10 Best Online Stock Brokers for 2023
Choosing the right broker can be tricky. You want to make sure that you’re getting a fair deal for your money and that the company has a strong record of customer support. But where do you start?
- Best Overall: TD Ameritrade
- Best for Low Costs: Ally Invest
- Best for Active Traders: Interactive Brokers
- Best for Options Trading: tastyworks
- Best for Beginners: E*TRADE
- Best for Mutual Funds: Fidelity Investments
- Best for Advanced Traders: TradeStation
- Best for Mobile Users: SoFi Share
- Best Global Brokerage Account: Charles Schwab
- Best Discount Brokerage Account: Robinhood
- Conclusion
Best Overall: TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade’s strengths come from its large selection of no-commission investment products and low-cost trading platforms. It also offers free education, tutorials, and other resources to help you learn more about investing.
The TD Ameritrade mobile app is easy to use, which makes it a good choice if you’re looking for an online broker that offers a solid mobile experience.
Best for Low Costs: Ally Invest
Ally Invest is a great choice for investors who want to keep costs low. There are no minimum balance requirements, annual account service fees, or IRA transfer charges. This broker also offers free trades for retirement accounts and college students, as well as an interest-earning checking account that will help you save your hard-earned money.
Moreover, Ally Invest has robust research tools that can help you make more informed investment decisions by providing data on company fundamentals (such as financial statements), industry trends, and news stories about publicly traded companies.
Best for Active Traders: Interactive Brokers
For active traders, Interactive Brokers are the best choice. The broker offers low commissions and margin rates, access to over 4,000 markets worldwide, and a superior trading platform in its WebTrader software.
Additionally, IB has extensive research tools—more than 1,500 reports and analytical tools—and good customer service for those who need help.
Interactive Brokers also offers an impressive mobile app that allows you to trade via smartphone or tablet at any time of day or night from anywhere in the world.
Best for Options Trading: tastyworks
tastyworks is a great choice for experienced traders who want to trade options. Its low commissions, low minimum deposit, and customizable platform are just some of the reasons why tastyworks is one of our top picks.
tastyworks’s trading platform offers advanced features such as risk-free trades and one-click order ticketing, which makes it easy to use even if you are new to trading stocks or options. The broker also has excellent customer service and fast execution speeds on both its web platform and mobile app (tastyworks was one of only two brokers that earned five stars in this category).
Best for Beginners: E*TRADE
For novice investors, E*TRADE is one of the best picks. The broker offers low commissions, a low minimum account balance, and an easy-to-use platform that makes it ideal for first-time investors. It also offers free stock trading apps on iOS and Android devices.
For those who want to learn more about investing before they dive in, E*TRADE provides educational resources like webinars to help them get started.
Best for Mutual Funds: Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is a great option for those seeking access to mutual funds. This broker has over 10,000 no-transaction-fee mutual funds available and offers traders over 1,000 commission-free index options.
Additionally, Fidelity makes it easy to get started by offering its own proprietary family of mutual funds as well as thousands of other companies products at no cost. This can be especially helpful if you’re just getting started with investing and want to learn more about how different investments work without having to pay any up-front costs.
Best for Advanced Traders: TradeStation
If you’re a serious trader, then TradeStation is the best choice for you.
While the broker doesn’t offer any specific tools or research that aren’t available elsewhere, it does offer some of the most advanced trading tools and platforms available.
For example, TradeStation’s Charting package includes over 60 technical indicators and overlays (including Fibonacci retracements and Gann Fans) as well as drawing tools like lines and rectangles. You can even create your own custom indicator if there isn’t one available already!
In addition to its advanced charting capabilities, TradeStation also offers a wide range of order types including stop loss orders which can help protect losses from getting too big by automatically closing out positions when prices drop below predetermined levels.”
SoFi Share is the best mobile app for stock trading, hands down. Not only does it have a clean, modern interface that’s easy to use and understand, but it also has a ton of features on top of that. For example:
You can trade stocks with just one click on your phone or tablet; no need for downloading any software or signing in at all! Just enter your username and password when prompted by SoFi Share and you’re good to go.
If you want to chat with customer service (which we think is great if you run into any problems), there are live chat options available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week from the bottom left corner of your screen. The representatives are extremely knowledgeable about how everything works and will help guide you through making trades if necessary!
Best Global Brokerage Account: Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab is the best global brokerage account because it offers a wide range of investment options and tools. The broker has a large selection of mutual funds, ETFs, and bonds that can be traded through its platform. Additionally, Charles Schwab does not have any account minimums or transaction fees for either its classic or 360 platforms. This means that you can open an account with as little as $1 and trade stocks for free with no charge whatsoever to buy or sell securities.
Best Discount Brokerage Account: Robinhood
If you’re looking for a discount brokerage account that’s free from commission fees and other charges, Robinhood is the best option. The company offers a simple interface, an easy-to-use app, and the lowest trade commissions in the industry.
There are no minimum deposit requirements or account minimums to open an account with Robinhood. Trading on this platform starts at $0 per transaction (with no monthly service fee). You also won’t have to worry about any inactivity fees because there aren’t any!
To choose the right broker, you must consider your financial goals, investing strategy, and risk tolerance.
You must take into account your financial goals, investing strategy, and risk tolerance. For example, if you have a long time horizon, such as saving for retirement in 30 years, then you may be comfortable with investing in stocks with higher volatility and lower dividend yields. Also, make sure that you are familiar with the difference between trading costs and investment fees. Trading costs include the commission to buy or sell stock (if any), while investment fees are those charged by brokers to manage assets held by clients.
Trading frequency is another consideration when choosing a broker because some firms offer very low commissions but require frequent trading of large positions in order to keep them low on an ongoing basis. If this is not how you want to trade—and it isn’t for most people—then consider whether another firm will better suit your needs by offering larger initial commissions but lower ongoing trading costs once those commissions have been paid off through frequent trades over time.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has helped you to choose the right online stock broker. If you’re still unsure, we recommend starting with one of the brokers listed above. You can always move your account to another broker if necessary later on in life.