Edward Jones Online Trading, Self-Directed Investing (2024)

Edward Jones online trading, self-directed investing, active stock trader platform, website, and app in 2024.

Edward Jones Self Directed Investing

Edward Jones does not offer self-directed investing. All investing is done through Edward Jones advisor.

Edward Jones Online Trading

Edward Jones does not provide online investing through a website, app, or trading platform. Of course, active day trading is also not possible at the company. As an alternative, we recommend one of the largest brokerage firms in the United States – .

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Edward Jones Account Types Offered

Edward Jones offers the following account types: Individual, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Pension and profit–sharing plans, Trust, Charitable organization, Family partnership, Limited liability company, and Corporate account.

Edward Jones Personalized Service Review

I first opened my Edward Jones IRA account. It was a rollover 401k from where I previously worked. My new Edward Jones advisor took a very strong interest in making sure he set the account up exactly the way I wanted and to fully fit my retirement goals.

Although this is the first IRA I've had, I do have experience with other financial service companies. Mainly in the form of stock and bond brokerages. My experience with other financial services has been very impersonal. Typically, you are provided with web based analysis information and that's about it. If you call to discuss something with a professional financial analyst, you get the next available person who has no real interest in your finances. In reality, they are pushing financial products that earn them the highest commission.

Not so with Edward Jones. When I first opened my account, my personal financial advisor spent more than an hour in a face-to-face meeting with me to understand my financial goals and needs. Only then, did we discuss how to invest my money.

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Edward Jones Investing Experience Review

Initially, he helped me invest in a mix of assets. These included individual stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

About a year after my account was opened, I received another telephone call from my personal representative. He wanted me to come to his office to review my account. One of the advantages with Edward Jones is the representatives are community based. In my opinion, they are much more capable of providing personal services than representatives working from Wall Street. No account changes were made at the second meeting but he wanted to be assured that the account was performing to my satisfaction.

Edward Jones Investments Review

It was a few months later, he called me again. This time he had specific advice that he wanted to discuss with me at his office. Being proactive and innovative, Edward Jones Headquarters had established a new type of account that would be aggressively managed by professional finance analysts. It was essentially a new mutual fund. I placed my entire account into it. The analysts watch the market to buy and sell according to where they forecast the market is going. At first, I was a little skeptical. I thought there might be some account churning going on. Account churning is when the financial advisor buys and sells for the purpose of earning commissions rather than for the investor's financial benefit.

To my pleasant surprise, the account has remained very stable. There have been some changes but they correspond to changes in the financial markets. For instance, about the time the economy tanked in late 2007, the analysts moved out of more risky investments into conservative ones they thought would do better during the coming recession.

It turned out to be a good move. Yes, my account lost money just like almost every other one invested on Wall Street. But not as much as most. The S&P 500 fell 56.8% during the Great Recession. In comparison, my well-managed Edward Jones IRA account fell only 28% during the same time. Today, its recovery is out pacing the S&P 500. Both are doing nicely in my opinion.

When my retirement account was in the corporate 401k, I had to fully manage my investments. It could not be done by investing in individual companies. It was done by investing in categories of sock. For instance, there was a Science and Technology Fund and a Money Market Fund. I was only able to diversify my investments across these types of broad categories. Still, that required a substantial effort on my part to stay current with trends on Wall Street.

Edward Jones Fees

There are fees and charges just as there are with other financial advisors.

Edward Jones charges a $40 annual IRA fee, plus a 2% fee on stock trades, reinvested dividends and dollar cost averaging.