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Trading and investing are some of the most popular ways to grow your money. But with so many different Investing brokers, it is hard to find the right solution to begin your investing journey. Here you can discover a selection of the best Investing platforms where you can trade and buy stocks, ETFs, mutual and index funds, futures, cryptocurrencies, and much more.
No matter if you are a beginner or expert, you get info about the features, fees, and usability and a short review for every broker.
To better understand some important terms, here is a short explanation:
- Brokers are a bridge between buyers and sellers for any security or asset like stocks.
- Stocks are a piece of publicly traded companies that you can buy and sell.
- ETFs (exchange trade fund) is a type of security that tracks a sector, index, commodity, or other assets. It can be purchased or sold the same way as a regular stock.
- Options are financial instruments that are based on the values of securities like stocks. An option contract gives the holder the right to buy or sell an underlying asset.
- A fractional share is less than one full share of equity. Typical fractional shares are not available from the stock market. While they have value for investors, it is difficult to sell them.
- IPOs (initial public offerings) are the process of offering shares from private corporations to the public in a new form of stock. IPOs allow a company to raise capital from public investors.
- Mutual Funds are collections of stocks and bonds that come in different shapes and sizes and cover broad stock market indexes to specific sectors.
- Bonds or fixed-income investments are loans from an investor to a company or government.
- A Trust account is any type of financial account that is opened by an individual and managed by a trustee with agreed-on terms. For example, a father can open a bank account for his child and rule until the minor can access it.
- Futures are financial contracts where the parties transact an asset at a predetermined future date and price.
- CFD(Contract for Difference) is a financial contract that pays the differences in the settled price between open and closing trades
- Forex or Forex exchange is trading one currency for another like swapping the U.S dollar to euro.
- The streamlined interface is an up-to-date interface of the different markets and trading securities
- Screeners are tools where you can sort through thousands of securities to find the ones that fit your method the best.
- Robo advisors are digital platforms that provide automated and algorithm-driven investment services with almost no human supervision. They are often automated and optimized passive indexing strategies with low fees and are best suited for straightforward investing.
SoFI
- Type: Investing Broker, Robo advisor
- For: Beginners
- Tradable securities: Stocks, ETFs, Fractional shares, IPOs, and 21 Cryptocurrencies
- Country: U.S.
- Fees: $0
- Account minimum: $0
- Promotion: None
SoFi is for beginner investors that are getting started with trading. The platform has commission-free trades of stocks, ETFs, and fractional shares. It is also possible to buy and trade cryptocurrencies over 21 cryptocurrencies. But it lacks investment choices like mutual & index funds and bonds.
You get a wide variety of investing tools for IPO, Automated, Crypto, and ETFs investing. All investors get unlimited access to the company’s financial advisors to help you build a long-term financial strategy.
Sofi’s active trading platform is straightforward but has limited features and no notifications. The mobile apps are highly rated and allow users to trade, track performance and get real-time quotes.
You get access to free online resources like historical data stock performance and webinars, and live events. Customer support is available via email and chat, and phone service is available on business days.
With SoFi you can get attractive features if you are a beginner investor, but long-term investors don’t have the option for mutual and index funds, and for advanced investors, it lacks option, forex, and futures trading.
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| Ease of Use: |  (4.0 / 5) |
| Tradable securities: |  (2.0 / 5) |
| Features: |  (3.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Support: |  (3.5 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.3 / 5) |
DEGIRO
- Type: Investing Broker
- For: Beginners and Intermediate
- Tradable securities: Stock, ETFs, Funds, Bonds, Options, and Futures
- Country: European Countries like Germany, UK, Spain, Greece, Portugal, France, Scandinavian countries, and more
- Fees: low vary from country to country
- Account minimum: $0
- Promotion: None
Investing involves the risk of loss
DEGIRO is a German-Dutch online discount broker for many European countries. It is regulated by top-tier financial authorities like BaFin in Germany. The platform has very low market fees for all asset classes like stocks and options. There are also low trading fees and no inactivity or withdrawal fees.
