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Our Take
Brokerage industry heavyweight Fidelity con♛tinues to be our top broker for low costs and ETFs this year, and has also topped our rankings as the best broker for 𓄧cash management for the first time.
Fidelity offers customers competitive pricing, nearly every account type, and a broad array of trading products, including stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, options, fixed income (U.S. Treasurys, corporates, municipal bonds, and CDs), some cryptocurrency trading options, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:penny stocks (after receiving trading approval). There are alღso robo-trading and pre-packaged investment products available at Fidelity.
Beyond the trading products, Fidelity provides excellent desktop and mobile platforms, tons of calculators and portfolio management tools, excellent research and news, and vast educational content.
Editor's Note
In addition to our review of Fidelity's online brokerage platform, we've also reviewed the company's robo-advisor service, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fidelity Go.
Introduction
Fidelity was founded in Boston by Edward C. Johnson and is now one of the largest brokerage companies in the world, with $15.1 trillion in assets under administration, $5.9 trillion in discretionary assets, and 3.5 million daily average customer trades. Fidelity also manages employee retirement accounts for over 28,800 businesses and supports more than 15,700 wealth management firms and institutions. Fidelity has more than 77,000 employees a🔜nd 216 invest𒉰or centers in the U.S. The company remains family-owned and operated.
Fidelity continues to innovate and improve to better serve its customers. Some recent updates include launching the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), creating the Fidelity robo advisor to manage simplified employee pension plans (SEP IRAs), adding fractional share trading within Personalized Portfolios, and employing new technology to help small- to mid-sized investment advisors help grow their businesses. Fidelity also expanded Fidelity Medicare Services to all 50 states, launched a Student Debt program that companies use to help their employees pay off their student loans, and released its 15th annual Plan Sponsor Attitudes Study, which helps advisors better understand their clients.
Pros & Cons
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Low costs and fees
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Wide selection of products to trade
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Excellent order execution
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Great screeners
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Free third-party research
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mobile♏ app lacks punch for advanced users
澳洲幸运5ꦬ开奖号码历史查询:No futures, options on futures, o🍨r spot forex
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历𓄧史查询:May not appeal to multi-leg options traders
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Limited cryptocurrency offerings
Pros Explained
- Low costs and fees: Fidelity offers free stock and ETF trading, as well as thousands of no fee mutual funds to choose from. Options pricing and margin rates are also competitive. Further, there are no fees for outgoing transfers and many other items that some brokers charge.
- Wide selection of products to trade: Stocks, ETFs, 10,000-plus mutual funds, as well as U.S. Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, CDs, international stocks and ETFs in 25 countries across 16 currencies, basket portfolios, physical metals including gold bars and coins, and three popular cryptocurrencies are available for trading at Fidelity.
- Excellent order execution: Fidelity, unlike many online brokers, does not accept payment for order flow, and this shows in Fidelity’s superior trade execution.
- Great screeners: Fidelity offers excellent, highly customizable stock, ETF, mutual fund, and fixed income screeners.
- Free third-party research: Many brokers don’t offer third-party research at all, but Fidelity offers it for free, allowing clients to get insights from professional analysts.
Cons Explained
- Mobile app lacks punch for advanced users: While the mobile app is intuitive and easy to use, it does not have all the features available on Active Trader Pro. This means you can’t enter conditional orders or enter multi-leg options positions on the mobile app. Advanced and high volume traders may want greater flexibility and control of their trading strategies.
- No futures, options on futures, or spot forex: You can’t trade spot foreign exchange, futures, or futures on options at Fidelity. If you want access to these markets, you will have to look elsewhere.
- May not appeal to multi-leg options traders: Since you are paying for each leg of a trade, options trades at a seemingly reasonable rate of $0.65 per contract per turn can get expensive if entering into large multi-leg butterfly and condor options strategies.
- Limited cryptocurrency options: Fidelity offers direct trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. While this is better than what many competitors offer, crypto-focused traders may have to look elsewhere.
