J.P. Morgan Chase, the epic international financial banking institution, has been touting its newly-launched You Invest platform as the place for thrift-minded investors to make their mark. Rumors of the new platform suggested J.P. Morgan would take on free-brokerage Robinhood with toe-to-toe free trading with no brokerage fees.
Did J.P. Morgan follow through on its promises of recognizing which way the wind blows by releasing a platform for the 21st century? In a word - nope.
Instead of releasing completely free trading in equities, options, international stocks and cryptocurrencies, J.P. Morgan preferred to stay in its cozy home base of decades of promotional advertising - 100 free trades within the first year followed by trades of $2.95 per trade afterward.
Now, we'll say those fees are certainly the lowest in an industry of $4.95 per trade commissions in the fee-based brokerages, but we're in a post-Robinhood era now. Free trading is the norm. And we're not talking about free trading for a limited time or limited number of trades.
Our recommendation continues to be to use Robinhood unless you want to create an IRA (either Roth or Traditional).
Go back to the dugout, J.P. Morgan, you need more batting practice.