Be wary of eTrade Pro!!!!!

tronic72 · 2 January 2008

Happy New Year all,

I thought I'd put out a brief warning to anyone considering subscribing to Power etrade from eTrade

I signed up for a single reason; to trade CFDs. Unfortunately Power eTrade is supplied by a third party named "webiris". A consequence of this is eTrade support isn't great in regards to Power etrade. I've also discovered that there isn't a manual for Power eTrade, so I've been unable to research the software without being logged in. It should be noted that there is a help section in the Power eTrade consol, as well as a basic and advanced tutorial but these are no substitute for a "traditional" manual, whether it be in digital or paper format.

To make matter worse. The service is charged on a Calendar month, this means that if you sign up on the 29th of the month, you only receive zero, one or two days of service, depending on the month you've signed up! So as it stands I've been charged for 2 months of eTrade Pro at $79.90 per month having not yet done a single trade!

I thought I'd covered my bases as I tried the trial version which seemed to work fine, but I obviously didn't spend enough time researching it. Unfortunately you can't make trades in the trial version and this is the area I've had problems with using the full version

I just thought I'd give people a heads up in case they are looking to sign up. If you are going to give it a looking I'd advise the following:

1. Sign up on the first day of the month or you'll be getting less for your money.
2. Sample the trial version and be aware that the software is quite different to the standard version of eTrade. Allow a "decent" amount of time to educate yourself on the software.

Hope this helps some of the members in their future trading.

PS. If anyone uses Power eTrade and has somehow printed or created a PDF of the help section I'd be grateful for a copy.

Uncle Festivus · 2 January 2008

eTrade Pro or Power Etrade?

I've used Webiress (Power Etrade) for about 6 years now, very few problems. What you have to remember is that it's priced for a "trader" who wants dynamic data. People who sign up for this tend to have a view of intending to trade very frequently, and hence pay little or no fees, as I do.

As for the help, it's a bit of suck it and see as I recall from my early day's, not that there is much to learn as it's very simple once you get the hang of it.

Perservere and you will find that, although not perfect and could do with a major upgrade, it is suitable for the task, that is, frequent trading of both shares & CFD's, and competitive when compared to others offering the same platform.

stargazer · 2 January 2008

Hi Uncle

Thanks for that. Question i have since you use the full version,

Can you get a total of the buy and side columns on the market depth. This is so one doesnt have to count them. I can't find this on the trial version but full may be different.

Is there a chart facility to look at re: the volume.

Sounds standard but the trial doesn't have this or i cant find it.

Cheers
SG

powerkoala · 2 January 2008

been using power etrade for 2 years now.
quite good regarding performance and speed.
it is using iress program, therefore, it won't mess around when etrade server down (always happen before).
regarding total volume, yes, you can click the button to see total volume buyers and sellers. once you click the button again, it will show each order volume and your order queue at the market.
hope this helps
cheers

ekoment · 2 January 2008

Hello Stargazer

The volume is obtained from a right mouse click on the market depth on any buy or sell price. For example, the approx total quantities shown for CVN in "total depth" @ the present time is 4.6 million buying and 4.2 million selling (of course, this is in detailed form on any price & varying constantly)
Cannot remember whether you will have this feature in the trial version.

I have used the Etrade Pro for approx 4 months now and find it OK. Have not used other platforms other than ETrade so cannot compare the differences.
It does not take long to rack up the 10 trades / month to have the service for free.

Hope that this helps
Regards.

joslad · 2 January 2008

Hi Tronic,

Things may have changed in the past 12 months, however, up till a year or so ago E-Trade did not provide CFD trading themselves. The CFD trading is provided by MF Global (used to be called MAN).

It is transparent though. You apply for your CFD account via etrade and they arrange for your account to be setup at MF Global. Appearances wise it appears you are do everything via power etrade/webiress - your acct balance is shown in etrade, your trades are recorded in etrade etc. The daily statements come from MF.

Generally it worked fine. However, any problems and it becomes a bit of a nightmare. You call etrade, they say it is MF problem, but etrade promise to sort it out for you. But they don't. You call MF and they blame etrade. I'm sure you get the picture. You start running around like a headless chook!