Usability
Like most online brokers today, the account opening and setup process at Fidelity is quick and easy. The customer provides their name, address, and Social Security number, the broker quickly runs know-your-customer and money launderin🐭g checks, and assuming there are no problems, the account is open. There are no minimums required to open an account.
Fidelity offers multiple platforms, including a straightforward web-based platform best fit for beginner and intermediate traders. There is also a Trading Dashboard designed for intermediate and advanced users, but Fidelity’s most powerful platform is a downloadable desktop program called Active Trader Pr🌸o, which offers various advanced trading tools and analytics.
Fidelity also has a well-rounded mobile app, although its functionality lags behind the Active Trader Pro platform. The app is fairly easy to navigate, and provides key information about a stock such as quotes, fundamental data like previous earnings, as well as analyst ratings. Placing orders on the mobile app is also intuitive and easy.
Trade Experience
It is easy to trade at Fidelity, regardless 🍌of your experience or trading style. The company has a web-based platform, a very powerful desktop trading application called Active Trader Pro, and mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Amazon devices.
In addition to basic trading functionality, there are plenty of other tools, inclu🌄ding excellent screeners for stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and options. All platforms support trading all the markets available, but Active Trader Pro is required for those looking to trade multi-leg options strategies, obt꧟ain streaming quotes, and enter conditional orders. Further, Active Trader Pro has superior charting abilities compared to other platforms.
Order execution at Fidelity is excellent, which is attributable to Fidelity not taking payment for order flow and the company’s commitment to 🐭providing great execution. Fidelity also offers users research,ꦫ including third-party research and Morningstar reviews, to help investors make investment decisions, along with news reports and all the tools, calculators, and analytical capabilities you could need.
Survey Insight
According to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Investopedia's latest Reader Survey, our readers revealed that they still own ⛄their favorite stocks, despite tariff and recession-related worries being 🐠among their top concerns.
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Mobile Trade Experience
Mobile trading on Fidelity is good but fairly basic. Most advanced traders may find that Fidelity’s mobile app is lacking the full functionality they need. There is no drawing on charts, and trading is limited, as conditional orders and multi-leg options strategies are not available on the mobile app. Further, the menu options are limited, with the choices of Investing, Transacting, Planning, and Discovery. The app also restricts order types to more basic ones, such as buy, sell, limit, stop, and trailing stop. The app works well and is straightforward to use, it’s just that it lacks more advanced functionality.
Range of Offerings
Fidelity provides a wide range of assets to trade, but it does not offer futures, options on futures, or forex. Here’s what’s available:
- Stocks
- ETFs
- Mutual funds
- Options
- Fixed income
- Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin
- Litecoin
- Ethereum
- Bitcoin and Ethereum funds
- Gold and precious metals (buy physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bars; $2,500 minimum investment)
- International exposure through stocks, ETFs, and funds across 25 countries and 16 currencies, and the option to settle trades in dollars or the foreign currency
- Basket portfolios
Importantly, Fidelity offers 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:fractional share trading in stocks and ETFs, allowing clients to invest with as little as $1.
Order Types
Many order types are available across Fidelity’s desktop and mobile platforms. These include:
- Market
- Limit
- All or none
- Immediate or cancel
- Fill or kill
- On the open
- On the close
- Do not reduce (used on good ‘til cancelled orders; related to ex-dividend related price adjustments)
- Not held
- Stop
- Stop limit
- Trailing stop loss
- Trailing stop limit
- Trailing stop with trigger values (on last round lot, bid price, or ask price)
- Conditional orders
- Contingent (one of eight trigger values for any stock, up to 40 selected indices, or any valid options contract)
- On-triggers-the-other (OTO)
- One-cancels-the-other (OCO)
- One-triggers-a-one-cancels-other
Trading Technology
Fidelity offers very solid trading technology. First off, the company does not accept payment for order flow, so it has excellent price execution. Fidelity reports price improvement on 95.47% of shares, an average execution speed of 0.04 seconds, and an effective price spread of $0.0031, resulting in average price improvement of $24.50 for a 1,000-share equity order, far above the industry average of $4.34.
The Active Trader Pro platform for the most advanced traders is incredibly customizable, allowing users to create a personal workstation with real time data, visual analytics, charting൩, and other trading tools.
