E-Trade Adds To Commission-Free ETF Suite

Discount brokerage giant E*Trade Financial Corporation ETFC is again expanding its commission-free exchange-traded funds platform.

New ETFs to the E-Trade commission-free ETF platform include offerings from JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, Legg Mason Inc LM, Michigan-based ACSI Funds, ETF Securities, Arrow Funds and Janus Henderson.

E-Trade is tussling with rivals, including Charles Schwab Corp SCHW on fees. The brokerage fee wars include expanding commission-free offerings on ETFs. Schwab has the industry's largest commission-free ETF platform, but E-Trade has responded by bolstering its commission-free ETF suite several times over the past year.

Fee Wars

“Schwab's cuts by lowering its fee for its active trading program and also took down its active-trader hurdle to 30+ trades per quarter from 150+ trades. So E*Trade wants to encourage long-term investing, but created an enticing deal for traders and changed their definition to allow investors who previously didn't qualify as traders to qualify as traders?” reported Barron's.

As is often the case with lower commissions or commission-free offerings, the devil is in the details. In the case of E-Trade clients, those wanting to realize the benefits of ETFs without commissions should hold those funds for more than 30 days.

There are currently about 150 ETFs available on a commission-free basis to E-Trade clients.

Established Names

Earlier this, E-Trade added ETFs from Guggenheim Investments, IndexIQ, John Hancock and ETF Securities, among others, to its commission-free platform.

Well-known ETFs currently available sans commission to E-Trade clients include the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund HEDJ, WisdomTree India Earnings Fund EPI and the Global X SuperDividend ETF SDIV.

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More Commission-Free ETFs at E-Trade