Fidelity Investments Review

4.7/5

Extensive investment options and resources

Zero commission online trades

User-friendly platform and mobile app

OPEN ACCOUNT *Risk is involved with all trading actions

Fidelity is considered to be one of the top brokerages in the industry today. They get top points thanks to their no commissions on ETF trades or stock and a range of no-expense-ratio index funds that’s perfect for all kinds of investors.

About Fidelity Investment

Without doubt, Fidelity is the biggest brokerage firm in America and is often considered to be the go-to low-cost broker. The company was established in Boston in 1943 and currently has about 40 million investors. That’s not all, the broker has $9.6 trillion in administration, 3.1 million daily trades, and $3.6 trillion in discretionary assets. 

The company’s guiding principle is “Take intelligent risks rather than follow the crowd,” which stands true to this day. They actively invest in systems and they launch new innovations for their online trading platforms. 

Let’s see the kind of accounts they offer;

Types of accounts offered

Fidelity offers a wide range of accounts. However, we are after the accounts dedicated to trading and investing. 

Range of Investment Opportunities

The range of investment opportunities Fidelity offers is quite impressive. It’s one of the few brokers that leaves users spoilt for choice. Here are some to consider;

Other ways investors earn money through Fidelity are Stock loan programs, Price improvement, and Portfolio margining

Base currencies

When it comes to base currencies, Fidelity stands out as it offers a wide selection of base currencies clients can choose from. Currently, there are 16 base currencies and they are; 

US Dollar, EURO, Great Britain Pound, Australian Dollar, Canadian dollar, Danish Krone, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Polish zloty, The South African rand, Singapore dollar, Swedish krona and the Swiss franc.

Payment method

Clients can receive and send funds with their Fidelity accounts thanks to a variety of on-the-go services the broker offers. Their payment apps are super easy, and secure, and they offer users the needed privacy to transfer funds into their accounts. Here are some payment methods Fidelity offers;

• ATM/Debit card services
• Mobile payments: This broker has several e-wallets like Paypal, Venmo, Apple pay cash, Square cash, Google pay, and Samsung pay integrated into its systems. 
• Bill Pay.
• Check writing: users can manage and access funds from their Fidelity account with deposit slips, free checks, and they can upload online images of their cleared checks. This is one of the several features grouped with their full-service and free Cash Management Account.

Fees & commissions

Fidelity’s fees and commissions are so good that it’s ranked highly among the Best for Low-Cost category each year. For American. ETFs and stocks, the broker offers commission-free trading with no account fees. In addition, there are no minimum deposits when customers want to open a retail brokerage account. 

Here are some of Fidelity’s fees customers should be aware of:

• For starters, this broker does not charge commissions for ETF, online equity, OTCBB trades and options.
• For a 50 options contracts order, the fee is $32.50. However, it costs $65 to open and close 50 options contracts. This means the client pays on each side of the trade.
• Per-contract options fee is fixed at $0.65.
• Funds that aren’t in the no transaction fee program for mutual fund commissions are fixed at $49.95 on the buy. However, the sell doesn’t attract a charge. 
• It costs $3.25 for 500 shares plus five contracts covered call.
• For accounts below $25,000, the margin interest is fixed at 12.075 percent. Also, breakpoints of 11.575 percent for accounts with a balance below $50,000. For accounts with a balance below $100,000, it’s 10.625 percent; 10.575 percent for balances below $250,000; 10.325 percent for balances below $500,000; 8.00 percent for balances below $1 million; and 7.75 percent for accounts with more than $1 million.
• There are no charges for inactivity, software, account transfer or closure, domestic wires, exercise/assignment, checks, trade confirmations, or paper statements.
• There are exchange fees for most orders. Typically, they’re less than a penny per contract or share, which the broker passes along to the customer.
• For some mutual fund families, including CGM, Vanguard, Sequoia funds, and Dodge & Cox, are charged $75 on the initial purchase.
• Live broker fee per trade is $32.95.
• International trades incurs different fees, so it’s important to look carefully at the commissions before entering the order.

Platforms & tools

Fidelity offers three platforms and they can be used at the same time. Each platform provides news and stock quotes. However, the web platform doesn’t show this data in real-time. The web-based platform is somewhat basic and easy to use. 

Most importantly, it meets the needs of passive investors. However, there’s every possibility it will not appeal to active traders and investors. They’d most likely lean towards Active Trader Pro, a downloadable trading platform of Fidelity. 

