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Wednesday, December 4th
Ally Invest's stock trading platform is a great option for those who are just beginning to get their feet wet in the world of investing. With an easy-to-use platform, a mobile app, educational resources, and some of the lowest costs around, it's a beneficial place for a beginner. This, coupled with a competitive 4% interest rate on cash holdings and 24/7 highly-rated customer service, makes it a great platform for a newbie. It offers three different stock trading plans that truly fit every budget. With its mobile platform, you can integrate all of your financial business and trading into one place. There are limitations with Ally, however - there is no trading cryptocurrency, futures, or forex, and there is no way to trade fractional shares or place contingent orders. There are also many negative reviews regarding Ally as a banking institution, so if you do integrate all your financial accounts at Ally, you may run into customer service or other problems on the banking side. For this reason, we rated Ally Invest as slightly above average and not any higher.
Charles Schwab has been around for over 50 years and is a trusted name in stock trading platforms. They became well-known early on for their quick trading practices and their low fees. They are welcoming to beginning traders and offer several plans that appeal to just about any level of experience. Seasoned traders really like the Thinkorswim trading platform, a product of Charles Schwab's merger with TD AmeriTrade. Unfortunately, this merger seems to have gone a little less smoothly than desired, with many customers recently complaining of glitches, outages, and terrible customer service. While the platform is beautiful and offers many educational opportunities for beginners and experts alike, we can't give it one of our top ratings due to the current growing pains Charles Schwab seems to be experiencing.
This can be an overwhelming question for beginning investors - but that's a great place to start. First, ask yourself what level of skills or knowledge you have in investing and what your purposes for investing are. Are you brand new to the financial world of stocks, ETFs, fractional shares, and options? Are you trying to manage a large amount of wealth? Are you looking for a safe place to grow your savings over the next few decades?
Or, are you someone who has had a lot of experience in investing and wants to get back into the game or take your game to the next level? Are you wanting to take high risks, or are you more conservative in your approach? There are plenty of options out there and there are some who focus on everything and some who specialize in one or two niche markets.
For beginning traders, there are platforms that have devoted a big part of their online presence into education. Some have partnered with banks so you can do all of your investing along with your banking.
For active traders, the best platforms will have advanced charting capabilities, responsive customer service, robust toolkits, and they will also offer high-quality research resources. We highly recommend those platforms that allow for backtesting - a way to put in a particular strategy simulation and see how it might play out before committing to the trade in real life. Be sure to ask questions and double-check that whatever stock trading platform you use, they will have the tools that fit your particular needs.
For example, if you are going to be trading mostly on your mobile phone, you will want to make sure the stock trading company you choose has a strong mobile platform. Some companies do a bare-bones mobile app, and that would not be a suitable fit. Be sure to check if software platforms have a history of outages or glitches, too.
Are you the kind of investor who doesn't want to actually pull the trigger on choosing which stocks to buy on your own? You might want to look into robo-advisors or a dedicated financial advisor or team of advisors. These accounts usually come with fees as a percentage of the total amount invested, but it can be well worth the cost if you don't want to be involved in the day-to-day management and strategy on your account.
Most advisor accounts (robo or personal) involve you completing a questionnaire and/or a phone call that considers your time frame, financial goals, and risk tolerance. From there, the company will create a portfolio matching the information you gave. This portfolio will be rebalanced automatically, and you don't have to do a thing. On those types of accounts, you can find options with no fees, and the ones that do charge fees are usually much less expensive than working with a human advisor one-on-one.
Keep in mind that most of today's online stock trading platforms very proudly advertise that they charge "$0 fees." That usually just refers to a $0 commission fee. There will definitely be at least one or two fees for most accounts. Whether it's for withdrawal or broker-assisted transactions, there are going to be some extra costs associated with your account.
So, which online stock trading platform is best for you? Here are some of the criteria to keep in mind:
To help you make the most of your investments, Top Consumer Reviews has evaluated and ranked today's most popular online stock trading platforms. We hope this information helps you reach your financial goals!
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