Both E*TRADE App and eOption App may begin with the letter “e”.
You can use them to trade for mobile trading of stocks and options.
However, there is just a small problem for one of them that makes it not worth mentioning in the same discussion than the other one.
Find out in this eOption vs E*Trade Review which one is clearly worth your time if you are serious about online trading.
Table of Contents
E*TRADE Trading Platform vs EOption Review: Meet The Belligerent
With a name such as eOption, one may think that this Illinois based company only focuses on Options.
Quite the contrary.
You can trade stocks and futures on this platform as well.
Taking a look at their offerings, we should rename them “Free-Options”.
Here is the List eOption provides:
- Free Stock & ETF trading
- Free Daily Market Reports
- Free Option trading Education
- Free instructional videos & webinar classes
- Free mobile App on iOS and Android, to trade anytime, anywhere
- Free paper trading account, with $100,000 of virtual cash
E*Trade offers the same types of amenities listed above.
If you are a beginner trader, a paper account with either eOption or eTrade will help you practice your strategies risk-free and commission-free.
You will have the opportunity to create watchlists of your favorite stocks.
Watchlists of stocks can help you understand the patterns of these securities so that you are ready to master the key levels such as support and resistance.
One main difference that cannot be neglected is the fact that you can actively monitor the performance of your simulated portfolio of options or stocks with streaming price Live on e*Trade while it is delayed on eOption.
E*TRADE vs eOption Review: Is eTrade Any Good ?
Many years ago when i first got exposure to e*Trade trading platform, it was through their acquisition of the defunct OptionsHouse.
At the time, e*Trade failed to transfer the legacy tools from the OptionsHouse platform.
Not a pleasant experience for many of its customers.
Hence, I ventured to experiment with other brokerages such as the aforementioned eOption.
Since then, eTrade has changed a great deal with the introduction of Power E*Trade.
I exclusively trade Options with Power E*Trade nowadays.
Before we go any further, let take a look t their pricing for all the offerings.
These can be found right on their site.

Both E*TRADE and eOption trading platforms offer intuitive and really easy to use tools for stocks, options and futures.
One of my favorite tool is the TradeLAb where you have the ability to simulate the outcome of your trade based on parameters such as time, Implied Volatility and the Options Greeks.
The Risk Slide is another new tool that makes it easy to understand your overall exposure to the market and gain insight on how to hedge your portfolio.
If you are an advanced trader who would like to leverage Margins, here is the most recent table of the Margin rates.

I truly believe the best way for me to depict Power E*Trade is through our videos on YouTube Channel.
How To Trade Options on E*TRADE Mobile App
The mobile App of E*TRADE is fast enough to enable traders on the GO to manage their positions.
You can set alerts to come directly to your phone and/or Email.
Thus making you just a step away from that next big profit once your alert has triggered.
I have recently traded in very remote locations in Africa using the E*TRADE App.
Not long ago, I shared on another post how I was closing positions in an Air France Flight over the Atlantic.
My computer was tucked away and all the trades went smoothly through E*Trade App.
How To Trade Options On eOption Trading Platform
eOption main layout is based on widgets you can personalize with different colors of your liking as shown below.
You can choose between a Light and Dark Theme. Similar choices are available on E*Trade App.
You better not be easily confused or you will feel dizzy very quickly moving from one widget to another.

Let’s start with the Daily Outlook that comprises:
- A Summary of the Futures for Down Jones Industrial, S&P 500 and the NASDAQ
- The Previous day closing Pries for the major indexes
- The current Day Economic Calendar
- A macro view on currencies and commodities
- World News on geopolitics and major trends
- Sector News Breakdown highlighting the
In the Account Summary widget, you will find your account Value, your current balance, Stock Buying Power, Day Trading Buying Power, Realized and Unrealized Profit and Losses (P/L), and other details pertaining to the maintenance of your account.
Also, you can view your Positions and Orders in case you need to go back and research back in time.
eOption New Features Review
Under the stocks widget is where your defined Watchlists are displayed (one at the time) with a chart on the bottom and any news pertaining to those stocks on the right if such layout is agreeable to your eyes.
Within a given widget, you have the capacity to move windows around.
The charts’ widget is a bit redundant to the Option Chains widget but it has a top window with a chart of the symbol a trader wants to view.
Similarly, the Trading widget is made of the information from the Positions and Orders widget plus a trade ticket for stocks and a trade ticket for options.
What eOption Research Widget
The best widget is by far the Research widget.
I like it most because of the functionalities it offers as detailed on our screen capture.