Active Trader Pro has several more features and tools compared to the web platform. The best part is that it’s customizable. Expert traders that want to use tools to analyze options, and advanced features like conditional orders, will always go for Active Trader Pro.

The mobile app is available for iOS, Android, Amazon, and Google devices and has several similarities with Active Trader Pro. However, the mobile app doesn’t support conditional orders or fixed-income trading.

In general, navigation is intuitive across all platforms Fidelity offers. However, the website has several sub-menus that may not be easy for newbie investors to get the hang of. For more tech savvy users, Fidelity has a watch app where clients can view quote history and in-depth, real-time quotes for options, stocks, mutual funds and ETFs. Also, the watch app provides notifications for price triggers and orders.

Account opening

Opening a Fidelity account is easy, there’s no minimum deposit and users can also choose from a wide selection of account types. Surprisingly, account verification is slow to some extent.

Setting up a Fidelity account is easy if the user follows the standard process i.e. provide the documents most brokers request – mailing address, employment information, Social Security number – before the account is created. 

For existing customers, they can easily create a new account, and they can have several account types for various purposes. Clients who want to trade on margin or options need to fill out extra forms and get approval, just like other brokerage accounts.

Deposit/withdrawal experience: 

As stated earlier, Fidelity doesn’t charge deposit fees. In that regard, clients can use wire transfer, check, electronic (ACH), Venmo or PayPal to deposit funds. However, credit and debit cards aren’t available for deposits.

In addition, Fidelity gives users a feature called Bill Pay as an extra service. This service allows them to make payments and manage bills with their brokerage account, but it comes with a subscription. Bank transfer can take several business days – 2 business days, to be precise – although credit/debit card payment is instant.

For the ACH transfer, it takes 2 business days before the funds land and users can only deposit funds from accounts in their name. There are no withdrawal fees when using USD wire withdrawal or ACH, while it costs 3 percent for non-USD withdrawals.

Customer service & support

Getting in touch with customer representatives at Fidelity is easy thanks to several options they’ve made available. In addition, they have physical Investor centers that can be found across the United States. Fidelity has;

• A live chat with an agent
• 24/7 phone line
• Users can communicate with a live broker. Note that there’s a surcharge for all trades placed through the broker. 
• A Fidelity Virtual Assistant i.e. a chatbot.
• Support email
• Walk-in branches

Education & learning resources

Fidelity has tons of education and learning resources made available to users. They can get the required assistance on the fundamentals of personal finance – saving, budgeting, and managing debt. However, users have to note that financial education exceeds advice and planning. 

At the learning center of Fidelity, users can attend or view recorded webinars. These resource detail almost all aspects of options, funds and trading, and how to use the tools the broker offers, like Active Trader Pro. There are also brief courses ranked in order of skill level to help them as they advance and gain mastery. 

Research & analysis

This online broker provides an extensive list of research and analytic resources for all kinds of investors. Even for non-Fidelity customers, they can check these resources out for free and use them as they wish.

Research: the Fidelity website has a vast amount of useful information for its users. By navigating to the page for a specific stock, a user can get competitor analysis, financial data, reports and news on each stock from a range of 3^rd party research companies, including Thomson Reuters, Argus, Zacks, CFRA, and more.

In addition, they’ll get access to SEC filings and several market commentary sources. That’s not all, they’ll get more ETF reports. The best part is that this site has a clean layout that’ll make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.

Regulatory compliance & security

Fidelity has various companies that offer and distribute investments to its clients worldwide. Each company and subsidiary are regulated and authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

This regulatory body requires Fidelity to have the appropriate controls and systems to manage its business. They also have strict rules that mandate Fidelity on how to hold client assets and money.

This broker is also covered by investor protection together with negative balance protection in certain jurisdictions.

Conclusion

In all ramifications, Fidelity is the top choice among online brokers and is the go-to low-cost broker. To put this in perspective and to show how good their service offerings are, Fidelity unseated Charles Schwab as the Best Broker for ETFs. Also, Fidelity has outstanding market platforms available to all their users, be it web, mobile devices or PCs. 

Lastly, Fidelity doesn’t hesitate to leverage its already strong market position to enhance its stellar product. They do this while continuing to maintain very low administrative costs and fees. They don’t charge a commission or fee on ETF trades or stock. Also, Fidelity offers customers options, mutual funds, OTCBB (penny stocks), currencies, and fixed-income products such as corporate, treasury, municipal bonds, agency, and CDs.