Fidelity Active Trader Pro Cost
One of Fidelity’s biggest strengths, for both traders and investors, is its desktop trading platform
Active Trader Pro. The platform has its share of advantages and drawbacks. We reviewed the Active Trader Pro
platform in depth, and we go over our findings in this article.
Fidelity’s Active Trader Pro platform is available for download on PC and Mac. The platform is
free to use for Fidelity customers who have access, and there are no download fees or ongoing subscription costs for using
the platform. Active Trader Pro is automatically available to customers who trade 36 times or more in a rolling 12-month period, and customers who do not meet that threshold can call and request access. Yes, Fidelity Active Trader Pro is free once access is granted.
The platform includes free real-time quotes and level 2 quotes. Eligible Fidelity
customers can download Active Trader Pro from Fidelity’s website, and customers who do not automatically qualify can request access through Active Trader Services.
Types of Accounts & Investments
You can use Active Trader Pro with most types of Fidelity accounts, including IRAs, non-retirement brokerage accounts, business accounts, trust accounts, and UTMA accounts. The types of investments that you can trade with the platform are options, stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds.
Active Trader Pro Charting
Active Trader Pro charts have over 20 drawing tools, 7 different chart types, and over 100 technical indicators and patterns available to use. Some pros of the charts are that they are beginner-friendly, the indicators and drawings are easy to use and edit, you can adjust the opacity of the chart gridlines, and the comparison feature lets you compare indexes or securities against each other on the same chart.
Some drawbacks of the charting are that you can’t click and highlight areas of the charts to zoom in, you can’t click and drag to change the vertical view of charts, you have to open each chart in its own separate window, you can’t place high and low price bubbles on charts, you can’t have a floating data box, and there are very limited customizable chart settings, such as the appearance of charts.
Order Entry
Active Trader Pro has a variety of ways to queue up and submit orders. The order entry tickets are intuitive and easy to use. One of the unique order types available in the platform is a contingent order, which allows you to use IF-THEN logic. For example, you could create an order that says if the S&P 500 Index drops by 3%, then buy 100 shares of AAPL at the market.
A unique proprietary order-entry tool in the platform is called Trade Armor. The Trade Armor tool allows you to easily set up bracket-type orders using a chart within the tool. For example, you can choose a sell bracket order type, and to set your sell stop and sell limit orders, you can simply click on the price level where you want to place each order in the Trade Armor chart. In addition to bracket orders and contingent orders, you can also place market, limit, stop, and trailing orders within the platform.
Research & Idea Tools
For equities and ETFs, the Filters tool is essentially a scanner that allows you to scan the market
for many different technical criteria such as new 52-week highs, top % losers, and highest social
sentiment, as well as technical indicators such as Bollinger band breakouts and moving average
crossovers.
Active Trader Pro has a unique proprietary tool called Real-time Analytics that can alert you in
real time to 14 available technical signals on equities and ETFs such as RSI breaks, unusual volume, or market divergence.
Active Trader Pro’s options research and idea tools are some of the best in the business. The
platform has a proprietary options trade-ideas tool called the Option Trade Builder that asks for
your sentiment on the security you plug in, then presents trade ideas based on that sentiment,
and then walks you through setting up the trade idea you choose.
The Options Statistics tool shows you options statistics about a stock or ETF such as implied and historical volatilities, call/put ratios, and net deltas.
The platform also includes an options probability calculator and a profit/loss calculator that lets you simulate hypothetical options trades. Another self-explanatory options tool is the Today’s Biggest Trades tool. Lastly, the Strategy Ideas tool presents options trade ideas and shows historical data about those trade ideas.
User Interface
The user interface of Active Trader Pro feels boxy and outdated, but it is clean and will be acceptable for most traders. Navigation in the platform is intuitive and easy to use. When moving tools around inside the platform, the windows snap to each other, which some traders might find helpful and others might find annoying. In the bottom right corner of the platform is a Tools In Use button that brings up a list of all tools and charts currently in use.
Active Trader Pro Cons
Unfortunately, there is a long list of areas where Active Trader Pro could be improved, including some details and features that professional traders will quickly notice are missing. For starters, Active Trader Pro only has a desktop version and doesn’t have a web or mobile version. The platform does not have paper trading capability, which is a very important feature for both new traders who want to practice and professional traders who want to test strategies.
One limitation of the platform that could frustrate some traders is that certain windows have limited expansion capacity. For example, the Trade Armor and Directed Trade tools can only be expanded so much, and the small windows those tools sit in can make it difficult to get a broad view of all the information inside them. Another limitation worth noting is that you can’t have level 2 quotes and time and sales in separate windows; they have to be shown next to each other in the Directed Trade tool.
Active Trader Pro does offer hot keys for certain commands such as opening your positions list or pulling up a trading ticket; however, you can’t use hot keys to submit orders. Not being able to trade with hot keys is probably a deal-breaker for some traders who rely on them for entering orders. Another area that could be improved is the charting limitations mentioned earlier in the charting section.
Alternative Broker For Traders
If you would like to have the most advanced trading platform on the market for free, then give
Charles Schwab's thinkorswim
a try. Continue to thinkorswim Review.
Free thinkorswim Platform
Visit Schwab Website
Who is Fidelity Active Trader pro Best For
Due to its beginner-friendly tools and mild learning curve, compared to the learning curve of other trading platforms such as thinkorswim, Active Trader Pro is arguably one of the best trading platforms for beginners who don’t require paper trading. The platform is excellent for options traders, swing traders, and long-term investors as well. The platform can be a hit or miss for equity traders, depending on what features they want. Small-balance traders can benefit from using the platform for the research tools but not directly for trading because it doesn’t allow fractional-share trading.
Fidelity Active Trader Pro System Requirements
Fidelity’s current published desktop trading-platform system requirements call for Windows 11 or higher for PC and MacOS 14 Sonoma or higher for Mac. The current minimum requirements also include 8 GB of RAM or more, 1 GB of free storage or more, 32-bit graphics support, at least 512 MB of video memory, and a high-speed internet connection. Recommended configurations are higher.
Updated on 4/7/2026.
Paul Johnson is a Licensed Stockbroker with 7+ years of experience in the financial services industry. Paul enjoys teaching about investing and writing about financial topics. He is a husband and father of twin boys.
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