Chase You Invest Trade Review
By Blain Reinkensmeyer / June 13th, 2019
The StockBrokers.com annual review (9 years running) takes six months to complete and produces over 30,000 words of research each year. Here's how we test.
*INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: NOT A DEPOSIT · NOT FDIC INSURED · NO BANK GUARANTEE · MAY LOSE VALUE
UPDATE JUNE 2019 - I originally opened and funded an account with Chase You Invest Trade in September 2018 during launch week. The following review has been updated to reflect my latest thoughts after having an account for close to nine months.
JP Morgan Chase, the publicly traded (ticker “JPM”) bank behemoth with over $2.6 trillion in assets, has decided to enter the online brokerage arena. Its offering, Chase You Invest Trade, offers current Chase bank and non-Chase bank customers the opportunity to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds online.
What makes the You Invest Trade experience unique, beyond its integration with Chase Bank, is its offering of free trades. The first 100 trades are free each year for Chase Premier Plus Checking customers ($15,000 min avg account balance); any trades thereafter are just $2.95. Better yet, unlimited free trades are available each year to Chase Private Clients ($250,000 min avg account balance), Chase Sapphire Banking, J.P. Morgan Private Bank, and J.P. Morgan Securities clients.
While free trades make for a catchy headline, the concept is not new. Competitor Bank of America, through its Preferred Rewards program, began offering free trades with its online brokerage arm, Merrill Edge, way back in 2014. Outside of banking, venture capital-backed Robinhood was founded in 2013 and has been offering free trading to all customers since day one.
Zero-dollar trades aside, to understand Chase’s ambitions, I opened and funded a You Invest Trade account to test the service out. Having placed over 1,000 trades since 2001 with well over a dozen different brokerages, I was curious to see how You Invest Trade would stack up against the competition. The following are my findings.
Review Summary
Free trades for certain Chase customers, together with the functionality of managing a basic portfolio are, unfortunately, the bulk of what You Invest Trade offers. For current Chase banking customers, You Invest Trade is just an OK option.
Benefits
- Universal account management for current Chase customers.
- Free stock and ETF trades for Chase customers that meet predefined account balance requirements.
Considerations
- Trading tools are essentially nonexistent.
- The mobile app lacks a quick access search bar to easily pull stock quotes, and watch lists are excluded altogether.
- User sessions automatically time out after less than ten minutes, which makes checking your account throughout the day tedious.
Special Offer:
- Enjoy up to $625 when you open & fund a new account with $25K+*. Learn More
Chase You Invest Trade offers free trades with limitations
You Invest Trade has no minimum deposit to open an account, and, as part of its launch, all new customers receive 100 free trades for the first year, regardless of account balance or banking status. This is the offer I took advantage of. Beyond this, commissions are just $2.95 per trade.
There are two ways to receive free stock and ETF trades each year:
- Chase Premier Plus Checking customers ($15,000 min avg account balance) – First 100 trades free each year.
- Chase Private Client ($250,000 min avg account balance), Chase Sapphire Banking, J.P. Morgan Private Bank, and J.P. Morgan Securities clients – Unlimited free trades each year.
Without question, Chase You Invest Trade’s approach to free trading is modeled on Bank of America Merrill Edge and the Preferred Rewards program. With Preferred Rewards, at least $50,000 (Platinum status) is required to receive up to 30 free trades each month, which is certainly more than $15,000. That said, Preferred Rewards comes with a slew of additional benefits, including money market savings boosts, credit card bonuses, and more. Compare You Invest vs Merrill Edge.
| Feature | Chase You Invest Trade | Merrill Edge | TD Ameritrade | Fidelity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Stock Trade Fee (per trade) | $2.95 | $6.95 | $6.95 | $4.95 |
| Options Base Fee | N/A | $6.95 | $6.95 | $4.95 |
| Options Per Contract Fee | N/A | $0.75 | $0.75 | $0.65 |
| Mutual Fund Trade Fee | $0.00 | $19.95 | $49.99 | $49.95 |
| Commission-Free ETFs | 0 | 0 | 313 | 500 |
| Commissions & Fees |
Only basic investments can be traded
While stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds are all available to trade, options are not (for options trading, see our guide to the best brokers for options trading).
Also excluded from stock trading are pre- and post-hours trades alongside less frequently used order types such as trailing stop orders and conditional orders.
It is important to note that You Invest Trade offers ~2,700 mutual funds as of its launch. All mutual funds offered are no transaction fee (NTF) funds, so there is no commission charged and trades do not count against free trades allotted to the account.
| Feature | Chase You Invest Trade | Merrill Edge | TD Ameritrade | Fidelity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock Trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OTCBB / Pink Sheets | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Options Trading | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Complex Options Max Legs | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Futures Trading | No | No | Yes | No |
| Forex Trading | No | No | Yes | No |
| Mutual Funds (No Load) | 2700 | 2471 | 5185 | 4031 |
| Advisor Services | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Offering of Investments |
Placing my first trade was smooth
My deposit cleared on time and I was ready to place my first free trade. Whenever testing for StockBrokers.com, I always buy the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, ticker VOO, and more or less call it a day.