In addition, Fidelity supports fractional share trading, dividend reinvestment, and the ಞability to🍃 control tax lots, and even offers paper trading through Active Trader Pro. Fidelity does not support trade journaling, but this can be integrated with third-party journaling platforms.
Costs
Much of Fidelity’s offering is no-commission, and the few fees it charges are reasonable, which is why Fidelity is our current best br🅠oker for low costs. While Fidelity’s charge of $0.65 per contract per round turn in options is not excessive, those trading multi-leg options strategies or are very active traders may prefer a lower-cost platform for options trading. Fidelity’s commission schedule is transparent and easy t♛o understand, with a breakdown as follows:
Stocks and ETFs
- No commissions
- Representative-assisted trade: $32.95 per contract
Options
- $0.65 per contract, per side
- Representative-assisted options trades: $32.95 per trade plus $0.65 per contract, per side
Bonds, CDs, and U.S. Treasury Securities
- Secondary issues: $1 per bond; additional $19.95 for representative-assisted trade
- New issues: $0
- U.S. Treasury securities: $0 for auction and secondary issues online
Mutual Funds
- Fidelity funds: $0
- No transaction fee (NTF) non-Fidelity funds: $0 on purchase; $49.95 redemption fee if the fund is held for less than 60 days
- Transaction fee non-Fidelity funds: $49.95 per purchase; no charge on redemptions
Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum
- The trading fee is a 1% spread built into the price; no additional fees
Margin Rates
Fidelity utilizes a base rate and then adjusts the rate higher or lower depending on the assets in the account. The current base rate is 11.325%, and scales down as your account has more assets. The effective rate starts at 12.575% for accounts with debit balances less than $25,000, and at its lowest, is 8.25% for accounts with debit balances of $1 million or more. Although these margin rates are not out of line, and are even lower than some of Fidelity’s competitors, they are not low. Very active traders utilizing margin extensively may consider a different broker, such as Interactive Brokers (IBKR), which charges just 5.83% for an account with $25,000, and as low as 5.17% for accounts with more than $3.5 million. As such, an account with $25,000 would have a margin rate difference of 624 basis points between the two brokers, potentially leading to significant expenses for frequent margin users.
Here’s ๊the current breakdown of margin rates at Fidelity:
Account Balance | Base Rate | Change to Base Rate | Margin Rate |
---|---|---|---|
$0-$24,999 | 11.325% | +1.250% | 12.575% |
$25,000-$49,999 | 11.325% | +0.750% | 12.075% |
$50,000-$99,999 | 11.325% | -0.200% | 11.125% |
$100,000-$249,999 | 11.325% | -0.250% | 11.075% |
$250,000-$499,000 | 11.325% | -0.500% | 10.825% |
$500,000-$999,999 | 11.325% | -2.825% | 8.500% |
$1 million+ | 11.325% | -3.075% | 8.250% |
Other Fees
Fidelity does not char💟ge many of the fees levied by some competitors, including the fol꧋lowing:
- Account service fee
- Proprietary retail mutual fund investment minimums
- Mutual fund low balance fees
- Account transfer out fees
- Minimum investment fees
- IRA closeout fee
- Late settlement fee
- Bank wires
- Insufficient funds fees
- Stop payment fees
- Bill payment fees
- Account ATM fees
How This Broker Makes Moneಞy From You and For You
Fidelity makes money from customers in multiple ways, but payment for order flow is n🐻ot one of them, in contrast to many other online brokers. Further, Fide🔯lity’s fees are almost nonexistent. Fidelity does, however, generate income from its customers in multiple ways, including:
- Margin interest: The difference between the margin rates it charges clients and the rate at which Fidelity can borrow funds can be as high as 600 basis points, generating income for the company.
- Stock loans: Fidelity, with the account owner’s permission, will use the stock you own to lend out to people who short that security. Fidelity will split the income generated from stock lending with the customer.
- Interest on money market funds: Fidelity’s money market mutual funds pay interest at a rate lower than their borrowing rate, allowing the company to generate income from the cash in customer accounts. It is not uncommon for brokers to generate income from their customers’ accounts.
