Fidelity Active Trader Pro Cost
One of Fidelity’s strongest offerings, for both traders and investors, is its desktop trading platform
Active Trader Pro. Fidelity now also offers Fidelity Trader+ Desktop, a newer downloadable
platform rebuilt from Active Trader Pro. Active Trader Pro Classic remains available, and we discuss
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, and there are no initial costs or ongoing subscription costs for downloading or using
the software itself. Active Trader Pro is automatically available to customers who trade 36 times
or more in a rolling 12-month period. Customers who do not meet this trading requirement can request
access by contacting Fidelity Active Trader Services.
The platform includes streaming quote tools and Level II quote tools. Non-professional users generally
do not need to pay a separate streaming quote subscription fee, but professional-designated quote users
may have separate market-data costs. Fidelity customers who qualify or request access can download Active Trader Pro from Fidelity’s website.
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 investments you can trade with the platform include stocks, ETFs, options, and mutual funds. Some products and strategies require the correct account permissions before trading.
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. Some strengths 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 allows you to compare indexes or securities against each other on the same chart.
Some drawbacks of the charting tools 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 chart appearance settings.
Order Entry
Active Trader Pro has several ways to queue and enter orders. The order tickets are intuitive and easy to use. One of the more useful 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 proprietary order-entry tool in the platform is called Trade Armor. The Trade Armor tool allows you to 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 the price level where you want to place each order within 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 percentage losers, and highest social
sentiment, as well as technical indicators such as Bollinger Band breakouts and moving average
crossovers.
Active Trader Pro has a 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 among the platform’s biggest strengths. The
platform has an options trade-ideas tool called Option Trade Builder that asks for your sentiment about
the security you enter, presents trade ideas based on that sentiment, and then walks you through setting
up the trade idea you choose.
The Options Statistics tool shows options statistics for 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 useful options tool is Today’s Biggest Trades. 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 somewhat dated, but it is clean and should be acceptable for many traders. The platform’s navigation 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 improve, including some features that professional traders will quickly discover are missing. For starters, Active Trader Pro Classic is a desktop-only platform. Fidelity now offers Fidelity Trader+ Web and Fidelity Trader+ Mobile as part of its newer active-trading lineup, but those are separate from Active Trader Pro Classic. Active Trader Pro also does not offer paper trading, which is an important feature for both new traders who want to practice and professional traders who want to test strategies.
A limitation of the platform that could frustrate some traders is that some windows have limited expansion capacity. For example, the Trade Armor and Directed Trade tools can only be expanded so much, and the small windows that these tools sit in can make it difficult to get a broad view of all the information within them. Another limitation worth noting is that Level II quotes and time and sales appear together in the Directed Trade tool rather than as completely separate windows.
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 for improvement is the charting limitations mentioned earlier in the charting section.
Alternative Broker for Traders
If you would like to try one of the most advanced trading platforms 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 can work well for beginners who qualify for access and don’t require paper trading. The platform is also useful for options traders, swing traders, and long-term investors. The platform can be a hit or miss for equity traders, depending on which features they need. Small-balance traders can benefit from the platform’s research tools, but Active Trader Pro is not ideal for traders who want to place fractional-share or notional-dollar trades directly through directed trading.
Fidelity Active Trader Pro and Fidelity Trader+ System Requirements
Fidelity’s current desktop active-trading system requirements are published for Fidelity Trader+ Desktop. For Windows, the platform requires Windows 11 or higher, an x64 processor, 8 GB or more of memory, 1 GB or more of free storage, high-speed internet of 50 Mbps or better, 32-bit graphics support, and at least 512 MB of video memory. For Mac, the minimum requirements include MacOS 14 Sonoma or higher, an M-series processor, 8 GB or more of memory, 1 GB or more of free storage, high-speed internet of 50 Mbps or better, 32-bit graphics support, and at least 512 MB of video memory. For better performance, Fidelity recommends 16 GB or more of memory and a faster internet connection.
Updated on 7/8/2026.
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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