This article on online brokerage accounts has been updated for 2024. This is the second of a multi-part series on how to invest online outside of a 401K. The whole idea for this series started when I was asking a group of about 30 co-workers if they invested outside of a 401K, and zero of them did.
I later asked readers why they had not got started investing outside of a 401k. The first part in the series dealt with the question of whether you should pay off debt or invest. This part will deal with how to actually start a discount online brokerage account. When I polled readers, 18% said that the reason they have not invested is they didn’t know how to start an online broker account. Hopefully this post will do an adequate job in removing that barrier.
What is a Discount Online Broker?
A discount broker differs from a full-service broker in that YOU make the decision on what to invest in and actually execute the trade on your own. That may sound scary at first, but it’s really not so bad.
There are plenty of discount online brokers out there that have helped drive the cost of trading for amateur investors down significantly over the years. A discount online broker is really all you need. Full-service brokers charge exorbitant fees and don’t necessarily have your best interests in mind.
What Can you do Through an Online Broker?
There is a pretty long list of things that you can do through a discount broker, including:
- Putting your money into a money market account. If you leave your cash sitting, most will offer a nominal savings rate, much like a bank.
- Investing in a CD.
- Buying and selling stocks.
- Buying and selling stock options.
- Buying and selling ETFs.
- Buying and selling index funds and other mutual funds.
- Buying and selling corporate, municipal, U.S. Treasury, and other bonds.
And it’s relatively cheap to do all of them. Stock and ETF trades at most discount brokers are now $0 and many offer no-transaction fee mutual funds, index funds, and ETFs (more on what each of these is down the road…).
To put it simply: an online broker is a one-stop shop for you to invest your money in just about anything and invest online. There is one exception: HSAs. I created a list of the best HSA accounts, and Fidelity was the only full-service broker with an HSA account option.
The Best Online Brokers: A Comparison
To get started, you need to pick a broker. There are good options out there. Most offer relatively cheap trades. Some charge annual fees. Others have high minimum opening contributions. Some have better customer service and trading tools than others. Depending on your situation, the best discount broker for you might vary.
I generally look for accounts that don’t charge maintenance or inactivity fees or annual fees. I also look for low costs to trade stocks and funds and an easy to use interface. Here are my picks for the best online broker investment accounts:
Vanguard:
I have a number of broker accounts with Vanguard. What I really like about them is they have an extensive list of very inexpensive (low-fee) index funds, mutual funds, and ETFs under their brand and they don’t charge you for trading in and out of them (though there are a few exceptions on mutual funds).
- Stock & ETF Trade Pricing: $0
- Stock Options Trading: $0 online base commission + $1 per contract fee
- Mutual & Index Fund Pricing: $0 to purchase Vanguard branded funds, other company fund pricing varies
- Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
- Annual & Inactivity Fees: Vanguard charges a $25 account fee on IRAs and other accounts if you have at least $5 million in qualifying Vanguard assets. If you have more or elect to receive electronic statements, there are no fees. There are no inactivity fees.
- Other fees and commissions: Vanguard fee schedule
Fidelity:
Fidelity is just behind Vanguard in terms of the depth and breadth of low-cost investment options. In some regards, they beat Vanguard, with lower fees in some cases and even zero-cost index funds. As noted earlier, Fidelity is the only broker on this list with an HSA account option.
- Stock & ETF Trade Pricing: $0
- Stock Options Trading: $0 online base commission + $0.65 per contract fee
- Mutual Fund Pricing: $0 to purchase Fidelity branded funds, other company fund pricing varies
- Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
- Annual & Inactivity Fees: $0
- Other fees and commissions: Fidelity fee schedule
Schwab:
Much like Vanguard and Fidelity, Schwab carries a number of low cost branded ETFs that they don’t charge you to trade in and out of. They do have less, however. Schwab recently purchased another large broker, TD Ameritrade, and all TD accounts are now transitioned to Schwab.