- Wealth management and robo investing fees: Fidelity Wealth Management, where you work one-on-one with a financial advisor, is available for accounts with at least $500,000, while Fidelity Private Wealth Management is for accounts with more than $2 million and offers customers a wealth management team led by their financial advisor. Gross advisory fees ranging from 0.20% to 1.5% are applied to wealth management accounts, and a fee ranging from 0.20% to 1.04% is applied to assets in the private wealth management account. Robo investing, called Fidelity Go, has no fees on accounts with less than $25,000, and unlimited 1:1 coaching calls for a fee of 0.35% per year on balances above $25,000.
Fidelity makes money for you with:
- Interest on cash balances: Fidelity currently pays 3.94% APY on uninvested cash held in client accounts.
- Good price execution: Fidelity not taking payment for order flow results in savings to customers in the form of superior price execution.
- Free trading for multiple markets: Fidelity customers have free trading for stocks, ETFs, and thousands of mutual funds.
Account and Research Amenities
Fidelity offers clients a great bang for their buck relative to creating tools, research, and other accounꦿt amenities. Fidelity has excellent screeners fo💙r multiple markets, news, research, tools, calculators, idea generators, and educational content to help support its traders with the markets.
Stock Screener
Fidelity has an impressive stock screener that can be completely customized using over 140 criteria, both fundamental and technical. Strategies such as growth and value and other categories such as dividend payers, bargains, bottom-fishing, and more than two dozen criteria can be customized by the user. There are also pre-made screens that can be used immediately or customized further.
ETF Screener
Similar to the stock screener, Fidelity also offers a robust ETF screener, which allows users to search by fund family, market cap, sector, and other criteria. Further, there are an additional 86 criteria that can be customized, and include the ability to use technicals, fundamentals, investment philosophy, and anything else the user would want to filter on.
Mutual Fund Screener
Considering that Fidelity offers more than 10,000 mutual funds on its platform, it’s a good thing it has a good mutual fund evaluator/screener, which also includes preset screeners and the ability to customize based on categories and asset classes. Other criteria include Morningstar ratings, index funds, Fidelity funds, and environmental-social-governance (ESG), to name a few.
Options Screener
Fidelity offers an options strategy evaluator tool that 🌜allows you to compare a single-leg option or up to two multi-leg strategies on an underlying symbol. Results are paired with the strategy, along with a net price. Fuꦜrther, the results can be modeled to show expected outcomes based on your view of the market.
Crypto Screener
Fidelity does not offer a cryptocurrency💟 screener, although it does offer news, quotes, and charts for cryptocurrencies.
Fixed Income Screener
Screeners for fixed income work a bit differently, in that there is ꦡa dedicated section for bonds, CDs, fixed income mutual funds, and ETFs. From this section, you can use the fixed income menu to choose what you are looking for. Listings show various credit qualities and maturities in a grid so you can find the security that best suits your needs. Dropdown menus in the fixed income section allow for further narrowing of the screen, such as looking for an interest payment of 5%.
Tools and Calculators
Fidelity is full of tools and calculators, and has a page that allows users to choose the tools they want to use in an intuitive way. There are more than 40 different tools available. You can find a tool by topic, description, or name, and even filter based on either product or topic, such as estate planning, charitable giving, retirement goals, investing strategies, and more. Users can also budget and see all of their holdings, including from outside accounts, and organize their finances with the Fidelity Full View tool.
Charting
Charts are available on all platforms. They are fairly basic on the web and mobile apps, and have the ability to change the time component of charts and add a series of indicators such as moving averages, Bollinger bands, and many others. Active Trader Pro, however, 🤡allows for further customization and drawing on charts with many indicators, making it the platform of choice for traders who require advanced technical analysis.
Trading Idea Generators
Trading ideas can be generated through the customizable tools on Active Trader Pro, which include a strategic idea tool, filters, and technical analysis. The key tools for generating ideas on Active Trader Pro include filters, real time analytics, and Trade Armor, which provides charting, news, and the ability to set exit strategies that utilize a visual trade ticket that the user can use to drag and drop stop order to support levels or limit orders to resistance points. The tickets created also show the profitability or potential loss, depending on which order is filled.
