J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing Review

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing (previously Chase You Invest Trade) provides current Chase Bank customers a convenient way to invest in the stock market. While J.P. Morgan Self-Directed doesn't provide all the bells and whistles like some of its non-bank competitors, our testing found the site to be easy to use and reliable overall.

Top Takeaways

Here are our top findings on J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing:

1. JP Morgan Chase, the bank behemoth with over $2.6 trillion in assets, now offers self-directed investing services, which includes buying and selling stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, and bonds.
2. J.P. Morgan Self-Directed is great for current Chase Bank customers seeking a simple way to buy and sell stocks. The multi-account benefits are widespread, including instant transfers, universal login, and $0 trades.
3. While J.P. Morgan Self-Directed is reliable and easy to use, it is also very basic. When compared against standalone full-service brokerages such as TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab, Chase trails across the board, from trading tools to research to total tradeable assets.

Overall Summary

Please Note: J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing was not included in the 2021 annual review. As a result, this broker's ratings may be outdated. Read our best online brokers guide for a breakdown of the top rated brokers for 2021.

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Commissions and Fees

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed has no minimum deposit to open an account, and provides customers unlimited free ($0) stock, exchange-traded fund (ETF), and options trades. Aside from $0 options trades, which is a nice feature, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed is as cheap as any brokerage in the industry.

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed pricing summary:

Offering of Investments

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed provides everything an investor would require to invest in the stock market. All investment vehicles are offered, from stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds. Both Traditional and Roth IRAs are also available. With J.P. Morgan Automated Investing, Chase customers can also have their money invested for them for an annual advisory fee of 0.35% per year ($500 minimum).

Offering Limitations: J.P. Morgan Self-Directed does not offer the ability to trade during pre- and post-hours, nor can customers trade penny stocks. Also, only basic (single leg) options trades are offered. Additionally, order types are limited (order types such as trailing stop orders and conditional orders are not available), and the primary focus is on the US markets.

Bottom line, we do not recommend J.P. Morgan Self-Directed for penny stocks trading, options trading, day trading, or international trading.

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed investment options:

Banking

From basic checking and savings accounts to home mortgages and credit cards, Chase Bank is a household name brand in the United States. JP Morgan Chase holds assets of well over $2 trillion and operates in more than 100 countries, according to Wikipedia.

Compared to Bank of America Merrill Edge, Chase goes toe to toe. Both banks offer FDIC-insured banking through 5,000+ branch offices across the United States. That said, Bank of America offers more rewards for loyal customers who hold multiple accounts with higher account balances.

Platforms and Tools

J.P. Morgan offers no downloadable trading platform, and only one trading tool, Portfolio Builder, is available through the website. Overall, beyond managing a basic portfolio, maintaining a simple watch list, and placing trades, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed doesn't come close to competing with the best online brokers.

Stock charts: For the average investor, everything required to conduct basic chart analysis is present, including customizations of time frame, bar type, event markers (e.g., earnings or dividends), and a respectable 20 optional indicators (think simple moving averages, volume, and Bollinger bands). Stock and index comparisons can also be conducted. However, compared to industry leaders such as TD Ameritrade and TradeStation, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed leaves much to be desired.

Watch lists: Watch lists are very basic, showing only the price, daily change, and a mini chart of intraday performance. Yes, there are real-time quotes, but they are not streaming, which is the same throughout the entire J.P. Morgan Self-Directed site. Lastly, instead of a streamlined table view, watch lists are organized into lists that require scrolling, making them cumbersome for more extensive symbol lists.

Portfolio Builder: Taking a closer look at Portfolio Builder, it is accessible only to accounts with at least $5,000 available to invest. While traditional robo advisors simply funnel you into one of several predefined portfolios, Portfolio Builder does the same but requires you to choose the exact holdings, then allows you to modify the weightings for each holding. Overall, for the average investor, having significant input as to what goes into the portfolio and how each holding is weighted is not ideal. I would recommend using Portfolio Builder solely for educational purposes.

