Power E*TRADE-Advanced Trading 4+

Cleaner App with Caveats

Last update:
Good improvement to the dashboard!

Updated Review: Cleaner look. A lot of changes and a bit of a learning curve. It’s is getting 3/5 since some of these updates are not intuitive and there really should have been a splash screen or something to describe the changes upon first time launch. Here are the key items which I’ve learned through use:

1. Dashboard “Day” field will show you realized P/L for the day.

2. Dashboard “YTD” will be a summation of both realized and unrealized P/L. I found this somewhat confusing since “day” is only realized P/L and that right by it.

3. Portfolio “Day” field will show you any unrealized P/L (e.g. if you realized profit or lose it will be excluded and displayed in the dashboard as explained above).

4. The portfolio “day” field is unrealized daily P/L.

Other observations.
While navigation is more linked. It’s seems like there are more operations needed for a given transaction. This might be a learning curve issue.

App developers need to keep the investor in mind when they make changes especially major ones. Take a closer look, do time studies on what makes more sense and is user oriented.

I think this is still a good app and E*TRADE provides a good service however more mindful execution is of app updates is important.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for your feedback! We are always looking for ways to improve your mobile trading experience, and your comments are very helpful. I have forwarded your response to our developers for review. Should you have any questions please contact us 24/7 at 1-800-387-2331 (Domestic) or 1-678-624-6210 (International).

Exceptionally good for slow trading

Power E*Trade is exceptionally good for slow trading. For all operations, it requires at least two clicks, just to ensure you cannot do it quickly. For example, for the option chain in both mobile and desktop versions, selecting the expiration would not let it go to that date, instead it will append that chain to the earliest date you are viewing. To jump to the chain of the expiration date, one needs to deselect the current date first, and then select the desired date. Another example is that for the desktop version, when clicking any symbol in the watchlist, it pops out a window to choose what page to go with. So if one wants to go from the option chain of one stock to the option chain of another stock, it requires clicking on the other stock in the watchlist, moving the mouse around, locating the option symbol in the popped out window, and then choosing it. All these are proudly introduced as features in the tutorial videos of the app. So you may wonder whether anyone in the dev or product management team has ever tried it on their own. Oh no, I apologize since my use case is incorrect, this is only meant for slow trading. Any serious day trader should look around at the competitors like Interactive Brokers, which focuses on making trading fast.

Really bad app

I have been extremely frustrated and unhappy with this app. Almost every day it freezes, does doesn’t keep the current option chain in memory which necessitates it being reset to the current in the money price. It’s freezes sometimes in the option change chains and causes me not to be able to see the option prices. It’s sometimes just completely kicks me out. I’ve lost a great deal of money because of these problems. I’ve really liked the E*TRADE format but this app is just so disappointing to use and 90% of my trading is done through the phone. This is an iPhone and I had the same problems with the E*TRADE power app with iPhone 7 and this is an iPhone 11. I have reinstalled the app multiple times and reset all of the settings to the best of my ability. The limit order and the market order cannot be set except on the limit. I have to change it to market. I just am so frustrated with this app and I am seriously considering going to a different company because it is so friggin unreliable. Etrade get your act together and fix this because you’re gonna lose money and I’ve already lost money.