News
Fidelity offers customers helpful news and related information, such as economic release calendars. The primary news page is segmented into helpful sections, such as U.S. markets, company news, inv🔥esting ideas, U.S. economy, technology, and international. Fidelity curates its news from multiple sources, and the newsfeed can be customized to filter by source. News sources on꧅ Fidelity include Reuters, Benzinga, Kiplinger, and MT.
Third-Party Research
Fidelity offers third-party research for free, which is not something many brokers boast. When researching a stock, users get to see an average rating and multiple research reports from🦂 multiple third-party researchers, including Zacks and Argus, to name a couple. Fidelity’s free third-party research stands out compared to other online brokers.
Fractional Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP)
Fidelity offers a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:dividend reinvestment program, where dividends received areꦐ automatic🍬ally reinvested in the stock. The DRIP program can also be applied to fractionally purchased shares.
Cash Management
Fidelity has a cash sweep program where unused cash in an account is automatically swept into a Fidelity money market mutual fund. This provides interest income to the account owner. While the interest rate is not great on the FDIC-insured deposit Sweep Program mutual fund, with a 2.21% annual rate, it is still a better return than some of the other online brokers, some of which pay no interest on idle cash. The non-FDIC Insured sweep option is the Fidelity Government Money Market Fund, which currently has a 3.94% seven-day yield.
In addition to the cash sweep, Fidelity also offers other banking-related services, including credit cards, access to ATMs💯, and checking 𒈔accounts.
Portfolio Analysis
Portfolio analysis is another strong area for Fidelity, as it has created a planning tool that customers can use on their own. You can also link external accounts to see your entire financial picture in one place. Analysis provided can show asset allocations, top holdings with their analyst ratings, and information on other asset types in your portfolio, such as fixed income. In addition, Fidelity Full View is another tool to help customers see their entire financial picture.
Survey Insight
According to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Investopedia’s latest Reader Survey, readers still choose individual stocks as their top choice for where they would invest if they had an extra $10,000 on hand, even though their appetite for risk has faded since Febru🅘ary. This is followed by ETFs, money market funds, and CDs.
Education
Fidelity has a robust educational offering. There is a Learn tab at the bottom of the News & Research menu. Once in the Learn area, you can choose content based on topics such as financial essentials, life events, investing and trading, investment products, and advanced trading. There are also options to see the latest market insights, expert viewpoints, and money tips and tactics. There are articles, videos, webinars, and Q&A sessions for different topics. In addition to this educational content, Fidelity also provides a comprehensive glossary of investing terms.
Customer Service
Fidelity provides dedicated customer service, including phone and virtual assistant support 24/7 and live chat during normal business hours. Further, there is a help center and a YouTube channel that can answer many questions users may have about their account and Fidelity’s services.
Security and Reliability
Fidelity is a secure platform, and the company has manꦫy protocols in place to identify and prevent suspicious activity, including multi-factor authentication with facial and fingerprint biometrics. Further, Fidelity will inform you of a login from a computer it does not recognize as your own. Fidelity also has a security center that allows account owners to manage their security sett🍬ings, which can include granting access to third-party applications you use, setting up trusted devices, and disallowing the ability to transfer funds out of your account.
Fidelity also provides insurance protection that goes beyond the standard SIPC coverage.
Transparency
Fidelity is transparent. Its fees are easy to find and understand. Further, Fidelity voluntarily provides full price improvement information so clients can know what execution quality to expect.