I use etrade for normal share trading, and used to trade CFDs with the above config for a while. However, I got fed up with getting the runaround. So, now do my CFD trading via First Prudentential Markets (FPM). They have been excellent and I would have no hesitation in recommending them.

I am considering, seriously, moving my share trading from etrade to FPM as well.

Anyone considering opening a trading acct, should consider FPM.

Uncle Festivus · 2 January 2008

stargazer said:
Hi Uncle

Thanks for that. Question i have since you use the full version,

Can you get a total of the buy and side columns on the market depth. This is so one doesnt have to count them. I can't find this on the trial version but full may be different.

Is there a chart facility to look at re: the volume.

Sounds standard but the trial doesn't have this or i cant find it.

Cheers
SG

You can get the total volume for each price level and total bid & ask volume overall - you hover your mouse over the last order in each column, though it only shows the total volume of all orders above the last order so you have to add the last orders volume to get the (total) total, but good enough.

There is also a Trade Analysis graphing function which details trades by volume or time or price.

Webiress charting is very poor, compared to others, but still good enough for what I want to do (intraminute charts).

Uncle Festivus · 2 January 2008

joslad said:
I use etrade for normal share trading, and used to trade CFDs with the above config for a while. However, I got fed up with getting the runaround. So, now do my CFD trading via First Prudentential Markets (FPM). They have been excellent and I would have no hesitation in recommending them.

I am considering, seriously, moving my share trading from etrade to FPM as well.

Anyone considering opening a trading acct, should consider FPM.

I have not had many problems with the split service but I am always on the lookout for a better platform, at a comparible price for the same level of functionality, and have heard good things about FPM also.

Maybe you could start a thread to keep us up to date with how FPM goes. I am currently looking at Macquarie Prime for a 'whole' service broker eg shares, cfd's.

Thinking about ditching Comsec over a $54 debit fee they won't re-imburse.

joslad · 2 January 2008

From what I have heard, the prime product is good. But the trading platform with prime is hopeless! Most people maintain a webiress account so they can view depth etc. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a one stop shop for everything.

Uncle Festivus · 2 January 2008

joslad said:
From what I have heard, the prime product is good. But the trading platform with prime is hopeless! Most people maintain a webiress account so they can view depth etc. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a one stop shop for everything.

Ah yes, the holy grail - if only someone came up with a decent trading platform with everything!. Take all the best parts of everything and put it into one super platform. The search continues.....

stargazer · 2 January 2008

Thanks for the replies.

I have been hearing that the Commsec Pro trader is very good.

Still considering.

I have Power E trade also on trial This will give a total market activity whereby cannot not find it on E trade Pro if it is there.

Neither has total volume displayed at a glance without adding the last volume which slows it up just a touch.

Cheers
SG

The Mint Man · 2 January 2008

Hey guys, does anyone use comsecs Professional Trader and if so what is it like?

I have noticed that if you trade enough you can also get it for free.

Cheers

macca · 2 January 2008

Believe it or not Protrader 1 is still way better than Protrader 2

But they do both have bugs, there is a thread on PT2 problems, just search and it will show up.

PT1 is OK but it is not as good as Iress IMO.

tronic72 · 2 January 2008

Uncle Festivus said:
eTrade Pro or Power Etrade?

I've used Webiress (Power Etrade) for about 6 years now, very few problems. What you have to remember is that it's priced for a "trader" who wants dynamic data. People who sign up for this tend to have a view of intending to trade very frequently, and hence pay little or no fees, as I do.

As for the help, it's a bit of suck it and see as I recall from my early day's, not that there is much to learn as it's very simple once you get the hang of it.

Perservere and you will find that, although not perfect and could do with a major upgrade, it is suitable for the task, that is, frequent trading of both shares & CFD's, and competitive when compared to others offering the same platform.

Hi Festivus,

Sorry, I meant POWER ETRADE. Sorry!!!!!

I've since discovered that the margins don't appear until you input the data for your buy order. It's simply now I know.

