J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing Review

If you’re a Chase customer who prefers to keep your banking and investing under one roof, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing may feel like a natural fit. The platform is built with the long-term casual investor in mind, with tools to help plan for retirement, hit savings milestones, or just make your money work a little harder.

Casual investors will find solid research, decent fixed-income options, and a nice dose of macroeconomic context. That said, if you’re an active trader who loves dissecting charts and real-time data, this probably isn’t your playground. J.P. Morgan isn't trying to be all things to all investors – and honestly, that’s okay.

Pros & Cons

Overall summary

Range of investments

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is a full-service brokerage firm. It delivers the essentials, like stocks and ETFs for passive investing and beginners just starting their investing journey. As you graduate to a more diversified portfolio, you can layer in fixed-income products, basic options trading, and a wide variety of account types. J.P. Morgan offers more than just individual taxable accounts and IRAs; you’ll find options for retirement, custodial accounts, and even business investing.

This versatility is what earns J.P. Morgan the "full-service" label. J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing serves up a well-rounded offering that satisfies the basic needs of long-term, goal-focused investors. While it might not cater specifically to active traders, it delivers everything for casual investors seeking simplicity and stability.

Commissions and fees

These days, $0 commissions for stocks and ETFs are the industry standard. In that sense, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is no different than other major industry players, such as Fidelity, Schwab, and E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. The real competition between brokerage firms isn’t in the base pricing anymore. It’s in the tools and features they offer to win your business. However, if you offer a wide array of investment options, there is room for some pricing competition.

Fixed-income pricing: Where J.P. Morgan stands out is in its fixed-income pricing, which is becoming increasingly important as we experience higher interest rates making bonds and CDs more attractive. Secondary trades for U.S. Treasuries are $0 – a standout feature for government bond investors.

Bonds: For corporate, municipal, and agency bonds, the fees are straightforward: $10 per trade, plus $1 per bond for orders over 10 bonds (capped at $250). While competitive, keep in mind that fixed-income trades across the industry sometimes involve markups, markdowns, and hidden costs baked into the price that aren’t always easy to spot. Fixed-income products don’t always get the spotlight, but they shine at J.P. Morgan.

Mobile trading apps

One thing that stood out to me right away about J.P. Morgan Self-Directed’s mobile app is that it’s essentially a carbon copy of J.P. Morgan’s web platform experience. For a full-service brokerage firm, this level of consistency is a big win. Anything you’ve grown comfortable with on the web platform should be just as easy to find on the app, with data neatly condensed for a smaller screen.

Research: Researching markets, stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds on the app is refreshingly straightforward. You get a quick snapshot of market performance – major indices, top movers, and filtered news – all laid out clearly. That said, I noticed pre-market updates can lag, which might leave you feeling a step behind. And if you’re hoping for advanced tools like technical analysis or in-depth options insights, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Placing trades: Placing a trade is easy enough for beginners; buying a stock only takes a few taps. But I have to admit, some design choices caught me off guard – like having to input a limit price before selecting the number of shares.

Education: One thing I appreciated was the curated educational content and analyst opinions available through "The Know." But here’s my issue: finding it felt like solving a puzzle. The navigation isn’t the most intuitive, and the app’s persistent pop-ups don’t help. Still, if you’re willing to do a little digging, the resources add valuable context and make you feel a bit smarter about your decisions.

Other trading platforms and tools

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing stands out with thoughtful planning tools and practical resources. For me, the standout highlights were the Wealth Plan tool and the Tax Resource Center. Beyond that, the platform offers a refreshing approach to essential features like the Positions page, where you can toggle between asset classes, tax lots, and margin details. It’s easy to access key documents, from trade confirmations to shareholder materials, all in one place. Margin traders will appreciate the detailed tab.

Wealth Plan: The star of the show here is the Wealth Plan tool, a tool designed for goal-setting and financial planning. I was able to set my goals and priorities while factoring in my income, monthly spending, and even Social Security. What impressed me most was its holistic approach – it didn’t just show me my goals and target amounts, but also highlighted gaps in my plan.

Retirement planning: One standout feature was the cost-of-retirement comparison across different cities. For example, when I entered my target monthly spending, the tool showed me how that budget would stretch (or shrink) depending on where I planned to retire. It even had a goal simulator, allowing me to tweak factors like retirement age or expected spending to see how those changes would affect my plan.