- Stock & ETF Trade Pricing: $0
- Stock Options Trading: $0 online base commission + $0.65 per contract fee
- Mutual Fund Pricing: $0 to purchase Schwab OneSource funds, other company fund pricing varies
- Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
- Annual & Inactivity Fees: $0
- Other fees and commissions: Schwab fee schedule
Ally Invest:
Ally Invest also has free stock and ETF pricing. Ally does not have its own branded funds like Schwab, Fidelity, & Vanguard, however – so it might not be as good of an option for those who investing in non-ETF funds. Check out my Ally Invest review for a full run-down.
- Stock & ETF Trade Pricing: $0
- Stock Options Trading: $0 online base commission + $0.50 per contract fee
- Mutual Fund Pricing: $0 for no load funds, other company fund pricing varies
- Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
- Annual & Inactivity Fees: $0
- Other fees and commissions: Ally Invest fee schedule
How to Start an Online Broker Account
After choosing a broker, you’re probably wondering what steps you need to take to actually open an account. Check out the minimum opening deposits required, which I listed in the previous section. Note that buying into a mutual fund is usually more prohibitive than actually opening your broker account. Many mutual funds require you to have an opening investment of $1,000 to $2,500. Stocks and ETFs don’t have these requirements.
Once you have that sorted out, the steps to start an online investing account are generally as follows:
- Create a login and password.
- Choose the type of account you want. For most of you, it will be a standard individual investment account (non-retirement), Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, Solo 401K, or a Roth IRA. You’ll then be asked whether this is a cash or margin account. Since trading on margin is risky, you’ll want to select ‘cash’ 99.99% of the time.
- You’ll then have to fill out personal information about yourself including marital and income status, your Social Security number, previous investing history, etc. This information is required by federal law when you start a new broker account, so everyone has to do it, despite how invasive it may seem.
- You’ll have to fund your account. Most online brokers allow you to do this in a few different ways: via ACH withdrawal from a bank account (usually free to do), via a wire transfer (your bank usually charges for this), via a transfer from another broker, or via check. Note that most, if not all, brokers accept cash or other form of payment.
- After you fund your account, there is usually a clearing period of up to a week for a background check and for the funds to clear.
That’s it. As soon as your funds are cleared, you’re ready to invest!
Estimated time to complete the application and open an online broker account is usually under 15 minutes. It’s relatively straight forward. The hard part is waiting to invest your funds until they have cleared.
Now What?
You’re probably wondering what to do now. I will go through investing basics in upcoming posts, but I can only take you so far and can’t give specific investment recommendations. Start becoming obsessed with learning how to invest. In the meantime, move your funds to a money market account that will earn you a little bit of interest while you figure out what to invest in.
One step at a time. Open your online broker account first!
Related Posts:
G.E. — I’m curious why you have both a Roth and a Traditional IRA? I was under the impression that you *could* have both, but since combined contributions are what counts (ie. you can’t contribute to both in the same year), then there was little point in having both. Can you explain?
Maybe you’ve covered this before, and if so, can you point me towards the article?
Thx again, and keep up the awesome articles for the beginners — our country needs you! :)
-Holden
You can contribute to both in the same year. The IRA maximum contribution amount ($5K) is for both a Roth and Traditional combined. Having both offers a balance of tax benefits now and later.
Hi G.E,
I currently have a Roth IRA with wells Fargo, and I am 21 years old. I was wondering what’s the best way to allocate my assets. Currently I have 100% of my money in large cap. Is that bad? Also, if it was you, would you switch to Trade king or is wells Fargo fine?
My case study:
At the beginning of this year I rolled over 3k of a company 401k into a Roth IRA. As a result, I would have to pay taxes on that conversion. As a result, the conversion will put me into a higher tax bracket so to counter that, I will contribute 3k into a Traditional Ira which in effect cancels out my 3k rollover. I will then max out my contributions towards a Roth Ira. Both types of accounts have been effectively used to reduce my tax liability.
