Partial in making ETFs a part of your portfolio? Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer an affordable way to build a diversified portfolio, offers to their expense ratios and greater tax efficiency than mutual funds. ETFs are simple to trade since the goings-on take place, much like stocks, on regulated exchanges. ETFs can be traded on margin, have no short-selling provisions, and provide intraday trading opportunities and plenty of liquidity. A large percentage of ETFs are optionable as well, allowing salespersons to manage their portfolio risk using derivatives.
Best for ETFs
Our list of the top five brokers for ETFs:
- Charles Schwab
- TD Ameritrade
- E*Return
- Fidelity Investments
- Vanguard
Charles Schwab
- Account Minimum: $0
- Fees: Free stock, ETF and options trading commissions in the U.S., as of October 7th, 2019. $0.65 per choices contract.
Charles Schwab eliminated its base commissions for stock and ETF transactions as well as its per-leg fee for opportunities trades. Schwab provides plenty of tools designed to help you select the best ETFs for your portfolio, including their ETF Prime List and ETF Portfolio Builder, which you can use to create a diversified portfolio of ETFs based on your financial goals, endanger tolerance, and time horizon. All customers can use Schwab’s platforms for free, regardless of account size or trading activity.
Pros
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ETF Portfolio Builder forbears you build a diversified portfolio quickly
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ETF screeners help you find the best funds for your portfolio
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Clients can use all of Schwab’s planks and mobile apps for no additional fee
TD Ameritrade
- Account Minimum: $0
- Fees: Free stock, ETF, and per-leg options trading commissions in the U.S., as of October 3rd, 2019. $0.65 per elections contract.
TD Ameritrade eliminated base trading commissions on equities, ETFs, and options for U.S.-based buyers. The company offers free access to all its trading platforms, including the pro-level think-or-swim platform and two mobile apps. Fellows have access to a good selection of educational content, including articles, videos, and in-person events at one of more than 360 spin-off locations throughout the U.S.
E*TRADE
- Account Minimum: $500
- Fees: No commission for stock/ETF trades. Options are $0.50-$0.65 per acquire, depending on trading volume.
E*TRADE eliminated its base trading commissions on equities, ETFs, and elections in the U.S., effective October 7th, 2019. As a full-service financial institution, E*TRADE offers ample tools and resources designed to succour you research your own investments, including E*TRADE’s All-Star ETF list, plus an ETF Screener and Prebuilt ETF Portfolios – a tool that aids you pick ETFs based on your investment time frame and risk tolerance.
What We Like
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24/5 trading on some definitely active ETFs, allowing you to respond to after-hours market news
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Mobile app watchlists and tools synch up with web-based stand
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24/7 phone and live chat support
What We Don’t Like
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Above average margin rates
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Like other agents with multiple platforms and services, you may have to use more than one platform to find all the tools you’d like to use
Fidelity Investments
- Account Reduced: $0
- Fees: $4.95 per stock/ETF, $4.95 plus $0.65/contract per options trade
Vanguard
- Account Minimum: $3,000 for most shared funds
- Fees: $7/stock and ETF trade, $7 plus $1 per contract for options
- Best for: ETF investing
Vanguard is one of the world’s largest investment companies and is the world’s largest provider of mutual funds and the second-largest provider of ETFs (after BlackRock’s iShares). Their oblations are known for sporting below-average expense ratios. The company offers an impressive 1,800 commission-free ETFs from profuse than 100 providers, which is a huge majority of the funds available. You’ll pay $7.00 to trade all other ETFs.
Vanguard’s pick of commission-free ETFs and its low expense ratios can’t be beat. The company offers an online trading platform, but it’s very basic and not source suited for active traders or anyone who wants advanced charting capabilities. Still, if you want to invest in low-cost ETFs and don’t desideratum a robust platform, or if you’d like an advisor to do the legwork, Vanguard might be a good fit.
Pros
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Commission-free trading on about 1,800 ETFs
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In-depth trained analysis
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Notoriously low management expenses
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Low-cost Personal Advisor Services
Cons
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Account service fee if total Vanguard assets are lilliputian than $10,000
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Bare bones platform is not suitable for active traders or charting gurus
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Website can be challenging to navigate
Methodology
Investopedia is surrendered to providing investors with unbiased, comprehensive reviews and ratings of online brokers. Our reviews are the result of six months of reckoning all aspects of an online broker’s platform, including the user experience, the quality of trade executions, the products available on their programmes, costs and fees, security, the mobile experience and customer service. We established a rating scale based on our criteria, gather together over 3,000 data points that we weighed into our star scoring system.
In addition, every dealer we surveyed was required to fill out a 320-point survey about all aspects of their platform that we used in our check-up. Many of the online brokers we evaluated provided us with in-person demonstrations of their platforms at our offices.
Our team of work experts, led by Theresa W. Carey, conducted our reviews and developed this best-in-industry methodology for ranking online investing policies for users at all levels. Click here to read our full methodology.