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The E Trade Case

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[the-bad]
Now we will continue our E*Trade review with a few areas of concern when it comes to some of their business practices. And this is where you really need to pay attention and consider the facts, the good and bad, before making any final decisions as to whether or not they are the right choice for your online trading needs.
• C- BBB record
• SEC lawsuit
• Mixed public online reviews
• Higher commissions than their competitors, but . . .
• Pro platform requires 30 trades per quarter
E*Trade is not an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau, which is a bit strange since they have been in business for such a long time and are pretty widely known. And although they don't have a BBB file, they do have a C- rating, which includes …show more content…

The BBB reports a government action against them. Their BBB file shows that on 10-9-14 the SEC charged current and former E*Trade subsidiaries with inappropriately selling their penny stocks through unregistered offerings. This case has been closed and the SEC announced that E*Trade and their current and former subsidiaries failed in their custodian roles during a four-year period when they inappropriately engaged in unregistered sales of their customers microcap stocks, while blatantly ignoring red flags that such activity was obviously occurring. This resulted in E*Trade being required to pay back more than $1.5 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest from the commissions they earned on the improper sales, as well as a combined penalty of $1 million.
Aside from E*Trade's BBB file, their online reputation is a bit mixed as well. There are plenty of people who are very happy with E*Trade and would never consider using anyone else. However, they do have plethora of complaints with Consumer Affairs. We were hoping those complaints would be old; however, we found a good number of the complaints to be recent. Therefore, you should proceed with caution should you decide to give them a try. We can only hope they strive to make some improvement as they have been a big player in the online stock trading marketplace for quite some …show more content…

And sometimes this kind of help is simply invaluable.
• E*Trade also has industry-leading mobile apps and resources, as well as personalized, customized dashboards provided for every customer account.
The Bad
• Unfortunately, E*Trade has had some problems as are noted on their BBB record, which includes an SEC lawsuit that has since been resolved.
• They also have some mixed online reviews which include some negative feedback with Consumer Affairs; however, there are just as many people who are extremely happy with their services and would never consider using anyone else.
• E*Trade does have some higher commissions on their stock trade commission's than their competitors; however, you get what you pay for and they do have plenty of fantastic offerings, which in our opinion makes up for the higher commissions.
• E*Trades Pro platform requires 30 stock or options trades per quarter, which could be a problem for some. Additionally, their Pro system also appears to be lacking when it comes to providing detailed charting and options potentiality.
Our

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