This is very informative.
I have a quick question given your experience with various online brokers. I am considering a Scottrade account because my understanding is that ACH transfers can be used to trade after just 1 business day. Whereas Fidelity requires a 4-5 day holding period before the money can be used for trades. Do you know which of the above brokers also allow trades on ACH transfers after just a day?
I don’t have an answer to that. I have not seen any guarantee 1 day transfers in writing. Maybe others can weigh in with their experiences?
I asked a TradeKing representative who said it takes 3 business days to clear for trading.
An online forum stated that OptionsHouse takes a few days to clear as well.
I think that’s pretty standard. Thanks for letting everyone know.
Just heard back from customer service at OptionsHouse and they state ACHs take 3-4 business days to be available for trading. I guess this means that Scottrade is somewhat of an outlier for having a 1 business day policy.
Your post is incorrect Dienekes, I am an active Fidelity customer. Fidelity lets your trade on the funds transferred in ACH within an hour. It takes 4-5 days to be able to withdrawal the funds, maybe that’s what you’re referring to? But why would you transfer funds to an investment account to withdrawal them? So to me, the 4-5 days to be able to withdrawal them is irrelevant.
I am surprised Fidelity didn’t make your list G.E. They don’t have any account fees, stocks are $7.95, they have over 3,000 mutual funds that are no transaction fee, same with their ETFs, their ETFs & mutual funds have similar if not LOWER expense ratios that Vanguard. There is no requirement on initial deposit. (Their website says $2,500 but I have spoke with their service group as well as had experience myself, where accounts have been under $10 & it has been just fine)
They have branches all across the nation & if you have over $250,000 with them, you get a personal adviser that is paid a salary so they have a balanced judgment on recommendations. Their online tools are fabulous & their customer service is world class.
The time it takes for the trade to take place would vary because each online broker has specific checks and verifications they have to complete in the background before the trade can take place.
This also applies to any other transaction as well.
These financial institutions have a duty to protect the financial system.
From what I’ve seen, Vanguard waives the $20 fee if you elect to receive e-statements on the account, regardless of your balance.
It takes about 5 business days for the funds to clear in the money market fund when I do an ACH transfer from my bank account. You can’t trade until the funds clear in your money market fund.
Good tip, Tara. I did not realize that. I know if your balance is over $50k they wave it for sure. Who needs paper statements?!
I would encourage people to use a very low cost broker. Optionshouse is great for low cost trades. I personally use Firstrade and their $7 trade is on the lower end, not to mention their lack of added mutual fund fees, and they have recently updated their trading platform to be VERY user friendly. I find that you tend to overpay with companies like Fidelity, and Scottrade.
Sharebuilder is really excellent for beginners trying to build up a portfolio. You can pay just $4 and invest a small amount of money across an entire portfolio of stock for just one trade price, Ive recommended this to many of my friends.
I’m looking to start an IRA on one of these myself. I have a what is probably a stupid question but can’t find an answer. Is the cash account part of your IRA? The reason I ask is if I am wanting to contribute say 50 bucks a month or something like that can I build up my cash account and then execute a trade once I have enough funds to purchase? Any help would be appreciated.
Any funds that you don’t invest in something else are left in a cash account.
G.E., I noticed you didn’t rate ETrade, which is obviously one of the big guys out there. Any thoughts on them?
Their trades cost too much ($9.99), mutual funds are $19.99, they don’t have many good branded options like Vanguard or Schwab, and they charged me a custodial fee of $25: https://20somethingfinance.com/my-battle-with-etrade-over-a-25-fee-on-a-no-fee-ira/
I get that but are these funds considered to be part of your ira? Is the cash account like a money market? If the funds in the cash account are transfered out is that considered a withdrawal from your ira? Thanks for the help.
Yes, the funds are part of your IRA. At Vanguard, “cash” really means holdings in a money market fund. When you open a brokerage account, you open a connected settlement account which is a money market fund. It’s like transferring money between funds in your 401(k).
