If you’ve just opened an ETRADE account, the platform can feel overwhelming at first. Between account setup, funding your brokerage, placing trades, and managing your portfolio, there are plenty of features to learn. Fortunately, once you understand the basics, ETRADE becomes much easier to navigate.
This guide explains how to use ETRADE from creating your account to making your first investment, managing your holdings, and understanding the essential features every beginner should know.
How to Use ETRADE: Getting Started
The first step is downloading the ETRADE mobile app and selecting Open an Account. Although ETRADE also offers an excellent desktop platform, the mobile app includes everything most beginners need for everyday investing.
When opening an account, you’ll usually choose between three brokerage account types:
- Individual account
- Joint account
- Custodial account for a minor
Most new investors will select an individual brokerage account.
During the application, you’ll be asked to provide your personal information, including your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, employment details, and investment profile. Make sure all information matches your government-issued identification to avoid delays during the verification process.
Avoid High-Risk Trading Features
One of the most important parts of learning how to use ETRADE is knowing which optional features to skip when you’re just getting started.
During the application, you’ll see options to enable:
- Margin trading
- Options trading
- Futures trading
While these features can be useful for experienced investors, they’re generally unsuitable for beginners because they introduce significantly more risk. The good news is that you can always enable them later if your investing experience grows.
For most new investors, a standard cash brokerage account is the safest way to begin.
Secure Your Account
Once your account has been approved, take a few minutes to improve its security before depositing money.
Using the ETRADE website, you can:
- Enable two-factor authentication
- Change your password
- Set security questions
- Adjust automatic logout settings
- Review third-party data-sharing preferences
On the mobile app, you should also enable Face ID or biometric login for faster and more secure access.
Adding these security measures helps protect your investments from unauthorized access.
Link Your Bank Account and Fund Your Brokerage
The next step in learning how to use ETRADE is connecting your bank account.
Inside the Pay & Transfer section, you can add an external bank using one of two methods:
- Instant verification by securely signing into your bank
- Manual verification using routing and account numbers
Instant verification is typically much faster and allows you to transfer money almost immediately.
After linking your bank, select:
- Your bank account as the transfer source
- Your brokerage account as the destination
- The amount you want to deposit
Review the transfer details and submit the request.
Although transfers from external banks may take a few business days to fully settle, ETRADE generally provides buying power quickly so you can begin investing sooner.
What Can You Invest In?
ETRADE supports a wide variety of investments, including:
- Stocks
- Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
- Mutual funds
- Bonds
- Certificates of Deposit (CDs)
- Options
- Futures
- Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)
For beginners, stocks and ETFs are usually the simplest place to start.
One important limitation is that ETRADE does not currently support fractional shares for individual stocks. This means you’ll need enough cash to purchase an entire share before placing an order.
Choosing Investments as a Beginner
Understanding how to use ETRADE also means understanding what to buy.
Many new investors make the mistake of chasing individual stocks or trying to predict short-term market movements. A simpler approach is focusing on diversified ETFs.
Examples discussed in this walkthrough include:
- SCHB for broad U.S. market exposure
- SCHG for large-cap growth companies
- SCHD for dividend-focused investing
These ETFs offer diversified exposure across many companies while maintaining relatively low expense ratios.
How to Buy Your First Investment
Buying an ETF or stock on ETRADE is straightforward.
Tap the Trade button and search for the investment using either its ticker symbol or company name.
Before placing your order, you’ll review several settings:
- Order type
- Quantity
- Price type
- Order duration
For most beginners, a Market Order is the simplest option because it purchases shares at the current market price.
After reviewing the estimated cost and confirming the details, place the order. Once executed, your investment will appear inside your portfolio.
Monitoring Your Portfolio
Your Portfolio tab becomes the main dashboard for tracking your investments.
Here you’ll find information such as:
- Total account value
- Daily gains or losses
- Overall performance
- Available cash
- Individual holdings
Additional tabs allow you to review balances, transaction history, and previous orders whenever needed.
Selling Investments
Knowing how to use ETRADE also includes understanding how selling works.
To sell a position, open the investment from your portfolio and choose Sell.
One detail deserves extra attention: ETRADE automatically fills the quantity field with your entire position.
Before submitting the order, carefully verify the number of shares you’re selling. If you don’t adjust the quantity, you could accidentally sell your entire investment.
For long-term investors, selling should generally be done thoughtfully since it may create taxable capital gains and interrupt long-term compounding.
Enable Dividend Reinvestment
Dividend-paying investments can automatically reinvest future dividend payments through the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP).
Instead of receiving dividends as cash, DRIP purchases additional shares automatically.
This allows your investments to compound over time without requiring manual purchases.
You can enable dividend reinvestment from the My Profile section by selecting the investments—or your entire account—that you want enrolled.
Withdrawing Money
If you ever need access to your funds, withdrawing money is simple.
Navigate to:
Pay & Transfer → Transfer Money
Then:
- Select your brokerage account as the source.
- Choose your linked bank account as the destination.
- Enter the withdrawal amount.
- Review and submit the transfer.
Keep in mind that you can only withdraw available cash. If your money is invested in stocks or ETFs, you’ll first need to sell those investments before transferring the proceeds.
Add a Beneficiary
A frequently overlooked feature is adding a beneficiary.
This allows your brokerage assets to transfer directly to the person you designate if something happens to you, helping your family avoid unnecessary legal complications.
ETRADE lets you assign both:
- Primary beneficiaries
- Contingent beneficiaries
You can update these designations whenever your circumstances change.
Access Your Tax Documents
Each year, ETRADE provides tax documents for reportable investment activity.
To locate your 1099 form:
- Open Documents.
- Change the filter from Statements to Tax Documents.
- Select the desired tax year.
Your consolidated 1099 includes dividends, capital gains, interest, and investment sales, making it the primary document needed for filing taxes.
Closing an ETRADE Account
If you eventually decide to close your brokerage account, ETRADE provides several options depending on what remains inside the account.
You can:
- Transfer investments to another ETRADE account.
- Transfer assets to another brokerage using an ACATS transfer.
- Sell your investments and withdraw the cash.
Before closing the account, make sure all holdings have been transferred or sold, recurring transfers have been canceled, and no transactions remain pending.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to use ETRADE doesn’t have to be difficult. Once your account is open, secured, and funded, the platform makes it easy to buy investments, monitor your portfolio, reinvest dividends, and manage your money over time.
For most beginners, the best approach is to keep things simple: focus on diversified investments, avoid unnecessary trading features, protect your account with strong security settings, and stay committed to long-term investing. With those fundamentals in place, you’ll be well on your way to using ETRADE with confidence.
