In August 2018, Discount brokerage giant E*Trade Financial Corporation revealed that Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) pointed higher, coming in at 267,619 a day, an increase by a factor of seven percent month-over-month from 250,787 in July 2018. Over a yearly timetable, E*TRADE’s August 2018 DARTs were also higher by 30 percent year-over-year, compared to 206,572 in August 2017.
In terms of E*TRADE’s net new accounts growth, the group added 88,699 gross new brokerage accounts in August 2018, compared to 81,296 in July 2018, which reflects a positive advance of more than nine percent. In addition, this figure is also better when weighed against last year, as new brokerage accounts rose 42.0 percent from 62,680 in August 2017.
In total, this brings the company’s overall accounts to approximately 5.91 million in August 2018, which reflected a marginal increase of one percent compared to 5.86 million in the previous month, together with a ten percent advance year-over-year.
Another area of strength for the month was E*TRADE’s brokerage customer assets which rose to $417 million last month, up 31 percent year-over-year from $361 million in 2017. Meanwhile, the month on month comparison also shows an increase of five percent from $398 million in July.
Earlier in June, the discount brokerage giant expanded the number of ETFs that customers can access without commissions. E*TRADE has significantly increased its commission-free Exchange -traded fund (ETF) lineup, all of which is non-proprietary, with the addition of 46 new funds from six providers.
E*TRADE isn’t the only discount brokerage to offer zero-commission ETFs as the company is tussling with rivals to expand low-cost investment products. Big rivals, including Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade, also announced recently the expansion of its own similar offerings, increasing the total number of ETFs that don’t have a commission attached to them.