If you transfer funds from the cash account to another money market or use it to buy shares, it’s not considered a withdrawal from your IRA. If you transfer the funds to a bank account, however, it is.
So yes, you can let funds accumulate in the cash account until you have enough to buy something.
Does that makes sense?
That is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for your help.
It’s worth thinking about what sort of investments you might want to make, now or in the future. Brokers differ widely in the range of investment products they handle. Most everyone does stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds. But what about options, commodities, currencies, etc.? You might think these are beyond you, but they’re often necessary to stay safely invested today. Many low-risk investment strategies use such seemingly exotic securities.
Brokers also differ in what they charge for different sorts of security. Low prices on stock don’t mean low prices on funds or options, etc.
Global trading is also important. The economy is rapidly globalizing, and the ability to trade foreign securities becomes more necessary every day. Ask which exchanges a broker covers, both in the US and abroad.
I’ve used Interactive Brokers with pleasure. They have low prices on a broad range of domestic and foreign securities.
Thanks again for a great article about on-line brokers.
I currently have Scottrade but want to switch to an online broker that allows ACH transfer out of the account. Scottrade currently only allows transfers in and it’s a different process to get your money out.
any suggestions?
Great question. Look forward to answer.
Hey on the reviews of brokerage accounts they all say something along the lines of $5.00/trade. Does that mean you have to fork over five bux every time you want to buy or sell stock?
Yes. Which is why it’s better to buy/sell less frequently.
I am looking to start trading but don’t know how or where to start this forum has been very helpful I am looking to build up investment and would like to know who is the best company to start with.
I’m wanting to try some penny stocks. Can I do this thru an online broker, as in one of the brokers you mentioned in your article?
Do online discount brokers transfer money into your bank account when you trade stocks
Great information there – thank you. I wanted to go for Vanguard, but didn’t want the 20 dollar fee. I contacted Vanguard and you can get the fee removed simply for subscribing for electronic communications rather than mail through your door. So you don’t have to have $50,000 to invest with them without that fee.
I just want to say this blog helped me find Betterment, which was a way to get over my initial problems with getting started in investing. I knew I needed to do it, I just didn’t know WHAT to invest in.
I’ve been tucking away 100 bucks a month into the account since February, and even through a layoff, and a month of being unemployed, I kept contributing to it and paying myself first. There’s now over 1,000 dollars in the account.
That has led me to become more focused on getting smart with my money, and I started sometime in June buying/selling things on Ebay for profit, and i’m currently making an extra 150 – 200 bucks a month, and moving to expand even further with that.
I also ended up reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, and that just reinforced what I already started doing.
I don’t know if I’d be this far at this point without this blog having helped to get going with that first step.
Thanks a ton for what you do.
I am 37 years old and am self employed. I would like to invest in something for retirement. I do not know anything about stocks and trading. Would a Roth IRA be a good choice for me?
Potentially Denyel. This article was written 4 years ago. I think it might be a bit outdated. I use my self-employed accounts through Fidelity. No transaction costs, no minimum balance & world class service. I would call their “Small Business Department” 800-544-5023 & they will walk you through everything step by step. There is no cost to meet with their advisers & they have branches all across the nation!
I personally would recommend them way over all the rest of these because they have lower fees, great online tools & seriously the best customer service I’ve ever received.
G.E.-
Let me thank you for your COMPLETE detailed list and synopsis of HSA account administrators.
FYI, BanCorp Bank is getting out of the HSA business and just focusing on pre-filled credit card business–seems like such a weird banking segment, but that’s what they want to do.
I just received notice this month of the closure of the HSA business and they are pushing me toward Health Equity. However, since I am heavily invested in self- brokerage of my HSA funds, I need something a bit more flexible than what HealthEquity is providing. looking heavily at HSA bank.
thanks again for you synopsis.