After selecting your stock of choice to the left, you will obtain quotes, trades time stamps, a chart (yeah, it is not Tradingview but it does the job), an in-depth company profile, corporate events, share information, Analysts ratings, earnings results as far back as 2014, SEC Filings and price history that you can download in Excel.
I am a sucker for information so this section quenches my thirst for knowledge.
AUTO TRADING
This feature aims to help you execute stock, option or mutual fund trades automatically.
You will need to select a newsletter and trades will be entered for you based on the recommendations of such newsletter.
I have not used this feature at all and cannot stress enough doing your due diligence before given the keys of your money to a machine.
RETIREMENT AND IRA TRADING
The benefit of moving a retirement account here is that eOption enables option trading in IRA such calls and puts buying.
Cash-secured put writing, spreads and covered calls are also permitted.
Since these are advanced trading strategies, I would only recommend to traders with extensive experience.
EOPTION WIRE TRANSFER
eOption now offers a fast and secure funding method that quickly allows you to link your bank account to your brokerage account.
How Much Does It Cost To Trade on E*TRADE vs eOption ?
EOption currently has a full-court press marketing effort that you may have seen.
It is mainly centered around their fees or lack thereof with the comparison table below.

10 cents per contract is certainly very attractive but the truth lies in the details.
The fine print denotes almost $2 per trade.
Is eOption really that Cheap
If you are new to trading, the actions of buying and selling are considered 2 trades.
Therefore, in the above table that compares $26.99 for eOption vs. $162.50 for the competitors when trading 250 contracts in NOT ACCURATE for most traders because they will not take just 1 trade to reach 250 contracts.
Let’s assume a trader in average executes 10 contracts per trade.
So 250 contracts will require 25 buy orders thus 2*25 trades per the above explanation.
The Total cost then become $25 + ($1.99)*50 = $124.5.
This is still cheaper than the $162.5 but not quite as dramatic difference as EOption is leading you and me to believe at first sight.
Also, for e*Trade, if you trade that much volume of contracts, you can actually get a better rate than 65 cents per contracts by simply calling their customer service.
I managed to do that over the years and my current cost is 35 cents per option contract.
Which One Is Better ?
Despite the load of education information provided by eOption trading platform, it looks too crowded if you are new to trading and does not seem all that intuitive.
The second knock comes from eOption Customer service that bring back bad memories.
The platform does not track your number of Day trades thus leaving it to you to manage on your own.
EOption Customer Service has still not taken into account my feedback from 3 years ago.
Is eOption Reliable ?
That is the last thing you need to remember how many day trades you have done over the course of the last 5 days.
Also, if you are wondering whether your money is safe with e*Trade, the Answer is an Emphatic Yes.
Here is the side-by-side comparison video eOption vs E*Trade Review I made while doing the research for this content.
The Cash in your e*Trade account is 100% FDIC insured.
You can withdraw from E*TRADE account to your bank or financial institution with a simple intuitive User interface.
FAQS about TRADING On E*TRADE
The money will arrive to your account in less than two business days based on my experience on the many times I have done so.
I often got this other question from many international traders: Can an E*TRADE account be accessed from outside the US ?
Absolutely.
Whether you are spending some time in Paris, Sydney, Karachi, Dubai or Douala, you can safely access both the mobile App and the web version of E*TRADE trading platform without any concerns.
I have actually done it many times and very recently as shared previously.
Finally, the speed of the platform is important especially in today world of faster and faster machines you are trading against.
I will leave it to you to decide and let us know in the comments.
Suggested Resources
#1 : The #1 Trading Tool You Don’t Want To Miss In 2020
#2: Get Our Free Daily Market Recap Videos on YouTube
#3: What You Need To Get Your Options Trading Career Started

TBP | Becoming A Successful Stocks and Options Trader
Email:Telex@Successfultradings.com
Facebook: facebook.com/telex.tbp.7
eTrade Trading Platform
0.00Pros
- Customer Service
- Speed of Execution
- State of the Art Tools
Cons
- Not Very Intuitive
- Requires Self Learning