E*TRADE vs. M1 Finance (2026): Which One Should You Open?
E*TRADE gives you every tool and expects you to use them. M1 removes the tools on purpose and rebalances your allocation on every deposit.
E*TRADE if you want to make decisions. M1 if the decisions are what keep going wrong. The interesting question is not which is better but which failure mode is yours.
If you searched "M1 Finance vs. E*TRADE"
Same pairing. What settles it is whether you want a platform or a process.
Two philosophies, not two feature sets
E*TRADE is built on the assumption that you know what you want to buy and need good tools to buy it well — Power E*TRADE, options chains, futures, screeners. M1 is built on the assumption that the trading itself is the problem, so it gives you one daily window and a target allocation that maintains itself.
Comparing them feature by feature makes M1 look impoverished. That is a misreading: the missing features are the product.
On one screen
| E*TRADE | M1 FINANCE | |
|---|---|---|
| Stock and ETF commissions | $0 | $0 |
| Options per contract | $0.65, falling to $0.50 above 30 trades a quarter | Not offered |
| Futures | Available, $1.50 per contract | Not offered |
| Portfolio automation | None — you place every trade | Target allocation maintained on every deposit |
| When trades happen | Any time the market is open | One daily window around 9:30 am ET, with a second afternoon window near 3:00 pm ET on the paid tier |
| Subscription | None | $3 a month — M1 retired the $125-a-year Plus tier and replaced it with a flat platform fee, waived if your M1 balance touches $10,000 on any day in the billing cycle or you hold an active M1 Personal Loan |
| Margin | Tiered by balance — 12.45% at the introductory tier (per published comparisons, December 2025), falling on larger balances | M1 Borrow — portfolio line of credit at 5.65% (as of 2 February 2026), up to 50% of portfolio value. Not available on retirement or custodial accounts |
| Screening and research | Extensive, plus Morgan Stanley research | Minimal |
| Retirement accounts | Traditional, Roth, SEP, SIMPLE, and more | Traditional, Roth, SEP and rollover IRAs |
| Custodial accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Transfer out (ACAT) | $75 | $100 |
What the automation actually buys
M1 rebalances toward your target on every deposit, so the allocation you set is the allocation you keep without doing anything. For someone who drifts — buys the thing that went up, sells the thing that went down — that is worth more than any screener.
The cost is control. Orders execute in one window a day, so you cannot react to news, and there are no options at all. If either of those matters to you, the automation is not a fair trade. Our M1 vs. Betterment comparison covers how much control M1 does leave you.
What E*TRADE costs to own
Nothing, in subscription terms, which is one clear advantage over M1's $3 a month below $10,000. The costs appear if you trade options often, borrow on margin, or leave a large cash balance in the default sweep. Our E*TRADE vs. Ally Invest comparison goes into the cash side.
Who each one is wrong for
- E*TRADE is wrong for someone who already knows they will fiddle. Handing that person a full options platform is not a favour.
- M1 is wrong for anyone who wants to trade options, react intraday, or use futures. It has none of that, deliberately.
- M1 is also wrong below $10,000 unless the automation is genuinely worth $36 a year to you — on a $2,000 balance that is 1.8% a year, which is robo-advisor pricing for a self-directed account.
What this means for you
- Fixed allocation, monthly deposits, no interest in trading: M1 — provided the balance clears $10,000 or the fee does not bother you.
- Options or futures: E*TRADE. M1 has neither.
- You keep undoing your own plan: M1, on purpose.
- Small balance, want it free: E*TRADE, and rebalance by hand twice a year.
Figures and rules in this article are checked against the official sources below. Where they disagree with us, they win.
