Review of WellsTrade
WellsTrade may not be the most well-known brokerage firm on the market, but it does offer some solid
investing services in a few areas. Let’s take a closer look and see whether Wells Fargo’s online
discount broker can measure up to your current firm.
Investments and Accounts
Wells Fargo offers both self-directed and managed account choices. On the portfolio-management side, it has a robo program called Intuitive Investor®. This service charges 0.35% per year and invests in low-cost ETFs with zero commissions. Wells Fargo Bank customers may qualify for an advisory-fee discount, and the program now requires a minimum deposit of $500. Access to Financial Advisors is included at no additional cost.
Alternatively, there is a traditional package available through Wells Fargo Advisors. This route makes it possible to build a personalized relationship with a human advisor at a Wells Fargo branch location. Fees depend on account value and the assets selected. You can compare those costs with the fees charged by the best-priced financial advisors in your area.
For investors who are comfortable making their own decisions, self-directed accounts are available. These include various types such as IRAs, individual and joint taxable accounts, SEP IRAs, Coverdell education accounts, and certain other registrations available by phone.
Self-directed traders will find a moderate selection of tradable assets:
- Fixed-income securities
- Stocks
- Options
- ETFs
- Closed-end funds
- Mutual funds
Unlike managed accounts, self-directed accounts have no ongoing fees or minimum requirements.
Cash Management Features
Although WellsTrade is owned and managed by Wells Fargo, it still does not offer especially strong banking tools. The brokerage does not come with a debit card or
checkbook, so ATM fee refunds are not part of the package.
Still, WellsTrade accounts do come with Brokerage Cash Services for eligible account types. That setup can be used for money transfers, teller deposits at Wells Fargo branches, mobile check deposit, ACH activity, and certain other cash-movement tasks. It’s also possible to link a Wells Fargo checking or savings account to a WellsTrade account and access them with a single login.
Website Trading
WellsTrade’s website delivers fairly basic trading tools, and during our investigation, we found the site easy to use, mostly because it keeps things simple.
To begin exploring the site, you can use the search field in the upper-right corner. This widget provides a drop-down menu for entered ticker symbols and includes features such as a small chart, option chains, alerts, detailed information, and a trade button.
The broker’s order ticket has 4 trade types. They are:
- Market
- Limit
- Stop
- Stop limit
There is also an "all or none" radio button and two time-in-force selections: GTC (Good 'Til Canceled) and day. Options and mutual funds have their own order tickets with relevant fields, which can be accessed through the tabs at the top of the stock trading ticket.
Charts on the WellsTrade site cannot be expanded to the full width of a computer monitor, which is a significant drawback. However, there are seven plot styles available, including dot and candlesticks, along with several drawing tools and a few technical studies. Price data for up to 30 years can be displayed for securities with a lengthy history.
Option chains on the WellsTrade site display puts and calls only, without any spreads. Greek values and special derivative tools are also absent, although volume and open interest are shown.
Mobile App
The WellsTrade mobile app offers the same trade types and duration choices as the website. It also includes alerts and watchlists. However, the charting functionality is limited, lacking drawing tools and technical indicators.
On a positive note, the WellsTrade app allows trading of options and mutual funds, which is not always available with all brokers. Additionally, the app provides some banking services, including check deposit.
Other Software
If you're looking for a desktop program to enhance your trading, WellsTrade does not offer one. Its only software choices are the main website and mobile app, and both are fairly basic compared with what many competitors provide.
Customer Support
None of WellsTrade's software platforms include a chat widget, either with automated or human support. The website does have a self-help section that provides a few useful resources, such as a tax center and a tool for password changes.
For live assistance, WellsTrade has representatives available by phone from Monday to Friday, 8 am to midnight EST. Unfortunately, there are no weekend hours, and there is no branch network dedicated to WellsTrade itself (although some Wells Fargo locations may offer services for advisory clients).
Pricing Schedule
Like most of its rivals, WellsTrade now charges $0 for stock and ETF trades when they are placed
online or through the broker’s automated phone system. Using a live stock broker over the phone to
place a trade costs $25.
Trades of mutual funds don’t have this $25 surcharge, so they are the same price whether traded online or over the phone with an agent. Funds with transaction fees are $35 on each side (buy and sell).
Although WellsTrade has eliminated commissions from stock and ETF trades, it unfortunately still
has an options fee of 65 cents per contract.
Using a living, breathing agent over the phone to place a derivative trade tacks on a $25 charge.