One delightful surprise? The tool automatically invested my Social Security excess – nice touch! That said, I did have to do some backward math to realize where all that extra money was coming from, which felt a bit clunky. Overall, it’s a tool that delivers real value.

Taxes: Let’s be honest—no one wants to think about taxes. But when you’re investing, it’s unavoidable. This is where J.P. Morgan’s Tax Center shines. It provides clear guidance on everything from IRA rollovers to the dreaded K-1 forms for small business securities. For long-term investors, the explanations and expected availability dates for tax forms are super helpful. However, if you’re an active trader dealing with wash sales or 1256 contracts, you might find the resources lacking.

Research

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed excels in many areas of research. From market overviews to in-depth reports, there’s a lot to like. However, fixed income and options research leave room for improvement, particularly in accessibility and educational support.

Market research page: One of the standout features for me was the market research page. It’s among the best I’ve seen for understanding what’s happening at a glance. You’ll find the three major indices, daily highs and lows for each, and a concise summary that answers the critical question: Why is the market moving? This page also features news, top movers, and a "Today’s Events" section packed with everything you’d want to know: conference call schedules, analyst rating changes, dividend updates, earnings releases, guidance, economic events, IPOs, and splits – all sourced from Benzinga.

The inclusion of commodities data and a yield curve comparison (current rates vs. one month and one year ago) was amazing. My excitement turned to disappointment when I realized the ‘current’ yield curve data lagged by what seemed like a week, making it nearly useless for assessing the credit market.

Research reports: J.P. Morgan’s in-house research reports reignited my excitement. They allow you to explore the "why" behind market movements with a professional lens. The organization here is excellent – you’ll find economic commentary, the latest rating changes (with direct links to reports), and weekly economic updates, all presented clearly and concisely.

Stocks and funds: When it comes to individual stock and fund research, the platform delivers the fundamentals you’d expect from a full-service brokerage. What impressed me most were the dynamic bullet points under each quote, tailored to the type of security:

• For funds, you’ll see the investment objective, expense ratio (with a helpful comparison to the fund category), and an income view versus its peers.
• For stocks, the bullet points provide the next earnings date, year-to-date performance compared to the S&P 500, and dividend information.

If you’re looking for deeper analysis, you’ll find plenty of third-party analyst reports alongside J.P. Morgan’s own insights, making it easy to dig into the details.

Fixed-income research: The fixed-income research is comprehensive, covering corporate bonds, treasuries, CDs, and municipal bonds. You can filter by ratings, external evaluations, coupon rates, yields, callable types, and more. While the data is thorough, the experience feels designed for those who already know their way around fixed-income trading. There’s little to no contextual education here, so if you’re new to bonds, be prepared to do some homework outside the platform.

Options: Options research is where the platform falls short. There’s minimal data essential for even basic strategies like covered calls making it difficult to structure or evaluate trades. If you’re looking to build complex options strategies or screen trades like a pro, you’ll be disappointed. The tools here are more for dipping a toe into options rather than making a splash.

Education

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing offers a huge library of educational content, covering everything from stocks and funds to fixed income and macroeconomic trends. The quality and even the quantity of the material is great, but there are significant organizational concerns.

What stands out:

J.P. Morgan offers high-quality educational content. I stumbled upon helpful pieces on growth stocks, earnings season, and bonds versus stocks. Likewise, the available educational resources for funds are great. You can dive into topics like inverse ETFs or compare mutual funds versus ETFs with detailed, well-written articles. The platform even offers insights into market movers, like the yield curve and macroeconomic trends that influence stocks.

Another strong positive note here is J.P. Morgan’s partnership with Napkin Finance. I’ve always been a fan of their infographics, which visually break down complex terms into digestible nuggets. It’s one of my personal favorite educational resources. Unfortunately, these are buried deep within the platform.

Room for growth:

Here’s the catch: When looking for educational content at J.P. Morgan, you need to know exactly what you’re searching for to get the most out of it. When I was attempting to find or search for topics as simple as, “what is a stock?”, it felt like a scavenger hunt. Typing "stocks" into the search feature in “The Know” pulled up over 1,000 articles, which felt more overwhelming than helpful. Suggested readings or “what you may like” recommendations feel generic and often unrelated to the topic you’ve selected, which disrupts the learning flow.

