Best Broker Accounts – What to Look For
Before you can start investing and trading your money, you will need to open a brokerage account. Once you place a trade order, the broker will execute that trade for you. There are many sites that will be competing for your business, so do your research. Some of the factors to consider are the following:
- Promotional Deals: Are there any promotional deals being offered? Many brokers offer sign-up bonuses or free trades to attract new customers.
- Minimum Investment: What is the minimum investment required? Some brokers have no minimum, while others may require $500 or $2,500 to start.
- Educational Resources: Does the broker provide real education? Look for brokers that offer useful, actionable information rather than just an abundance of content.
- Features and Technology: What other features do the brokers provide? Brokers are constantly updating features to the latest technology. For example, some provide alerts via SMS, while others only provide alerts via email.
- Commission Fees: What are the commission fees for options? These typically range from $5 to $10 per trade. Commission fees can add up, so focus on what you are getting with each broker. Some less reputable brokers have higher slippage. For example, when you place a market order, some brokers might buy a security at $47.20, while others might buy at $47.24. This $0.04 difference (slippage) times the number of shares you are purchasing could make a big difference.
- Advanced Trading: Some brokerage accounts are geared towards advanced traders, providing little hand-holding and support but offering reasonable prices and advanced tools.
- App Functionality: Download their app and play with it. A user-friendly app can make a big difference in your trading experience.
Below are a few brokers worth considering. These have earned high marks, but new ones make the list all the time, so do your own research as well:
- Interactive Brokers: Known for its low commissions and extensive range of tradable products.
- Fidelity Investments: Great for retirement savings and offers a robust trading platform.
- Charles Schwab: Offers a comprehensive range of services with no account minimums.
- E-Trade from Morgan Stanley*: Excellent for futures trading and offers extensive educational resources.
- Robinhood: Popular for its user-friendly app and commission-free trades.
Remember, new brokers are constantly emerging, so stay updated and always do your research before making a decision.
Remember new brokers are continuously emerging in the market place and the terms below are also continuously being modified and changed. I’m not endorsing any of them, these are NOT affiliated links and I don’t have vested interest on who you choose. This is merely to help you choose a broker that may suit your needs.
- $0 Per Trade
- .50C option/contract
- Self Directed & Managed Portfolio option
- No Walk-in Branches
- High interest rates on savings
- No minimum for self directed
- $100 minimum for managed portfolio
- Automated investing
- $0 Per Trade
- Self Directed & Managed Portfolio option
- .65C option/contract
- Active/professional trading platform available
- Extension of BOFA-offers perks for BOFA customers
- APP functionality is not all there but getting there.
- Great customer service
- CONS: No chat service, you have to call them!
- They have “Market Pro”, advance trading portal, but their representative know very little about its features and they won’t let you talk to tech. team but they play middle man-frustrating!
- $0 Per Trade
- $500 ACCOUNT MINIMUM
- TIERED COMMISSION STRUCTURE, HIGH TRADERS GET CHARGED LOWER COMMISSION.
- GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE
- $0 Per Trade
- OPTION TRADE ONLY $4.95 + .65C PER CONTRACT
- CHARGES YOU TO CLOSE ACCOUNT-$50
- 24/7 PHONE SUPPORT/LIVE CHAT & BRANCHES
- OFFERS TRADING PLATFORM FOR DOWNLOAD AS WELL AS CLOUD BASE
- $0/PER TRADE
- $0 MINIMUM
- MISSING SECURITIES TO TRADE.
- WATCH OUT FOR SLIPPAGE.
- $75 TO TRANSFER OUT
- LACKING RESEARCH INFORMATION.
- IDEAL FOR OPTION TRADING
- PORTAL SUITED FOR ADVANCE TRADER WITH LITTLE HELP.
Discover more from Investing Prodigy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.