Exercises and assignments can only be done over the phone with a broker, so they carry the
additional charge.
Margin Borrowing
Most WellsTrade accounts are eligible for margin borrowing. The brokerage house charges margin rates on a tiered schedule. Currently, the sliding scale ranges from 12.5% (for debits below $25,000) to 5% (for debits above $10 million).
Households with larger asset balances do receive discounts on the broker’s margin rates. A household is defined as accounts with the same address or ownership. The available rate breaks increase as household assets rise.
Research and Education
On the WellsTrade site, we discovered screeners for most of the investment vehicles offered by the broker, such as equities, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs. However, there are no screeners available for closed-end funds or options.
To access the broker's screeners, you can go to the Research tab in the top menu, where you will also find other educational resources.
WellsTrade's equity screener is available in both basic and advanced modes. The advanced mode offers more criteria, but even in this higher-level mode, there are some missing search variables.
The mutual fund screener provided by WellsTrade does a better job by offering a wide range of criteria, including fund family, standard deviation, and turnover ratio.
Under the Research tab, you will find a Commentary & Strategy section, where you can access numerous articles in PDF format. These articles mainly focus on recent market trends, such as "S&P 500 slides for a fifth straight day" or "FOMC Meeting Key Takeaways." Some articles also concentrate on specific investments, like "Dynamic Growth Equity List: Holdings by Sector" or "Recommended Closed-end Funds by Asset Class." These articles are typically published by the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
News articles can also be found under the Research tab, including publications from GlobeNewswire, the Associated Press, and PR Newswire. Market news covers data on stock indexes, futures contracts, forex pairs, and interest rates. However, not all of these products are tradable with a WellsTrade account.
Stock profiles on WellsTrade provide trade recommendations and PDF reports from Morningstar and Wells Fargo Securities. Additionally, there is a Consensus Rating from multiple analysts.
Miscellaneous Services
DRIP Availability: WellsTrade customers can enroll both ETFs and stocks for automatic dividend reinvesting. This can now be managed in the Wells Fargo Mobile® app.
Initial Public Offerings: IPOs will not be found at WellsTrade.
Fractional Shares: WellsTrade now offers Stock Fractions℠ for hundreds of stocks and ETFs through the Wells Fargo Mobile® app.
Recurring Mutual Fund Purchases: This service is still available.
Extended Hours Trading: The broker does NOT offer the pre-market session. There is after-hours trading from
4:01 pm till 6:30 pm EST. It is available only on mobile. Webull offers trading from 4:00 am till 8:00 pm EST.
Individual Retirement Accounts: SEP, SIMPLE, Roth, and traditional accounts are available at WellsTrade. What we don’t like is a $49.95 closeout fee.
Recommendations
Retirement Savers and Long-Term Investors: On top of its IRAs, WellsTrade also has qualified retirement plan support and portfolio-management services. Its robo and old-school management services would be
good choices for retirement planning, and we do like its selection of target-date mutual funds.
Beginning Investors: Novices will find much to like about WellsTrade’s robo service, not
least of which is access to Financial Advisors at no additional cost. Self-directed trading is
a completely different story, however. Although WellsTrade does supply quite a few market and
security analysis reports, these are not geared towards beginners.
Charles Schwab, on the other hand, does have a large library of learning materials for new traders.
Small Accounts: WellsTrade’s $500 minimum deposit amount for Intuitive Investor is still
higher than Robinhood’s no-minimum setup. For taxable self-directed trading, however, WellsTrade has no minimums and now offers Stock Fractions℠ in the mobile app. For IRAs, Robinhood would still be a better pick because it has no closeout fee and it matches 1% of contribution.
Mutual Funds: We do like WellsTrade for mutual funds. On the company’s website, we found
8,151 funds open to new investors. Of this amount, 2,887 have neither load nor transaction fee.
Firstrade has over 10,000 free to trade mutual funds.
Broker’s mutual fund screener has many search criteria, and profiles include Morningstar
ratings and links to fund documents.
ETF and Stock Trading: Without a desktop trading system, it’s hard to
defend WellsTrade. Charles Schwab, by contrast, has both browser-based and desktop platforms with advanced options tools and strong security research.
WellsTrade Review Verdict
No, WellsTrade won’t top your current firm in most areas. It does do well in the realms of
mutual funds and portfolio management. But other areas, like customer service, software, cash
management, and margin rates, still need significant improvement.
Updated on 3/26/2026.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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