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Discount Brokerage Firms List
Below we list the names of discount brokerage firms for retail investors along
with their website link, stock/ETF commissions and minimum balance required to open a brokerage account.
To see a discount broker's rating and read a review, click on the link on the right of the side of the table.
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List of Discount Brokerage Firms
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Top Discount Brokers
If you are new to the world of online investing, one of the first thing you are going to do is to pick a discount brokerage firm with which to invest your money.
Maybe you have seen Etrade's ad on TV, or maybe you have noticed TD Ameritrade's local office. But what are other brokerage companies like Etrade, TD Ameritrade or
Charles Schwab? Surely there should be a bunch of them, and some might even be better than these household names?
We follow online investing industry closely and currently there are around 30 more or less popular discount brokers you could consider. How do you pick the
right firm for you? Well, it depends on your needs: what exactly are you looking for in your brokerage firm?
We have noticed that there are few big groups of customers looking for investing account and below we will give our recommendations on what we consider
are the best discount brokers in list above for each group:
IRA Accounts. If you are looking to open an individual retirement account - Traditional IRA, ROTH, SEP, Simple, 401(k), or Rollover IRA -
then we suggest going with
Charles Schwab. This broker's IRAs have no fees: there are no setup, maintenance,
inactivity, or annual IRA fees. A retirement account at this discount brokerage firm can be opened with no money down.
Long-Term, Buy and Hold, and Mutual Funds Investors. If you subscribe to the philosophy that one could not time the market, that investments should be held
for a while, and you don't sweat market downturns, then you are a Long-Term, Buy and Hold investor. For you, as well as for anyone looking to invest mostly in
mutual funds, the best discount brokerage firm from the list above is Firstrade.
JP Morgan's price for mutual funds is $0.
Compare it to $49.99 rate to buy (free to sell) at Charles Schwab and $49.95 at Fidelity Investments.
Stock Investors or Traders. If you are excited about an idea of investing in individual stocks or ETFs, or even trading them
actively, then getting the cheapest stock commissions would be your main priority.
Webull
has one of the best discount brokers for active traders as well as investors looking for the cheapest trading costs. The firm
charges $0 commission of stock, ETF and mutual fund trades.
Average Stock Trading Fee
When calculating an average stock trading fee, we took into consideration only brokers with per-trade commission schedules, excluding
per-share charging investing companies.
We did not include in the result any surcharges, for example, on stocks priced under one dollar or on extended hours trades. If you
trade penny stocks or during extended hours extensively, check if a discount broker you are considering charges additional commission on these trades.
We also did not take into account any maintenance, inactivity fees, or charges for using trading platform and market data - make sure to check
these fees too before opening an account.
The average stock trading fee came in at around $5.50 per trade (same for ETF trades). Out of "Big Five Brokerages" (TD Ameritrade, Etrade, Vanguard,
Fidelity and Charles Schwab) - Fidelity and Charles Schwab charge below average stock commission of $0 per trade. The least expensive discount brokerage company
- Webull - charges $0 per trade commission.
Capital One Sharebuilder lowered its commissions from $10 per trade to $7 per trade. Considering a cut-throat competition in online
stock trading industry, more discount brokerage firms might soon follow in cutting their rates. This will bring an average stock trading commission even lower, and
should benefit investors by increasing their rate of return.
List of Discount Brokerage Firms Disclaimer
Broker commissions and minimums are subject to change any time. Discount brokerage firms in the list above offer their clients accounts to
buy and sell stocks, exchange traded funds, mutual funds, options, and other investment products. Before opening an account with any
particular firm, we encourage investors to research it - read reviews and visit their website. All discount brokers listed in
this article are members of SIPC and FINRA.
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