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Research

Researching the markets trails industry leaders Fidelity and Charles Schwab but is sufficient for novice investors. Just be aware of the constant site timeouts (see below).

Stock research: Less a downloadable research report for certain stocks from JP Morgan, stock quotes are on the whole, nothing unique, and include no data that cannot otherwise be found at Yahoo Finance. As a comparison, Fidelity offers 12 third-party reports with free ($0) trading for all customers, regardless of the account balance. Quotes aside, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed does provide an easy to use stock screener tool.

Fund research: Fortunately, quotes for ETFs and mutual funds fare much better thanks to the inclusion of basic Morningstar data. Screening also includes Morningstar data, which is a nice plus. Like stocks, casual investors will be satisfied; however, research trails industry leaders by a measurable amount. For example, Schwab includes the full Morningstar PDF report alongside far more visual elements to help break down essential takeaways.

Market commentary: Also from J. P. Morgan's research team, is the weekly market analysis articles. Considering that J.P. Morgan Asset Management manages over $1.7 trillion, I was not surprised to see their research present in J.P. Morgan Self-Directed. On the whole, while the readability of Schwab's Insights articles and Fidelity's Viewpoints market commentary is much more fleshed out, I found the market analysis articles from J.P. Morgan to be informative and insightful.

Constant site timeouts: One final note here on research: while a lack of streaming real-time quotes throughout J.P. Morgan Self-Directed was disappointing, I was more annoyed by the constant account time outs whenever I went to check my email or work on this review draft. For investors who prefer to remain logged into their accounts and check back throughout the day for quotes and research, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed is not accommodating.

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Customer Service

To score Customer Service, StockBrokers.com partners with customer experience research group Confero to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the United States. For our 2020 Broker Review, 280 customer service tests were conducted over ten weeks.

Results

• Average Connection Time: <1 minute
• Average Net Promoter Score: 8.2 / 10
• Average Professionalism Score: 7.7 / 10
• Overall Score: 8.16 / 10
• Ranking: 8 ^th (14 brokers)

Mobile Trading

Chase makes it easy to manage your J.P. Morgan Self-Directed account via the regular Chase mobile app available through both Apple iOS and Android. Once logged in, you can view and manage all your Chase accounts, both banking and brokerage. While the app lacks features active traders would demand like advanced charting, streaming watch lists, and alerts, it provides a bug free, clean experience for everyday investors.

Watch lists: For whatever reason, Chase made watch lists nearly impossible to find. From your dashboard, scroll down to the Indices overview, then tap "View U.S. Overview". Next, from the top dropdown menu, tap and select "Watchlists".

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Education

Chase provides a positive educational experience for the topics of general investing and retirement. Navigation isn't perfect, but a foundation for growth is in place.

Educational videos: In the Learning & Insights section of the site, market reports are accompanied by educational articles and videos, which I found to be well put together. In particular, I really enjoyed the videos, which reminded of the animated educational videos found at TD Ameritrade. I counted only seven videos in total, but given the strong emphasis on quality, I'd be surprised if more aren't added in the future.

ETFs, mutual funds, and options education: If there is a drawback to the learning experience at J.P. Morgan Self-Directed, it is the lack of topic focused content. For example, while there are several articles on ETFs and Mutual Funds, it isn't enough to pass our test of offering at least ten pieces of content to earn credit in our scoring.

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Final Thoughts

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is targeting current Chase Bank customers seeking an easy, convenient way to invest in the stock market.

If are already a Chase customer and all you require are the basics to buy some shares of your favorite stock, ETF, or mutual fund, then take advantage of Chase’s free trades. If you desire a complete brokerage experience, there are better online brokers to choose from.

About Chase

The roots of Chase stem back to 1955. In 2000, Chase Manhattan Bank merged with J.P. Morgan, forming JPMorgan Chase Bank. Headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, Chase is ranked by S&P Global as the largest bank in the United States, operating more than 5,000 branches and 16,000 ATMs nationwide. JPMorgan Chase is publicly traded on the NYSE, ticker "JPM".