Millennials drawn to JPMorgan app offering free trades

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s investing app is attracting newbies. Half of customers opening accounts on the bank's You Invest platform are millennials, according to Kunal Vaed, head of digital self-directed investing at JPMorgan. Some have been tempted to sign up by the bank's offer of 100 free trades, he said Wednesday at a conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "We built this offering with the idea of bringing in new customers to the firm, so one of the things that we are very proud of is 90% of customers who open new investor accounts are new to investing at Chase,'' Mr. Vaed said. The program's average user is about 15 years younger than the typical investor already with the bank, he said. (More: Bank of America offers free trades on Merrill Edge to drive loyalty)​ JPMorgan rolled out You Invest in August and plans to introduce robo-style portfolios later this year. The platform gives customers access to JPMorgan's equity research and articles on topics such as investing and financial planning. Its "learning and insights" tab saw an uptick in readers during December's stock market rout as clients sought to understand volatile market movements, Mr. Vaed said. (More: JPMorgan rolls out cheapest-ever stock ETF)​