Offers international trading, forex and fractional shares Desktop and mobile platforms are comprehensive and easy to navigate Does not receive payment for order flow. Our ratings take into account the range of fees, features and tools offered by each online broker platform. Ratings are determined solely by our editorial team. Trading Commissions. Account Minimum.
Who Should Choose Fidelity? Fee-conscious investors will appreciate the lack of fees for many services, such as: Outgoing wires Full account transfers out Paper statements Paper confirmations Other fees are among the lowest of those in our survey. Fidelity Platform and Technology Account Types Fidelity has among the widest range of account types in our survey of brokerages for individuals, families, businesses and managed accounts. Fidelity Account Trader Pro The Fidelity trading platform and tools rank among the top three of our surveyed brokers.
Advanced and customizable features include: Alerts Portfolio builder Trade journal Heat mapping AI assistant Watch lists Level II quotes Screeners Extended hours trading Multi-leg options trading The platform is easy to use and has most of the features traders need including real-time analytics and trading ideas.
Customizable chart features include: chart indicators Ability to trade from chart Drawing tools Historical trades Ability to save chart settings as template Order Types Fidelity received a perfect score on our survey for order types.
Fidelity Managed Portfolios Fidelity managed portfolio options are expansive. Fees range between 0. Other app feature available to all users include: Customized news feed and alerts Planning for retirement and goals Live TV, news, webinars, podcasts Screeners Social sentiment Trade and transact Money management and bill pay One drawback of the app is that for some research, it transfers you to the online platform.
Fidelity Range of Offerings Fidelity offers a wide range of securities suitable for most investors, from stocks, options and fixed income to among the best selection of mutual funds. Fidelity Research and Education The research offerings at Fidelity outshine those at the majority of online brokerage platforms. Fidelity Customer Service and Security We ran extensive customer service tests considering accuracy of responses and wait times for phone, email and text customer service.
Other industry standard security features include: Firewalls bit encryption Two-factor authentication Account insurance is more than adequate for most investors. Get the Forbes Advisor newsletter for helpful tips, news, product reviews and offers from a name you can trust. I agree to receive the Forbes Advisor newsletter via e-mail. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information and details on how to opt out.
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Jump to: Full Review. Learn More. Large selection of research providers. Strong customer service. Expense-ratio-free index funds.
Highly rated mobile app. Options trading with Active Trader Pro is also impressive and includes a variety of analysis tools. Overall, Fidelity competes among the best brokers for day trading. The entire website experience is meticulously laid out, clients can access portfolio updates via Google Assistant, and the broker provides terrific in-house market commentary.
Stock research: When pulling quotes, Fidelity provides 16 third-party research reports for stocks and five for ETFs, the largest of any broker. Is that information overload? But it illustrates how thorough Fidelity is when it comes to research. However, surprisingly, no third-party research reports are offered for mutual funds, despite Fidelity offering both Lipper rankings and Morningstar ratings. As a regular reader myself, my favorite Viewpoint article is the annual sector outlook report, which highlights key trends to watch and includes detailed sector analysis.
Fidelity offers three mobile applications, its flagship mobile trading app, NetBenefits for payroll, and Fidelity Spire, which is designed to help you financially plan and set goals.
While active traders may be left wanting more, for the majority, Fidelity delivers, winning our award, No. Customizable dashboard: Upon logging in, a unique, customizable dashboard experience, displayed as a personalized feed, greets you. Market cards float on top of varying scenery images that rotate after each login in your personalized feed, creating an experience found nowhere else. Cards cover everything, from market news to portfolio and watch list insights.
Other unique features: Research is robust and exactly what one would expect to find after using the website. Among many other highlights of the mobile app is the note-taking functionality, which allows you to log personal thoughts on individual stocks and the broader markets.
There is also live streaming TV from Bloomberg within the mobile app, matching the Active Trader Pro desktop platform. Fidelity's sought-after mutual funds are highly regarded for their lengthy track records, along with competitive costs. Fidelity also charges no commission fee to buy its funds. Fidelity is one of a handful of brokerages that offer access to international markets.
It allows customers to trade on 25 different markets, though higher commissions may apply depending on the exchange. Being able to drop into one of Fidelity's offices to speak to a representative can offer a lot of peace of mind, especially when you have issues that can't easily be solved over the phone.
Fidelity is one of the few mainstream brokers that allows investors to buy and sell fractional shares of stock. Investors can place orders for a certain dollar amount, or for a specific fractional share quantity, all the way down to three decimal points in many cases.
In other words, if you want to buy 0. Fidelity's iOS and Android apps both receive high marks from users, mainly for the versatility that allows investors to manage an array of account needs on the go. Here are the current app store ratings. Learn more and get started today with a special new member discount. Fidelity is better suited to investors who aren't actively trading on margin.
It's higher-than-average margin rates are one reason why. If you want a trading platform with more robust capabilities: TD Ameritrade is hard to beat with its diverse suite of investing tools, including best-in-class desktop, mobile, and online trading platforms. Combine that with high ratings for customer service, and we think this stock broker is worth reviewing for almost all investors looking for a top broker.
If you want better margin rates: Interactive Brokers is the de-facto low-cost stock broker. This is never more clear with its margin rates, which are consistently a fraction of what you'd be charged at competing brokerages. What you pay to make a trade isn't everything, but trading costs are one of the most important reasons why investors turn to discount brokers in the first place.
The table below shows how much Fidelity charges per trade or transaction, based on the type of investment. Bear in mind that this table reflects Fidelity's base commissions.
In many cases, investors pay less than these rates, on average, thanks to free trades on certain mutual funds, including Fidelity's own proprietary mutual fund products. And its low options commissions make it competitive with the best stock brokers for options. One of Fidelity's major advantages is that it has one of the widest selections of funds, including its own line of Fidelity funds. Combined, Fidelity account holders can purchase nearly 4, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds without paying a transaction fee or commission.
When it comes to mutual funds, Fidelity's own funds including Fidelity index funds are available in no-transaction-fee and no-load forms. Not only that, but some of Fidelity's own index funds have no expense ratios whatsoever.
Commissions aren't the only cost of having a brokerage account. We read through Fidelity's fee list and found a few fees that are worthy of some additional discussion. Fidelity offers a web-based trading platform in addition to a platform for active traders.
Even the basic web-based solution is quite powerful, though, offering real-time streaming quotes through the watch list feature. Its mobile apps available on iOS, Android, and Windows offer the functionality you'd expect, with charting tools, and the ability to trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and options right from your tablet or smartphone.
Admittedly, as long-term buy-and-hold investors, we don't demand much more from a platform other than the ability to check prices and place a trade with a few clicks. At a certain point, personal preference is ultimately the deciding factor between which platforms are "better" or "worse.
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