The account setup at DEGIRO is fast, easy, and fully digital when you have a copy of your passport/I.D. and bank account number ready. While the deposit and withdrawal are free via bank transfer, you can’t use a credit or debit card for funds.
Both the web platforms of DEGIRO are multilingual, simple, and easy to use, even for beginners. But you cannot set any price alerts. You get access to many markets and can trade a lot of different products like Stock, Bonds, Futures, ETFs, etc. However, it isn’t possible to trade CFD, Forex, or Crypto.
With DEGIRO you get some limited research function and basic news feed and charting tools that are still good enough for fundamental data on stocks. You also get quality educational tools about investing and how to use the platform
Customer support is available in many languages and over the phone possible. But there is no 24/7 live chat open.
Overall, DEGIRO is a good choice if you are located in Europe and want a simple platform with low trading fees.
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| Ease of Use: |  (4.5 / 5) |
| Tradable securities: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Support: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.9 / 5) |
Tykr
- Type: Stock screener
- For: Beginners, Intermediate, and Experts
- Tradable securities: None
- Country: Worldwide
- Fees: starting at $19/month with
- Account minimum: $0
- Promotion: 14-day trial, Lifetime access for $99
Tykr isn’t an investing platform, but it is an all-in-one stock screener platform that tells you when to buy and sell stocks. It is like a financial advisor that is available 24/7 that makes it easier to get started with investing. The platform also helps you choose a broker that is supported in your country.
In the Tykr dashboard, you can find features like All stocks On Sale, Price and Score changes, Most searched, Similar Stock, and watch list popularity. On the stock page, you can find a list of stock with company names, the score, the margin of safety, share price in dollar and native currency, as well as additional information.
There is also an education section available that provides you knowledge and tips you need to get started on your investing journey to build wealth.
With TYKR, you get an in-depth analysis and data that help you give more confidence in making better decisions in buying and selling stocks.
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| Ease of Use: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Support: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.9 / 5) |
Robinhood
- Type: Investing Broker
- For: Beginners and Intermediate
- Tradable securities: Stocks, ETFs, Options, Cryptocurrency, American Depositary Receipts for over 650 global companies, Fractional shares, IPOs
- Country: U.S.
- Fees: $0
- Account minimum: $0
- Promotion: –
With Robinhood, you get commission-free stock, ETF, and options trades, as well as a crypto trading platform. Robinhood is a discount broker that is extremely easy to use with a streamlined interface. You can trade cryptocurrencies for free, but if you compare it market-leading crypto platform, it hasn’t many features, and you can’t send or receive the coins from your wallet.
The platform doesn’t have an account minimum and 100% commission-free trade options. But the securities available are limited both mutual funds and bonds aren’t supported. Also, there aren’t options for a retirement account.
The verification process is relatively easy because Robinhood offers instant verification with many major banks. Transfers up to $1000 are available instantly for investing, and larger deposits take up to 4-5 business days.
The app for Robinhood has customizable alerts, news feeds, and enough options to place trades quickly.
There are 3 customer support options email, social media, and in-app request-to-call service 24/7.
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| Ease of Use: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Tradable securities: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: |  (5.0 / 5) |
| Support: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.7 / 5) |
Fidelity
- Type: Investing Broker
- For: Beginners, Intermediate, and Experts
- Tradable securities: Stock, Fractional shares, Bonds, Mutual funds, ETFs, Options
- Country: US, Fidelity international is available for other countries like Germany, UK, Japan, Canada, and many other regions
- Fees: $0
- Account minimum: $0
- Promotion: none
Fidelity offers commission-free trading for stocks, ETFs, and options trading, a selection of more than 3700 mutual funds, and high-quality research tools.
The brokerage platform Fidelity is easy to use for beginners and still has many customizable options for advanced traders. You get many educational resources and research options for retirement investors and active stock traders.
