more trades¹.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Mutual Funds

There are no fees for ETFs and the same applies for no-load and no-transaction fee mutual funds, although there is an early redemption fee of $49.99. This fee is applied to discourage short-term trading and it covers the first 90 days that the fund is held¹.

Transaction fee funds cost $19.99 per trade¹.

E-Trade has over 8,000 mutual funds to choose from. If you visit the Mutual Funds section, you can read through the prospectuses of these investments, including charges, risks, objectives, and more³.

Bonds

A $1 fee is charged per bond for online secondary trades and there is a minimum charge of $10 and a maximum charge of $250. If you go through a broker, you’ll pay these fees in addition to a fixed fee of $20. There is no charge for bonds purchased through US Treasury auctions¹.

Futures

Futures cost $1.50 per contract per side, and there may be additional fees associated with the trade. However, as these are not charged by E-Trade directly, they can vary and there is no fixed rate.

Bitcoin futures carry a higher initial charge of $2.50 per contract per side, and these can also accumulate additional fees from the futures market¹.

Margin Rates

Margin trading can be risky, but E-Trade has tools and information to help traders with this aspect of trading, including an analyzer tool, a calculator, and risk-assessment tools. It also notes that it can force the sale of your equities if they fall below the levels required¹.

The margin rate will depend on your debit balance:

Total Debit Balance	Margin Rate Compared to 6.45% Base Rate
$1 Million or Greater	1% Less
Between $500k and $999.99k	The Same as the Base Rate
Between $250k and $499.99k	0.5% More
Between $100k and $249.99k	1% More
Between $50k and $99.99k	1.5% More
Between $25k and $49.99k	2% More
Between $10k and $24.99k	2.25% More
Under $10k	2.50%

E-Trade Fees: other costs

As you can see, E-Trade funds are fairly straightforward, but it goes a little deeper than that and there are other things to consider.

E-Trade’s fees can change and - depending on the user and the trade - it can still get a little confusing. Let’s take a closer look at E-Trade fees and see if we can clear up some of the issues:

Account activity Fees

In addition to the trade-specific fees outlined above (and clarified below), E-Trade also has a number of account fees¹.

Action	Fee
Electronic transfer returned due to insufficient funds	$25
Fed call extensions	$25
Reorganizations	$38 for mandatory and voluntary actions $50 for actions reflected on physical certificates
Alternative investment fee	$250 for annual custody fee per position $75 in new purchases $50 capital cal fee $75 for liquidation
Restricted securities custody	$150
Worthless securities processing	$5
American Depositary Receipts	$.005-$.05 per share
Forced margin liquidation	$25
Financial translation tax (FTT) Ordinary and ADR	Opening transactions in some French companies designated by E-Trade will be subject to the French FTT: 0.30% of the total transaction cost Opening transactions in Italian companies with a market capitalization of more than 500 million Euros will be subject to the Italian FTT: 0.12% of the total transaction cost Buy side trades in some Spanish companies designated by E-trade with a market capitalization greater than 1 Billion Euros will be subject to the Spanish FTT: 0.2% of the total cost

Other requests

Wire transfers	$25 per outgoing wire
Foreign currency disbursement fee	Up to 3% on the exchange rate⁴
Account transfers	$25 for partial transfers $75 for full transfers
Overnight mail	$20
Check copies	$15 per copy
Check requests	$10 per request
Stop payments request	$25
IRA premature distributions	$25
Stock certificate requests	$500
Foreign stock certificate request	$250
Duplicate account statement/tax form	$5 per each
Paper statement fee	$2 per statement mail to you (with some exceptions)

E-Trade Personalized Investments

E-Trade Personalized Investments are portfolios that are managed by professionals. They’re available for traders of all budgets and they charge an annual fee based on the type of portfolio and the amount of money invested in it¹.

Core Portfolios:

• Investment Value of $500 or More: 0.30%

Blend Portfolios:

• First $100k: 0.90%
• Next $150k: 0.80%
• Next $250k: 0.75%
• Next $500k: 0.70%
• Next $1M and More: 0.65%

Dedicated Portfolios:

• First $1M: 1.25%
• Next $1M: 1.15%
• Next $3M: 1.10%
• Next $5M and up: 0.95%

Fixed Income Portfolios:

• First $1M: 0.75%
• Next $2M: 0.70%
• Next $1M and More: 0.65%

These fees are automatically taken out of your portfolio at the beginning of the quarter.

Retirement Accounts

There are three times when you’ll be hit with a fee if you have a retirement account. The fee is fixed at $25 each time¹:

• You withdraw money early (before you reach 59 and a half years old)
• You have deposited too much cash into the account and withdraw the excess amount.
• You change a contribution from Roth IRA to Traditional IRA.

Summary

As is the case with all trading programs, the less you trade, the higher the charges will be. Not only are many of the prices fixed, which means you’ll pay a larger percentage of your balance as a low-stakes trader, but higher rates are levied on those accounts with a small balance and few trades.

The more you trade, the less these fees become. As noted above, many fees are bracketed into one of two groups: 0 to 29 trades and 30+ trades. It’s worth noting that this applies only to that specific quarter and not for the lifetime of the account.

In any case, even if you’re only making a few trades per quarter and don’t have a lot to spend, E-Trade is still a viable option. E-Trade fees are very reasonable when compared to the rest of the industry and the platform is also very open and honest about these fees.

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Sources:

1. E-Trade Pricing – All of Page.
2. E-Trade Guide – OTC Stocks.
3. E-Trade Mutual Funds – Introductions.
4. E-Trade: Foreign Exchange Disclosure