TD Ameritrade vs Fidelity Investments: Trading Fees and Investments Offered
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- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $49.99
- Stocks and ETFs Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Telephone System: $34.99
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract
- No-load mutual funds: $49.99
- Treasuries at auction: $25 flat fee
- All other bonds and CMOs, CDs: on a net yield basis
- Futures: $3.50 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs, bonds, CDs, UITs, futures and forex
- Minimum to open TD Ameritrade account: $0 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
- All TD Ameritrade fees
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- Stocks and ETFs: $7.95
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $32.95
- Stocks and ETFs FAST (automated service phone): $12.95
- Options: $7.95 plus $0.75/contract
- Mutual Funds: $75 per transaction, 1,400 NTF mutual funds
- 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 per bond, $8 minimum,
$250 maximum
- Commercial Paper: $50 per transaction
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, commercial paper, forex, foreign stocks, UITs, precious metals, ETFs
- Minimum to open Fidelity account: $2,500
- All Fidelity fees
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- No surcharges on penny stocks, large orders and after-hours trading
- Large and well known company with many local branches
- Very good trading platform
- Free IRA accounts
- No maintenance and inactivity fees
- Free streaming quotes
- Large selection of independent, third-party research (S&P, Morningstar Associates, and ResearchTeamTM)
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- Great research tools with largest selection of independent research
- Low-cost Fidelity mutual funds
- Rich selection of investment products
- No surcharges, except for $0.0192 per $1,000 of principal in addition to commission that is added to sell orders
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- $9.99 commission for stocks/ETFs and $49 commission for mutual funds are high
- Occasional poor order execution
- The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the high volume days
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- Extremely high commission ($75 per transaction) on non-Fidelity mutual funds
- Website is going down or becoming slow on high-volume days
- $12 annual Low Balance Fee for each noncore Fidelity mutual fund if balance is under $2,000
- $75 (minimum) mutual fund Short Term Redemption Fee (if mutual fund sold in less than 180 days after purchase)
- High margin rates
- Foreign currency wires: up to 3% of principal
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Ameritrade vs Fidelity Investments: Comparison Summary
Fidelity Investments (Fidelity Review) and
TD Ameritrade (Ameritrade Review) are some of the
biggest brokerage firms in the nation.
However, both firms have higher than average commissions: $9.99 and $7.95 per stock and ETF trade respectively.
TD Ameritrade and Fidelity don't have account inactivity and maintenance fees as well as surcharges for large orders,
penny stocks and after-hours trading.
Fidelity offers richer array of investment products than a competitor as well as many free Fidelity mutual funds. The firm, however,
charges mutual fund related fees which will significantly reduce returns for customers investing in them.
Both companies have execution problems: orders sometimes do not execute at a market price or websites become
slow and unresponsive on high-volume days.
Both online brokerages do not have IRA setup and annual IRA fees, and we recommend TD Ameritrade for a fee-free IRA account.
TD Ameritrade bought one of the best online brokers - ThinkorSwim and it benefits a lot from this acquisition. The firm
provides rich selection of third-party research, free streaming quotes and very good trading tools.
Out of these online brokers, TD Ameritrade would be our recommendation to all investors. There are also four other
Top Stock Brokerages to consider,
where investors could get lower stock and ETF commissions and excellent client services.
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