One of the strong points of Fidelity is the mutual funds they offer. The platform has a good reputation for its large collection of no traction fee funds, including the Fidelity Zero index Fund(no expense ratio and minimum requirement). It is an investor-friendly practice that can save you a lot of money.
With Fidelity, you get two free trading platforms Fidelity and Active Trader Pro, which include advanced screeners that use areas and strategy testing tools based on 10 years of historical data.
Active trader pro has a downloadable desktop version and a web alternative where you can toggle seamlessly between the two. This customizable platform has intuitive shortcuts, a prebuilt market, technical and option filter, advanced setting tools, and a multi-traded ticker for up to 50 orders at a time.
The mobile app has real-time quotes, multi-leg options trading, a version of the research offering, and a notebook to save ideas and articles from the mobile browser. The app makes it easy to streamline and simplify trading. You can monitor your portfolio and do research. There is an option to schedule an appointment with a Fidelity advisor, and you can customize your newsfeed.
Fidelity has many educational tools, good customer service, and options, and both serve active traders and retirement investors.
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| Ease of Use: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Tradable securities: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Support: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Average: |  (4.3 / 5) |
M1 Finance
- Type: Robo advisor
- For: individual investor
- Tradable securities: Stocks, ETFs, IRAs, and trust funds
- Country: U.S.
- Fees: $0
- Account minimum: $100 ($500 minimum for retirement accounts)
- Promotion: $30 bonus after $1000 account fund
M1 Finance is a rob advisor and has a combination of automated investing with a high level of customization that allows investors to create a portfolio to their exact specifications. The platform has low cost and doesn’t charge any portfolio, trading, or deposit/ withdrawal fees. The most experience has M1 with stocks and ETFs, for both screeners are included.
When you define or choose your portfolio and do the simple and straightforward account setup, you determine the automatic deposit that you can edit at any time. M1 supports individual and joint taxable accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, and trust accounts.
Along with the investment service, M1 Finance offers a digital bank called M1 Spend. There is also a premium offer M1 Plus which currently cost $125 a year; it includes more trading opportunities and lower interest rates on M1 Borrow(min account size $10000 up to 35%)
While a big focus on some Robo advisors is goal setting and tracking, M1 Finance doesn’t have this feature. But you get a well-designed mobile app, and each pie is easy to view. With the M1 blog, social media, and email newsletter, you can better understand the markets and improve your skills.
Customer support is provided over the phone or via email; however, you cannot consult any financial advisors because M1 isn’t an investment advisory service.
M1 is best for experienced individual investors because you need to understand your own risk tolerance and know-how stocks, ETFs, and markets work.
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| Ease of Use: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Tradable securities: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Support: |  (2.5 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.9 / 5) |
Ally Invest
- Type: Investing Broker
- For: Beginners and Indemitate
- Tradable securities: Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Option and Forex
- Country: U.S.
- Fees: $0 Trading commission, Traction fee for mutual funds, and outgoing $50 transfer fee
- Account minimum: $0
- Promotion:
Ally Invest is a low-cost broker and especially good for active traders. The platform has $0 trading costs for eligible Us securities, no account minimum, and low-cost notion trading. You can get many useful features like forex trading notifications, an automated portfolio management option, and a free tool for technical investors.
It is possible to instantly move money between Ally saving and brokerage account, which gives higher interest rates than other brokerages. You get access to thousands of mutual funds, but you need to pay a transaction fee. For advanced investors, there are no futures trades available.
Ally Invest has a browser-based platform that offers quick trading capability, real-time data and streaming quotes, a customizable dashboard, and access to all broker tools. The mobile app Ally invest is part of the larger Ally Bank app and let investor access the trading platform their holding, research, screener, a stock watchlist and much more.
You get a wide variety of research and data tools with many different calculators, a strategy builder that identifies and executes option strategies based on your criteria, an ETF screener to easily find ETFs, and much more.
Customer support is 24/7 available via phone, email, and chat.
With Ally Invest, you get competitive pricing and easy to use trading platform.
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| Ease of Use: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Tradable securities: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Support: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Average: | (4.0 / 5) |