Compared to other online brokerages, the order screen has some room for improvement from a design and usability standpoint. For example, placing the quote information on the far left doesn’t make much sense. However, I did appreciate seeing the free trades counter being clearly displayed. All in all, filling out the trade ticket was painless.
You Invest Trade order ticket.
From the trade ticket, an order confirmation window popped up, and after placing the order, my trade executed without a hitch. The order status page then displayed the execution price and my free trades counter updated to 99.
You Invest Trade order status.
Success. I now officially had a portfolio established with You Invest Trade. Trading aside, it was now time to set up a watch list and test out the tools, explore the research capabilities, and find out what else You Invest Trade has to offer.
Chase offers basic online trading with few trading tools
Chase You Invest Trade offers no downloadable trading platform, and only one trading tool, Portfolio Builder, is available through the website. In fact, beyond placing trades, viewing your account information (holdings, orders, etc.), basic watch lists, basic quotes, and some light fundamental research (see next section), You Invest has little to offer.
Chase You Invest Trade account summary.
Taking a closer look at Portfolio Builder, it is accessible only to accounts with at least $5,000 available to invest. I emphasize, “available to invest,” because when I went to use Portfolio Builder for the first time, the tool was unavailable, despite my $8,500 initial deposit. The hold up? I had invested $8,000 already when I placed my first trade and bought 30 shares of "VOO". Whoops. So, I went ahead and transferred another $4,500 into my account and patiently waited for access.
Fast forward another day, and Portfolio Builder was unlocked in my account.
Using Portfolio Builder was mostly straightforward. I followed the steps and hand-crafted a diversified portfolio. 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. I ran into a bug during this step but was eventually able to get it to work.
Chase You Invest Trade portfolio builder overview.
While J. P. Morgan funds were included in the selections and dominated the landscape, they weren’t the only options, which was nice to see.
After my run through with Portfolio Builder, the tool was good but could use some more polishing. The bug during customization was unexpected, and, more importantly 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 and wait for Chase’s robo to launch later in 2019.
Overall, You Invest Trade provides investors the bare bones basics to place trades, and that’s it. Being a trader, I was left wanting more.
| Feature | Chase You Invest Trade | Merrill Edge | TD Ameritrade | Fidelity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watch Lists - Total Fields | 4 | 285 | 514 | 91 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools | 0 | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 21 | 95 | 411 | 166 |
| Option Chains - Total Columns | 3 | 69 | 33 | 26 |
| Streaming TV | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Paper Trading | No | No | Yes | No |
| Platforms & Tools |
Researching the markets trails industry leaders but is sufficient for casual investors
Fortunately, Chase’s research offering is mostly better than the trading tools experience. On the downside, quotes are easy to pull but the information provided, less a downloadable research report for each stock from JP Morgan, is on the whole, nothing unique that cannot otherwise be found at Yahoo Finance.
You Invest Trade stock quote Apple.
Fortunately, quotes for ETFs and mutual funds fare much better thanks to the inclusion of basic Morningstar data, but still trail industry leaders.
Furthermore, while the provided fundamental data and stock news are both underwhelming, charting is also nothing special. Compared to the best online brokers, Chase You Invest leaves much to be desired. When it comes to charting, there is nothing here that can’t be done for free at TradingView or StockCharts.com.
For the average investor though, 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, Bollinger bands, volume, and stochastics). Stock and index comparisons can also be conducted.
Stepping away from charting, without question, the three highlights of using the research area were the inclusion of J.P. Morgan Equity Research reports (available only for certain securities), the general in-house market commentary articles, and investment screeners for stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds.
When it comes to including a third-party research report, I found the J.P. Morgan Equity Research reports to be nice, but again, nothing unique. Firstrade offers PDF reports from Morningstar with free trading for all customers, regardless of account balance. Similarly, for just $4.95 per trade, investors can access 12 third-party reports at Fidelity. That said, one available is better than none and J.P. Morgan’s research team does a thorough job. Here’s a look.
You Invest Trade stock research Facebook.
The other highlight, 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 as of the 2017 year-end, I was not surprised to see their research present in You Invest Trade. On the whole, I found the market analysis articles to be informative and insightful.
You Invest Trade market research.
My favorite research tool was screening for stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. Thanks to the inclusion of Morningstar research alongside a clean interface, I was pleased.
Chase You Invest Trade stock screener
Highlights aside, the watch lists are very basic, sporting only four columns of data and sorting for just Symbol and Price. Yes, there are real-time quotes, but they are not streaming, which is the same throughout the entire You Invest Trade site.
Chase You Invest Trade watch list.
One final note here on research: while a lack of streaming real-time quotes throughout You Invest Trade 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, You Invest Trade is not accommodating.
