E-Trade

E-Trade Financial Corporation (stylized E*TRADE) is a U.S.-based company headquartered in New York. It is an online discount stock brokerage for self-directed investors. Investors can buy and sell such securities as stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds via electronic trading platforms or by phone. E-Trade Financial also provides banking services to retail investors, such as sweep deposits and savings products.

E-Trade Financial operates directly and through numerous subsidiaries. The most significant of its subsidiaries are E-Trade Bank, E-Trade Securities LLC, and E-Trade Clearing LLC.

History

Foundation

In 1982 William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb founded TradePlus in Palo Alto, California. In 1991 Porter and Newcomb founded a new company, E-Trade Securities, Inc., with several hundred thousand dollars of startup capital from TradePlus. E*Trade offered its trading services via America Online and Compuserve. In 1994 its revenues neared $11 million (up from $850,000 in 1992). It later reorganized and emerged under the name E*Trade Group, with E*Trade Securities as its principal subsidiary.