The one area where content feels noticeably thin is options trading. While other topics have an abundance of material, options education lacks the same depth and breadth. This is a theme if noticed consistently with J.P. Morgan Self-Directed across their entire options offering.

Banking services

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed is a bank-backed brokerage firm – not a brokerage firm that happens to offer banking. In other words, it’s a bank-first platform. The integration with Chase Bank ensures a seamless, unified experience for managing both your banking and investing needs.

• Real-time fund transfers: Easily move money between Chase checking, savings, and investment accounts.
• Extensive banking network: Access over 4,700 branches and 15,000+ ATMs nationwide.
• Premium cash management: Competitive deposit rates, such as 3.80% APY on premium deposits, provide opportunities to earn on idle cash.
• Robust digital tools: Chase’s online and mobile banking platforms allow for account management, bill payments, and fund monitoring.

While integration is smooth for Chase customers, some workflows, like account opening and maintenance tasks, can feel cumbersome and banking-first rather than investment-focused.

Final thoughts

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is a strong choice for intermediate, long-term investors – particularly existing Chase Bank customers who will appreciate the seamless banking integration and access to J.P. Morgan’s proprietary research. The platform stands out with high-quality tools for portfolio monitoring, macroeconomic insights, and tax resources. However, it falls short on advanced features for active traders and lacks the robust educational support beginners may need to get started confidently.

Here are my top takeaways for J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing in 2025:

1. Seamless banking integration: If you’re already a Chase customer, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed might be a natural fit. The platform leverages Chase’s extensive brick-and-mortar coverage and bank-backed convenience, offering perks like real-time fund transfers that make managing your money across banking and investing accounts effortless.
2. Strong research and planning tools: From the robust Wealth Plan tool to expertly crafted research reports, J.P. Morgan equips long-term investors with the insights and tools needed to stay on track. Whether you’re planning for retirement or navigating market trends, these features provide meaningful support for goal-based investing.
3. Not for options traders: A recurring theme throughout the platform is its limited focus on options trading. From the lack of advanced tools in the options chain to minimal educational resources on strategies, it’s clear that options traders may struggle to find the depth they need.

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FAQs

Does J.P. Morgan have a trading platform?

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing does not offer a downloadable trading platform. Instead, it provides a streamlined web and mobile experience that works well for long-term investors but lacks the advanced tools active traders expect. For more robust options, check out our Best Trading Platforms for 2025 guide to find brokers with industry-leading features.

Is J.P. Morgan Chase a good investment company?

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is a solid option for Chase Bank customers looking to manage their banking and investing in one place. It’s well-suited for casual, infrequent trading and long-term investors. However, those seeking advanced tools, deeper analytics, or features offered by top-ranked brokers may find it falls short.

What’s the difference between J.P. Morgan self-directed and automated?

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing is for investors who prefer a hands-on approach, managing their own investment decisions without paying advisory fees. Automated Investing, on the other hand, is Chase’s robo-advisor service that builds and manages a portfolio for you based on your goals and risk tolerance. This service comes with a small fee: about 15 cents per month on a $500 minimum investment (just over 0.3% annually). However, it’s worth noting that the portfolios exclusively use J.P. Morgan exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which can be pricier compared to their industry peers.

How much money do you need to invest with J.P. Morgan?

Good news—there’s no minimum deposit required to open a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account, making it accessible for investors of all levels. If you’re considering Automated Investing, J.P. Morgan’s robo-advisor service, you’ll need a minimum deposit of $500 to get started.

Does J.P. Morgan charge investing fees?

J.P. Morgan offers $0 commissions for stock and ETF trades, which is standard across the industry. For options, J.P. Morgan charges $0 per trade plus $0.65 per contract, aligning with typical fees seen at other top brokers.

About J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., headquartered in New York City, is the parent company of the Chase Bank and J.P. Morgan brands, which merged in 2000. The firm's origins date back to 1799, and it has evolved through the consolidation of approximately 1,200 predecessor institutions. As of September 30, 2024, J.P. Morgan's Asset & Wealth Management division reported assets under management (AUM) of $3.9 trillion, reflecting a 23% increase from the previous year. Today, J.P. Morgan Chase stands as the largest bank in the United States, managing a vast array of financial services for a diverse clientele.

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing 2025 Results

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