E*TRADE Adds Almost 50 ETFs To Commission-Free Plan

E*TRADE Financial Corp. ETFC said Wednesday it added 46 exchange traded funds to commission-free platform.

With the latest additions, E*TRADE now offers more than 250 ETFs on a commission-free basis. The 46 newly added funds come from six issuers: Direxion, iShares, Janus Henderson, NuShares, Reality Shares and Vanguard.

What Happened

With more and more advisers and investors embracing ETFs, brokerage firms are getting on the act, offering significant amounts of ETFs without commissions. E*Trade and rivals such as Fidelity and Charles Schwab Corp. SCHW have been expanding their commission-free ETF plans to attract new clients.

Earlier this year, Firstrade Securities Inc. said it would offer more than 700 ETFs on a commission-free basis, by far the largest such platform in the domestic brokerage business.

Why It's Important

“These additions can fill a tactical void for a multitude of strategies—from tracking broad indexes to seeking higher returns to defending against changing market conditions to pursuing factor-based sector exposure—while providing commission-free access to some of the most active, well-known ETFs available today,” said E*TRADE Vice President Rich Messina in a statement.

Among the 46 additions to the E*TRADE commission-free suite are 32 Vanguard funds, including the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO, the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF VIG and 10 of the issuer's popular sector ETFs.

What's Next

Three iShares funds were also added to the E*TRADE platform. iShares and Vanguard are the two largest U.S. ETF sponsors.

Other well-known products now available with no commissions on E*TRADE include the Direxion Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares QQQE, Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF BLCN and the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF VEA.

Disclosure: The author owns shares of VEA.

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