E*TRADE United Kingdom

Figuring out if a broker serves UK clients can be a bit tricky. While some brokers operate globally, others only serve their home countries. We checked to see if E*TRADE welcomes clients from the UK.

Unfortunately, E*TRADE does not accept clients from the UK.

The BrokerChooser team thoroughly tested the services of more than 100 brokers globally by opening a real-money account at each and executing actual trades on their platforms. We collected the top alternatives to E*TRADE in the UK as of June 2024.

E*TRADE is primarily a stock broker. Take a look at E*TRADE's top rivals by checking out our curated lineup of the best online brokers in the UK. Discover a handpicked selection of elite brokerages catering to UK clients and compare fees, available assets, trading platforms and more. Alternatively, try our unique Find My Broker tool and get a selection of brokers tailored to your needs in a few easy clicks.

Is profit from trading taxed in the UK?

Yes, profits from trading are subject to taxation in the United Kingdom. Any profit you make from buying and selling stocks (or other financial assets) will be taxed as capital gain. If you buy and sell shares or other securities, you may be liable to pay stamp duty on certain transactions.

If you have an Individual Savings Account (ISA) or Self-invested personal pension (SIPP) account, the rules are different. You don’t need to pay income tax, tax on dividends or capital gains tax on the investments within your stocks and shares ISA. Also, your money grows free from dividend tax, capital gains tax and income tax in a SIPP account. Investments held outside of a tax wrapper such as a SIPP or ISA account are subject to dividend tax.

Is investor protection available in the UK?

Yes, investor protection is available in the UK. Under a system operated by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), you are entitled to investor protection in the amount of £85,000 per brokerage account provided your broker is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the main supervisory authority in the UK. Check out what kind of investor protection is available at E*TRADE:

This is important for you because the investor protection amount and the regulator differ from country to country.At E*TRADE, this is not an issue as all customers are handled by E*TRADE Securities LLC (ETS) or Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (MSSB), and are covered by the US investor protection scheme called SIPC.
One exception however is clients opening futures accounts, as they are handled by E*TRADE Futures LLC, which provides no investor protection.

In February 2020, E*TRADE was acquired by investment giant Morgan Stanley, and has continued providing its brokerage services under the new owner.
E*TRADE notes that throughout 2023, ETS will be transitioning existing clients to MSSB. This is not expected to have any effect on investor protection for clients.

The SIPC investor protection scheme protects against the loss of cash and securities in case the broker goes bust. The limit of SIPC protection is $500,000, which includes a $250,000 limit for cash. This is substantially higher than what most other investor protection schemes provide.
Not all investments are protected by SIPC. In general, SIPC covers notes, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investment company shares, and other registered securities. It does not cover instruments such as unregistered investment contracts, unregistered limited partnerships, fixed annuity contracts, currency, and interests in gold, silver, or other commodity futures contracts or commodity options.
E*TRADE does not provide negative balance protection.