Best online brokers for stock trading in October 2024

With its distinctive, user-friendly platform, Robinhood has lots to offer investors looking to build a portfolio of cryptocurrencies alongside their equity holdings. Remember that investing in stocks involves risk, and it’s essential to diversify your portfolio and consider your risk tolerance before making any investment decisions. If you are new to investing, it can be helpful to consult with a financial advisor before what are brokerage fees buying stocks online. Beginners can filter educational subjects by their level of knowledge.

Featured Picks From Our Best Stock Brokers

This includes how easy it is to sign up for and fund a new account. Note that a broker may score highly for the stock trading platforms, tools or research it offers, but low for the experience of https://www.xcritical.com/ actually using those features. This means a broker can offer an advanced stock trading platform, but if it is clunky to use or the process of opening an account is unnecessarily arduous, that will be reflected in their score. The star ratings below represent each online brokerage’s overall score.

Summary of the best online brokers:

• Discount brokers typically offer lower commission rates than full-service brokers, allowing them to help clients focus on achieving their investment objectives with minimal costs.
• There is no account minimum, stock trading costs or annual or inactivity fees.
• Buy-and-hold investors may be especially interested in Schwab for its low trading costs, low-fee funds and a wide offering of retirement accounts.
• It charges no commissions on stocks, ETFs, options or crypto, as well as no contract fees on options.
• Most investors don’t bother reading Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, but SEC filings are available to the public, and the information within them is like taking an open book test.

Check out Robinhood to start trading the basics for as little as $1. Cole Tretheway is a full-time personal finance writer whose articles have been featured on The Ascent and The Motley Fool. He has a degree in English with a Certificate in Professional and Technical Communication from California Polytechnic University, SLO. Once you open your account, you can then decide how to allocate it and how much to invest.

How we select the brokers for this list

Features, tools, customer support and ratings — like fees — will differ from platform to platform. Driven by value, Fidelity’s line of investment options delivers commission-free stocks, ETFs and options trades through a refreshingly modern trading platform. Impulse trading, especially amid market volatility, is a key risk for do-it-yourself investors who trade through an online broker.

How much money do I need to open an account at an online broker?

EToro’s unique blend of cutting-edge technology and social networking helped popularize social investing and it’s fostered a dynamic community of traders and investors within the eToro community. For instance, its CopyTrader lets you leverage the expertise of other eToro users by automatically replicating their crypto trades in your portfolio, and get paid when others copy you. While CopyTrader is currently only available for crypto, it’s a defining feature of the platform and one that helps it stand out as the best broker for social investing. Buy and sell more than two dozen cryptocurrencies for as little as $1 with no commissions or markups, and access up to $1,000 instantly to trade.

While striking a balance between costs and function may be necessary, you don’t need to settle for high costs and fees for an enjoyable investing experience. Automated portfolio management with a level of customization unlike many other robo-advisors, Acorns has redefined how people save and invest their spare change. With its innovative ‘round-up’ feature, Acorns automatically invests spare change from your everyday purchases, effortlessly growing your portfolio. Its user-friendly app simplifies investing for beginners, while also offering a degree of freedom to investors who want to retain control over their portfolio.

For detailed information about the categories considered when rating brokers, read our full methodology. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.

They also offer physical, brick-and-mortar office locations that clients can visit. A customer’s contact at a full-service broker is often a stockbroker or financial advisor. Online brokers are a gateway to the stock market, enabling you to buy and sell securities in your investment portfolio. Fidelity offers research reports from multiple independent providers, including Zacks and Argus. Tools such as the Fidelity stock screener, stock research dashboard and the robust Active Trader Pro platform help users identify attractive investment opportunities.

Long-time industry giants like Fidelity, J.P. Morgan, and Merrill built their businesses on human full-brokerage services. Yet today, all offer their own online discount brokerage platforms. However, investors can still choose to go with a full-service brokerage experience with human support if they’re willing to pay for it.

It does charge commissions on some trades, like bonds and non-Fidelity mutual funds, and it doesn’t offer futures trading or much of a selection of cryptocurrencies. Still, it delivers on nearly everything else, especially considering its low costs. J.P. Morgan Investing is one of those rare brokers that charges zero transaction fees to buy and sell mutual funds. It’s easy to use, even though it combines self-directed investing and an optional robo-advisory platform in one app.

When it comes to trading tools, Fidelity offers advanced traders access to Active Trader Pro, a fully-customizable trading platform with real-time streaming quotes and market data updates. Traders can also use the Real-time Analytics tool, Strategy Ideas and Trade Armour features to streamline and optimize their trading strategies. A downside of most discount brokers is they don’t provide the same level of information and trading tools as their premium peers. Fidelity provides traders with free market research from 20 different 3rd-party providers. Through this all-encompassing data collection and review process, Investopedia has provided you with an unbiased and thorough review of the top online brokers and trading platforms.

Regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) provide useful alerts and bulletins that are worth checking. Brokerage firms we label “full-service brokers” are more closely related to the stock brokers of the olden days. Full-service brokers employ human brokers who help you trade, choose mutual funds, or create a retirement plan.

We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. She is a thought leader in content diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and finds ways to make every piece of content conversational and accessible to all. Pamela de la Fuente leads NerdWallet’s consumer credit and debt team. Her team covers credit scores, credit reports, identity protection and ways to avoid, manage and eliminate debt. Previously, she led taxes and retirement coverage at NerdWallet. Since this list was compiled, TD Ameritrade has been incorporated into Charles Schwab.

But you can defend yourself by taking advantage of an online broker’s educational resources and research tools, then maintaining your discipline. You can buy stocks without a broker by using a dividend reinvestment plan, by investing in a direct stock purchase plan or by using a trading app on your smartphone. While those options make it possible to buy stocks online without a broker, on their own they are not effective ways to build a diversified portfolio of investments that is right for long-term investing. It stands out as an excellent, well-rounded platform that’s a great choice for active traders, long-term investors or people who are new to investing. Interactive Brokers’ Trader Workstation (TWS) desktop platform offers Level II market data, advanced charting, technical analysis tools, scanners, alerts and Bloomberg TV streaming. Popular features among professional day traders, such as “hot keys,” are also available.

Unlike traditional brokers, online brokers facilitate transactions through user-friendly trading platforms on the internet. These platforms provide a range of features, including easy-to-use trading tools, comprehensive research and analysis capabilities and reliable customer support. Vanguard is one of the best brokerages for passive investors who want to buy low-cost index fund ETFs.

Moomoo also offers several bonuses, adding to its appeal as one of the best discount stock brokers. First, you can receive an even higher interest rate for the first few months after you join. In addition, you can receive extra cash or free stocks after making your initial deposits.