Needless to say, the J.P. Morgan PDF research reports available for certain equities, general market commentary, and investment screeners are the sole highlights in an otherwise lackluster research experience.
| Feature | Chase You Invest Trade | Merrill Edge | TD Ameritrade | Fidelity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research - Stocks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stock Research - Reports | 1 | 3 | 7 | 12 |
| Research - ETFs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research - Mutual Funds | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research - Pink Sheets / OTCBB | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research - Fixed Income | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research - Futures | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Research - Forex | No | No | Yes | No |
| Research |
Investor education provides a positive experience for the topics of investing and retirement
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 and Investopedia. 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.
You Invest Trade education video diversification.
If there is a drawback to the learning experience at Chase You Invest Trade, 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.
| Feature | Chase You Invest Trade | Merrill Edge | TD Ameritrade | Fidelity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Has Education - Stocks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Has Education - ETFs | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Has Education - Options | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Has Education - Mutual Funds | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Has Education - Fixed Income | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Has Education - Retirement | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Videos | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Education |
Mobile investing is provided through the Chase mobile app, which lacks numerous trading features
Chase makes it easy to manage your You Invest Trade 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.
Chase You Invest Trade mobile dashboard.
In a nutshell, the mobile experience gets the job done, but it needs works. There is no search box to quickly jump to individual quote pages. Also, while you can add securities to your watch list from a quote page, there is no way to access your watch list; instead, you can only access your watch list on the website. The list goes on.
Bottom line, the app is good for placing trading and managing the core necessities, but nothing more.
| Feature | Chase You Invest Trade | Merrill Edge | TD Ameritrade | Fidelity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Android App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Watch App | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watch List Syncing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stock Alerts - Basic Fields | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - After Hours | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading |
Final thoughts
Chase You Invest Trade has arrived and is targeting investors who require only the basics to trade stocks and manage a portfolio. Given the lack of product depth across the board, anything but free trades would be a severe disappointment at this stage.
Without question, it is easy to pick apart the You Invest Trade experience. The website has bugs, no tools beyond Portfolio Builder are offered, and the research area, in most regards, trails the free research provided at Yahoo Finance. Even the mobile app needs significant work as it lacks watch list functionality alongside a simple search box to jump to individual quote pages.
My bottom line takeaway is simple: if are already a Chase customer and all you need are the bare bones basics to buy some shares of your favorite stock, ETF, or mutual fund, then take advantage of Chase’s free trades. If you don’t meet the minimum for free trades, or you desire a complete brokerage experience, there are many better online brokers to choose from.
Chase You Invest Trade FAQ
Curious to know what You Invest does and does not offer? Don’t worry, we have you covered. Here are the answers to the most common questions readers are likely to ask.
Q: Does You Invest Trade require a minimum deposit top open a new account?
No. There is no minimum deposit required to open an account.
Q: What account types are available?
Individual or joint accounts (taxable) as well as traditional and roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs).
Q: Does You Invest Trade offer options trading?
No. While stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds are all available to trade, options are not.
Q: Does You Invest Trade offer free trading?
Currently, all new customers receive 100 free trades for the first year, regardless of account balance or banking status. Beyond this initial offer, there are two ways to receive free stock, ETF, and mutual fund trades each year:
- Chase Premier Plus Checking customers ($15,000 min avg account balance) – First 100 trades free each year.
- Chase Private Client ($250,000 min avg account balance), Chase Sapphire Banking, J.P. Morgan Private Bank, and J.P. Morgan Securities clients – Unlimited free trades each year.
Q: How do I get free trades?
The first 100 trades are free each year for Chase Premier Plus Checking customers ($15,000 min avg account balance); any trades thereafter are just $2.95.
Q: How do I know if I qualify for free trading?
Free trades are automatically credited to your You Invest Trade account after completed registration and funding. A counter on the website shows how many free trades are left available.
Q: What happens if I run out of free trades?
Once your account runs out of free trades, a base charge of $2.95 per trade is applied moving forward.
Q: Can I trade penny stocks with You Invest Trade?
No. Penny stocks trading is not currently supported.
Q: Does You Invest Trade offer stop loss orders?
Yes, basic stop loss orders are offered. However, trailing stop loss orders are not currently offered.
Q: Does You Invest Trade offer streaming real-time quotes?
No. While there are real-time quotes offered throughout the site, they are not streaming.
Q: Can I trade stocks with You Invest Trade after the stock market closes?
No. Pre- and post-hours trades are not currently supported.
Q: Which mutual funds can I trade for free?
Here is a list of all the mutual funds Chase You Invest offers for free trading.
Q: Does You Invest Trade offer streaming real-time quotes?
No. While there are real-time quotes offered throughout the site, they are not streaming.
Q: Does You Invest Trade have a mobile app?
You Invest Trade accounts can be accessed via the regular Chase mobile app available through both Apple iOS and Android.
About the author: Blain Reinkensmeyer As Head of Research at StockBrokers.com, Blain Reinkensmeyer has 18 years of trading experience with over 1,000 trades placed during that time. Referenced as a leading expert on the US online brokerage industry, Blain has been quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among others.
