TD Ameritrade versus Fidelity comparison
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Ameritrade vs Fidelity Trading Fees and Investments Offered
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- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract
- No-load mutual funds: $49.99
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs
- Minimum to open account: $1,000 equity is required to open an IRA, and $2,000 to open any non-IRA account
- All TD Ameritrade fees and margin rates
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- Stocks and ETFs: $19.95 if 1-36 trades/year; $10.95 if 37-120 trades/year; $8 if over 120 trades/year
- Options: $19.95+$0.75/contract if 1-36 trades/year; $10.95+$0.75/contract if 37-120 trades/year; $8.00+$0.75/contract if over 120 trades/year
- Mutual Funds: no transaction fee when trading over 1,400 Fidelity and non–Fidelity mutual funds; $75 for all others
- Bonds: U.S. Treasury Auctions, incl. TIPS Auctions, U.S. Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, incl. TIPS - free
- GSE (Agency Securities), secondary CDs, Municipals, Corporates (BBB- or higher), CATS/TIGRS, Corporates (BB+ or lower): $1.00/bond
- Commercial Paper: $50 per transaction
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, Commercial Paper, ETFs
- Minimum to open account: $2,500
- All Fidelity fees and margin rates
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- No surcharges for penny stocks, large orders and after-hours trading
- Large and well known company with many branches
- No maintenance and inactivity fees
- Large selection of third-party research
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- Great research tools and biggest selection of independent research
- Low-cost Fidelity mutual funds
- Many asset classes to invest
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- $9.99 commission for stocks/ETFs is high, $49 commission for mutual funds is extremely high
- Poor order execution
- The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the most crucial days
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- Extremely high commissions
- Website is going down or becoming slow on crucial days
- Trading commissions and fees are tied to how often client trades and his/her net worth
- Annual fees: $25 for Simple IRA, $48 for Fidelity HSA
- $75 mutual fund Short Term Redemption Fee
- $12 annual Low Balance Fee for each noncore Fidelity mutual fund if balance is under $2,000
- Somewhat high minimum initial account deposit: $2,500 (cash and margin accounts)
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Ameritrade vs Fidelity Comparison Summary
Fidelity and
TD Ameritrade are some of the
biggest brokerage firms in the nation.
However, both firms have very high commissions: $9.99 and $19.99 per stock and ETF trade respectively.
TD Ameritrade and Fidelity have no account inactivity and maintenance fees and no surcharges for large orders,
penny stocks and after-hours trading.
Fidelity offers richer array of investment products as well as many free Fidelity mutual funds. The firm has
mutual fund related fees which could significantly reduce returns for customers investing in them.
Both companies have execution problems: orders sometimes do not execute at market price or website becomes
slow and unresponsive on high-volume days.
Commissions at Ameritrade and Fidelity are just too high for 2010: why would you pay $20 or even $10
for a stock trade if you could get it for $3-$7 at many highly-rated firms? There are five
Recommended Brokerage Firms
which offer lower stock and ETF commissions and excellent client services.
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