Anyone using ETrade Pro as their trading platform?

[larry.mcfarlin 0]

I am a new member.  I've been using Etrade Pro for several years now.  I get the feeling most individuals in this group are not using ETrade.  Wondering if I should change platforms. 

I appreciate any feedback.

[Rob C 826]

Though I am still very new at day trading and even newer at Etrade-Pro I will list what I have learned so far. I used DAS-Pro simulator for 6 months and had issues with it. Primarily hot key mistakes. Tried both keyboard keys and mouse buttons, both for several months, but always had 1 to 3 mistakes per trading session. My mind just didn’t fit into the DAS platform. It’s a great platform so the issue lies with me. I looked at other platforms and thought ET-Pro the likely candidate to reduce the careless mistakes. It did. I went from 2 mistakes a day to 2 a month. Though unsure how much going live impacted it. That might have helped as well.

Here are the pro/cons I have learned so far comparing ET-Pro to DAS-Pro (not in any order).

Pro:

Free platform with level 2.

Free Trade Ideas

Excellent charts, though I am referring to the new charts not the classic charts. I found them slightly better than DAS, which has extremely good charts.

Free historical data and real time download to Excel. If you get this through E-signal, this would cost almost $200 a month.

Good fills. I think of fills in 3 ways (speed of execution, fill price and short availability). As for speed of execution I found it about ½ second slower than the unrealistic fill speed of the simulator. I usually see Etrade execution speed ranked 3^rd (tied to Lightspeed) where IB is number one. Fill price is excellent. I was so use to getting only the bid/ask on the simulator, it was a surprise to see I would get something in between. This made stocks like TSLA and BABA now tradeable. Where I use to get chopped up, with the big spread, on the simulator. This may be the norm with live trading (I honestly don’t know), but I was pleasantly surprised after using the SIM. Short shares availability is good. I have never not been filled yet (though I haven’t been live for very long).

Lots of research at your finger tips. You probably already know all of Etrade’s perks with research.

Very good customer service.

Very good mobile app.

 

Cons:

Platform not very stable at open. Looks like it gets overwhelmed with the data at the open. When I first started using it there was a chance the platform would crash anytime (in the middle of a trade) up to the first hour. Especially if I used the speed keys. I worked with their tech support which mostly blamed my computer CPU speed (though I have a new high end computer with no viruses). The platform would freeze even though my CPU usage would never break 50%. Anyway, I figured out you need to keep the new charts to a minimum (so I use both classic and new charts in my layout) and Etrade-Pro is not compatible with E-signal (even if you are not running E-signal). After editing the layout and uninstalling E-signal, it’s mostly stable the first few minutes and very stable after 5min. Though it tends to give erroneous info in the positions window. But since I am trying to stop myself from looking at the P/L, it’s not a bad thing at the moment.

Cost. Most traders won’t even look at Etrade due to the $4.95 cost per trade. I was able to negotiate (though it took awhile) to $3.95 and customer support said I can try negotiating to $2.95 after enough time has passed to see my consistent number of trades per month. Since I have an over trading issue, the high trading price has helped keep that in check. So currently I have no issue with the cost.

Charts do not show trades. Actually I am hoping you may know a way to show the trades taken on ET-Pro charts. I haven’t seen how to do it and customer support didn’t know either. DAS is very good at that so you always know where you took the trade and thus your B/E point. Though after a few weeks I just got use to mentally keeping that information.

On hard to get short shares you have a few more mouse clicks. Though most trades are one click, if you try and short a stock with limited shares you have a window pop up stating it will cost you a bit more (usually $1-$5) after hitting OK, you must take the trade as a limit order not a market, which takes a bit more time.

Some parts of your layout can not be saved. Windows like the order entry and order window I have to setup again every morning.

So that’s my 2 cents. ET-Pro definitely saved me. I did poorly during my 6 months on the SIM and I am satisfied how I am doing, so far, live using ET-Pro. It is quite possible I will need to move to a different broker/platform later due to the cost, hard to short stocks and execution speed. But, for now I am happy with the platform (once the freezing issue was resolved of course).

-Rob

[nikdobri 4]

Rob, thanks for the detailed post. I have two questions.

You say "hard to short stocks". Does that mean that the process of doing it is slow, or there is less availability than with IB for example?

Do you know if it is possible to link an E-trade account to DAS? The IB fee structure does not seem to be good for low cost stocks. Say you want to trade a $10/share stock and trade 10000 shares. This is a ~$50 fee one way, while with my Etrade account it would be at most $4.95. Even if you trade a $25/share stock and want to buy 3000 shares. This is ~$15 one way with IB. Well, at least this is what I am seeing... When trading small sizes IB makes more sense than ETrade.

thanks

nik

[Rob C 826]

Yes, for large share size Etrade is great. One price. L2 is free, Trade-Ideas is free and so is the platform. 

I asked about linking DAS, Etrade said no.

Etrade's short list is excellent, as good as IB, which is definitely better than CMEG. I cringe every time I see another recap how they had a great trade shorting ROKU, which usually there are no shares available to short on CMEG. But, you can't just click the short button on Etrade-pro for the "hard to short" stocks like ROKU or CRON for example. You have a couple more key strokes agreeing to pay extra money to take the short (essentially it is usually about double the cost).

I liked Etrade-pro and still use it for swing trades. But it seems my personality is more tailored to the open which Etrade-Pro is not adequate. Plus Etrade has no risk controls.

[nikdobri 4]

Thanks Rob, makes sense. Seems you can't have everything perfect with a single setup.