Available Account Types
Fidelity has the account you need if you live in the U.S., as there are 48 different account types available. This includes accounts for individuals, couples, minors, businesses, investors, and traders of all experience levels. Retirement accounts are also available, along with pension accounts, 529 educational savings accounts, IRAs, custodial accounts, health savings accounts (HSAs), trust accounts, and even a youth account that allows young investors to make their own investment decisions. If the account you are looking for is not on the list below, it would be shocking! Specific account types available are as follows:
- Taxable brokerage accounts
- Individual
- Joint
- Retirement accounts
- Traditional IRA
- Traditional IRA Fidelity Go (robo advising)
- Traditional IRA Managed FidFolios
- Roth IRA
- Roth IRA Fidelity Go
- Roth IRA Managed FidFolios
- Rollover IRA
- Rollover IRA Fidelity Go
- Rollover IRA Managed FidFolios
- Inherited IRA
- SEP IRA
- SEP IRA Fidelity Go
- Self-employed 401(k)
- SIMPLE IRA
- Investment-only plan for small businesses
- 401(k) plan for small businesses
- Crypto account
- Crypto IRA
- Crypto traditional IRA
- Crypto rollover IRA
- Business account
- Fidelity Managed FidFolios
- Personalized portfolio account
- Targeted stock and bond portfolios
- Roth IRA for kids
- Attainable savings plans (to help people with disabilities and their families save for expenses while keeping certain governmental benefits)
- Cash management account
- Health savings account (HSA)
- Fidelity Go HSA
- Custodial account
- Fidelity Wealth Management account
- Fidelity Youth Account for teens aged 13-17
- Fidelity Go Robo Advisor account
- 529 educational savings account
- Charitable giving account
- Estate account
- Low-cost deferred variable annuity
- Deferred income annuity
- Deferred fixed annuity
- Immediate fixed income annuity
- Term life insurance
- Fidelity Basket Portfolio
- Start Investing Bundle
- Retirement Savings Bundle
The Bottom Line
There is a reason♔ Fidelity is our current best overall broker, best broker for ETFs, and 🔥best broker for low costs: The company offers a powerful, comprehensive platform suitable for the needs of almost every trader and investor. It charges low to no fees while providing extensive account amenities such as news, charting, great research, and excellent tools like stock screeners, options analysis tools, and educational resources.
Users have the option to choose a platform that works best for them, from a basic web platform to the fully customizable Actiﷺve Trader Pro. In addition, Fidelity charges very little in fees for services that other brokers charge for, and has offices all throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world to provide additional support. Fidelity simply covers all bases, and covers them well; it is a wise choice for any prospective client.
Compare Fidelity to Similar Online Brokers
Broker | Star Rating | Minimum Deposit | Stock Trades | Per Contract Options | Max Option Legs | Number of No-Load Mutual Funds | Fractional Share Trading of Stocks | New Spot Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fidelity Investments | 4.8 | $0 | $0 | $0.65 | 4 | 3,260 | Yes | Yes |
4.7 | $0 | $0 | $0.65 | 4 | 14,900 | Yes | Yes | |
3.8 | $0 | $0 | $0.65 | 4 | 6,310 | Yes | Yes |
How We Picked the Best Onlꩲine Brokers and Trading Platforms
Providing readers with unbiased, comprehensive reviews of online brokers and trading platforms is a top priority for Investopedia. We combined our industry research and subject matter expertise to guide the research and weightings for our 2025 online broker rankings. To co🌺llect the data, our r꧒esearchers collected data points through online research of provider websites. To fill in any gaps, our research team reached out to the individual brokerages. In some instances, our researchers did much deeper online research to get the information they needed to complete the data collection. The data collection process spanned from Dec. 20, 2024 to Feb 19, 2025.
We then developed a proprietary model that scored each company to rate its performance across 11 major categories and 120 criteria to find the best online brokers and trading platforms. The score for each company’s overall star rating is a weighted average of the criteria in the following categories:
Online Broker Evaluation Categories
Category | Weight |
---|---|
Research Amenities | 12.78% |
Trading Technology | 11.86% |
Range of Offerings | 11.59% |
Trade Experience | 10.12% |
Costs | 10.00% |
Educational Material | 8.95% |
Mobile App Usability | 8.93% |
Portfolio Analysis and Reports | 7.67% |
Customer Service | 6.98% |
Account Amenities | 6.16% |
Through this all-encompassing data collection an🌃d review process, Iꦛnvestopedia has provided you with an unbiased and thorough review of the top online brokers and trading platforms.