Financial Foundry

Popular Brokerage Firm Comparison

Fidelity Investments

✅ Zero Commissions on U.S. Stock, EFT, and Options trades

✅ Designed for retirement and longterm goals

✅ No account minimums

✅ Wide range of assets

✅ Offers proprietary Fidelity mutual funds and index funds with no fees 

✅ In-depth research/screening tools

✅ Easy to use/Intuitive design

❌ No cryptocurrencies 

❌ Overwhelming UI for beginners

❌ Semi-expensive margin rates

Webull

✅  No trade commissions in Stocks, ETFs, and options

✅  Powerful charting and technical analysis tool good for active traders

✅ Fractional Shares great for beginners

✅ Extended hours with both pre and after market trading hours

✅ Intuitive UI 

❌ No mutual funds or bonds

❌ Limited learning resources

❌ Less focused on retirement

❌ Very high margin interest rates ranging 9-10%

Charles Schwab

✅ Zero commissions on U.S. stocks and ETFs. 

✅ Wide range of investment products and retirement accounts

✅ Great customer services offering 24/7 phone support

✅ User-friendly UI

✅ No account minimums

✅ Strong reputation and fractional shares

❌ Some fees with broker assisted trades and mutual funds

❌ Can be overwhelming for beginners 

❌ Higher margin rates

Public

✅ Commission-Free trades with stocks, EFTs, and crypto

✅ Fractional Shares

✅ No payment for order flow

✅ Lots of educational features allowing you to follow other investors and learn from public commentary

✅ User friendly UI

✅ Wide variety of assets such as Stocks, EFTs, Cryptocurrencies, and alternative assets through partners 

❌ No retirement accounts

❌ Limited in advanced tools

❌ No margin trading

Vanguard

✅ Lowest cost funds in the industry

✅ Low expense ratio, .03-.10% (Lower than industry average)

✅ Designed for retirement and long term goals

✅ Client owned meaning they are able to reinvest profits into lowering fees

✅ Zero commissions on Vanguard mutual funds and EFTs

✅ Cost effective for buy-and-hold investors

✅ No account maintenance fee

❌ No real-time trading tools and limited execution speed

❌ Slow customer service and Outdated UI

RobinHood

✅ Zero commission fees on stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto trades

✅ User friendly UI

✅ Fractional shares with a minimum of $1

✅ No account minimum

✅ Cryptocurrency trading 

❌ Limited educational resources

❌ Slow customer services 

❌ Plagued with controversies & trust concerns 

❌ No retirement accounts such as IRAs or 401k rollovers

❌ No mutual funds or bonds with limited ETFs

eToro

✅ Famous for its copy trader allowing you to automatically copy trades made by experienced investors

✅ User friendly UI

✅ Fractional Shares

✅ Wide range of assets and no commissions on U.S. Stocks

❌ Limited investment types of U.S. investors 

❌ Fees on crypto withdrawls

❌ No advanced charting tools for active traders

❌ No IRA or tax advantaged accounts

E*TRADE

✅ No commission fees on U.S. stocks, EFTs, and options trades. 

✅ Wide range of accounts including retirement

✅ Advanced trading tools and analysis 

✅ Wide variety of investment options such as stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, options, futures, and IPO participation

❌ No direct crypto transactions available but allows for crypto-related EFTs

❌ Overwhelming for beginners

❌ No fractional shares

❌ Higher fees for mutual funds (Those not on the no-fee list)

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