I put in an order for TOL today and the price was higher than my price. How do I cancel that order? It's sitting there in the portfolio with zero balances.

T

finnsk · 2 January 2008

tronic72 said:
Hi Festivus,

Sorry, I meant POWER ETRADE. Sorry!!!!!

I've since discovered that the margins don't appear until you input the data for your buy order. It's simply now I know.

I put in an order for TOL today and the price was higher than my price. How do I cancel that order? It's sitting there in the portfolio with zero balances.

T

Also I am with FPM for 1 year+ with no problems at all only one day down for about half hour.
If I am away from computer then I can call them and they will do the trade for me.
With monthly fee of $55.00 unless I do a lot of trades, then there will be no fee.

Try this

mongoose · 20 January 2008

Uncle Festivus said:
eTrade Pro or Power Etrade?

it is suitable for the task, that is, frequent trading of both shares & CFD's, and competitive when compared to others offering the same platform.

I also use Etrade Pro for over a year now with no problems. From time to time I have seen here and on other forums complaints about it but certainly has run smoothly for me.

Etrade use MF Global which I am thinking of using for CFD shorts. Does any one have any advice to the contrary. I have read all their associated documentation and as quoted are competitive.

tigerboi · 20 January 2008

ive used etrade pro for ages & never had any dramas,if you trade alot then

the pro is the go,gives you everything you need all in 1 stop shop,real good...

jeffscott · 25 February 2009

Uncle Festivus said:
Ah yes, the holy grail - if only someone came up with a decent trading platform with everything!. Take all the best parts of everything and put it into one super platform. The search continues.....

Hi Uncle Festivus,

Have you looked at GoTrader (http://www.gomarket.com.au/home)?

They use the Saxo Bank trading platform and that gives you everything - Shares, CFD's, FX, Futures, Depth Of Market, News and Research, a Stock Screener, etc, including excellent charting, all from the one platform. So far the trial looks good and I am considering using them for live trading. Might be what you are looking for.

Has anyone else used them, and if so, what is your opinion?

MS+Tradesim · 25 February 2009

I've just opened an account to trade CFDs with GO Markets. Will be a while before I have anything to report though.

There are a number of guys over in the FX forum who use GO - seems to be well regarded so far.

traderc · 25 February 2009

Personally like CMC Markets for CFDs. Been trading with them for a while. Their Index CFD traders are commission free from memory and they have 0.5% (1:200) margin on a lot of the main exchanges which I think is fairly good though there are a couple of other CFD brokers that do 0.25% (1:400).

Anyway, their trading platform is pretty good (MarketMaker) and the trades are executed pretty quickly.

The other "hidden" factor I found when trading with them is that if you don't have much equity in your account at the time, it is at the dealers discretion as to whether they liquidate your positions, not just the amount of free equity.

They have a rule that you must have at least $200 USD in your account and free at all times though they don't state this anywhere. So if the currencies move and you're holding trades where you might be risking a margin call, you might get liquidated simply because the currency fluctuated, but heck, they're the risks when trading on margin anyway.

Overall though, they're pretty good and when you create an account they send you 3 free DVDs on how to trade CFDs that are probably just worth creating an account for.

Just my 2c since the original post stated that they wanted to trade CFDs.

eTrade in my opinion is very overpriced especially on their base-level trades and personally I wish they'd never taken over HSBC. HSBC had 16.95 trades and look at the price of eTrade. What are they now. $32.95 or some crap...

CMC Stockbroking does standard stock trades at $19.95 which is a damn sight cheaper than eTrade and it does make a difference if you're a fairly active trader.

Damn you eTrade for ruining one of the best brokers in the world (HSBC) and putting your overpriced branding on a once great brokerage company.

Regards,

Christian

Be wary of eTrade Pro!!!!!

tronic72

Uncle Festivus

stargazer

powerkoala

ekoment

joslad

Uncle Festivus

Uncle Festivus

joslad

Uncle Festivus

stargazer

The Mint Man

macca

tronic72

finnsk

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mongoose

tigerboi

jeffscott

MS+Tradesim

traderc

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