Fidelity Reviewer's Comments

Fidelity is the only online brokerage that offers a one–second trade execution guarantee on eligible orders, or the trade is commission free. You’ll never be left waiting for a trade execution while prices continue to change.

Depending on how much and how often you invest, the commission structure may work for or against you. This investment firm charges as little as $8 per trade or as much as $19.95 per trade. Additionally, you’ll have to make an initial investment of at least $2,500 to open an account.

Fees/Commissions:  

Fidelity has a tiered commission structure that consists of three levels: the gold, silver and bronze. Gold clients pay $8 an order, silver clients pay $10.95 an order and bronze clients pay $19.95 an order. Option trades are your normal commission rate plus $.75 per contract.

Fidelity requires a minimum account balance of $2,500. This broker may not be the first choice of a new investor or someone that doesn’t have a lot of money to start an account.

Investments Offered:  

You can diversify your portfolio by investing in stocks, options, mutual funds and exchange–traded funds. Fidelity also offers fixed income investments including U.S. Treasury and Agency Issues, bonds, mortgage–backed securities and CDs. You can even buy precious metals through this online broker.

This online broker only offers one education savings plan—the 529.

Trading/Investment Features:  

Through Fidelity, you’ll have access to a number of practical tools. You can customize your desktop with charts, graphs, quotes and setup automated trading. This is also an excellent service for educational material.

Fidelity offers breaking news stories, analyst research reports, articles and information on retirement and taxes. For more in–depth information, you can attend live online workshops or seminars at one of their investment centers near you.

Security:  

Fidelity is a member of the SIPC, offers complete fraud protection and a secure website.

Ease of Use:  

The fidelity website has well–labeled tabs across the top of the page, so you can easily navigate the different sections of the program. The site also has a functional search box. You can enter any term and search the entire site by keyword. We entered the word “retirement” and instantly had a list of different resources and articles on retirement.

Support/Customer Service:  

Fidelity offers 103 brick and mortar investment centers nationwide so you can speak to an advisor face to face and attend seminars. They also offer many online help and support features including virtual tours, documentation and a FAQs page. You can contact customer service by email, phone or instant messaging.

Summary:  

Fidelity emerges from the competition as one of the best online stock trading services. They offer a number of standout features including the unmatchable one–second guarantee and many practical investment tools. This is definitely an industry leader.