A major factor that decides how fast or slow you are in the market during trading is the information you have on the prices of securities at each point in time. This information is known as quotes. If you have been trading with Etrade for a while now or you intend to do so in the future, delayed quotes might not be helpful depending on what you hope to achieve. So what are Etrade delayed quotes?

By default, the quotes you see on E-trade are delayed by 15 minutes for investors with less than $1000 in their accounts. If you have above $1000 in your E-trade account, E-trade will grant you the ability to set your profile to show real-time quotes.

In this article, I am going to be discussing the following: Why quotes are delayed on E-trade. How you can change delayed quotes to real-time on E-trade. Whether delayed quotes affect your trades and if Etrade offers level II quotes?

Why Are Quotes Delayed on E-trade?

E-trade like most other brokers delays quotes because providing quotes in real-time can consume a lot of money, effort, time, and technological resources. So like other brokers, E-trade shifts the cost of accessing real-time quotes to investors who are willing to pay.

However, unlike most brokers who charge a fee for the real-time quotes (also known as level I quotes), E-trade puts a requirement instead of a fee as the cost for accessing these real-time quotes. The requirement being that you must have at least $1000 in your account before E-trade will allow you access real-time quotes.

What if You Cannot Meet the $1000 Requirement?

If you do not have up to $1000 dollars in your E-trade account, but you still desire to access real-time quotes and do away with delayed quotes, it is still very possible. There are a variety of ways to access free real-time quotes. A couple of sites online offer real-time quotes for free. A few of these sites include Tradingview, Stockcharts, and some others.

However, despite the fact that these sites offer free real-time quotes, you should know that there may be some downsides to the free real-time quotes offered. For example, the data provided are most times not official, meaning that you may not have access to all the movements occurring in the market. Also, the data from these sites might not be precise or error-free unlike when you pay for the quotes.

How Can You Change Delayed Quotes To Real-Time on E-trade?

If you wish to change your quotes on E-trade from delayed to real-time, then you’re in luck because in this article I will quickly show you how you can do so. Once you have established that you have at least $1000 in your E-trade account, then follow these few simple steps to change the delayed quotes to real-time.

1. Log into your account on the E-trade website
2. Now you should click on the head/body icon which is located at the upper right of the site (between alert bell and the “customer service”)
3. Next, you should click on “account preferences” and select the particular account you wish from the drop down menu.
4. Finally, you should then go down to account features and click on the “real time quote status” button. This will enable your quotes to be shown in real time instead of being delayed.
5. Once again, you should keep in mind that this feature on E-trade is only available to investors who have up to $1000 in their E-trade accounts.

Will Delayed Quotes Affect Your Trades?

Most casual traders who are not constantly active in the market make use of delayed quotes a lot because they are mostly buying stocks for long-term purposes whereas active traders need “up to the second” quotes because they are trading short-term and depend on market volatility.

However, if you are wondering whether delayed quotes will affect your trades, the honest answer is, they do. With delayed quotes on your portfolio, the broker also executes your trades at the price displayed on your portfolio. Although, depending on what you intend to achieve in the market, a 15-minute price delay might not affect you.

Does Etrade offer level II Quotes?

Real-time quotes are also known as level I quotes give the most basic data to investors pertaining to real-time prices of securities. Level II quotes on the other hand are a bit more advanced than level I quotes because they offer more information to the investors about moves in the market.

E-trade offers you level II quotes on their websites as well as on their power E-trade app. If you trade often on E-trade you might need level II quotes but they come at a price. Firstly, you will be required to have at least up to 10 commissionable trades every 30 days or at least $250,000 worth of assets. You can also just pay $99.95 which is the fee E-trade charges for providing level II quotes.

Verdict: etrade delayed quotes

As I earlier explained to you, by default, quotes on E-trade are delayed by 15 minutes for investors with less than $1000 in their accounts. However, if you have up to $1000 in your account you can enable real-time quotes. I also explained to you why quotes are delayed on E-trade and how you can change them to real-time.

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