Robinhood is a very unique online broker as they are achieving something that at first seems impossible. They are currently one of the few discount brokers that offers customers the ability to trade without any commission. Robinhood is a fantastic way to get stuck into trading without the fears of not only losing your money to the market but also to the broker your using. However, with zero commission, it seems pretty obvious that the broker is going to make some cuts when it comes to tools and research.

In fact, that is exactly what Robinhood has done. They have stripped away any form of desktop application and have gone 100% mobile. Robinhood, as a company, started in 2013 and began as a venture project. As a result, they relied heavily on their investors to keep them afloat. However, they have now began to explore other monetization methods.

This review will be going through Robinhood and will briefly explain its features. If you’re not a fan of the standard commission fees and don’t like to trade at home, this might be the perfect solution for you.

Commissions and Fees

Well, I am not sure if I should include this title because there are no fees when you’re using Robinhood. To this day, they have kept up their promise of creating and providing a zero commission fee structured broker. They also do not require any initial account deposit to get started with. However, this begs the question of how they actually make money from this business model.

More recently, Robinhood as began to explore other ways to make money on their platform and have come up with a paid membership that clients can get to give them more buying power. The new model also gives traders the ability to trade after-hours. The price of the gold membership depends on how money you have deposited into your Robinhood account at the time. I won’t break down the numbers for you but you can check them out on their website.

Features and Things You Should Know

Although the concept of zero commission seems like a fantastic idea, there are a few catches. The first one is that the Robinhood system is built for mobile and mobile only. Sure, this has its benefits but for most traders they will want to sit down at their computer and work through the stats and charts. That’s the other thing you need to know about Robinhood, they don’t have any advanced features – its very bare bones.

In addition, when it comes to the simple things like actually ordering the stocks, you should be aware that limit orders and stop loss orders have only recently been introduced and you can only pull up publically listed stocks. There is no support for pink sheets or OTC. In addition, mutual funds and EFTs are not supported. This platform is only decent for equity trades.

Conclusion

On the face of things, Robinhood trading is a dream come true. Finally, a platform that doesn’t charge any commission. However, as you dig deeper into the system, things become a little clearer. With the zero commissions comes less research and features and a limited design. You can only trade equity on the application and there is no support for mutual funds, options or ETFs.

In addition, when you do the math and compare the gold membership to other brokers, it actually isn’t economically possible to save money with Robinhood despite the zero commission. With this platform, the concept is good but the execution is a little disappointing.

Charles Schwab has been in the trading and investor industry for years and has built up a staggering reputation among the investing community. If you have been in trading for a considerable amount of time, you will have heard of Schwab and the high-quality services they have to offer. Although they require a higher account deposit trade they are seen as a more premium broker compared to a discount one. They have been in existence since 1973 and have managed over $2.5 trillion in customer assets. With these statistics, you will definitely be in safe hands when investing.

Because Schwab is a high-quality platform, they provide a ton of features and research options for investors and traders. They are also very cheap when it comes to the cost per trade, despite being a larger platform used throughout the world. They provide a range of advisory offers, are easy to use and they provide decent customer service.

In this review, we will be going over the features in Charles Schwab and why they are a good broker to use. If you’re interested in seeing what Schwab has to offer, continue to read this article.

Commission Fees

As I have mentioned above, the commission fees are actually very low when you consider the high-quality vibes this platform produces. Despite all the research tools and features, Schwab will only charge you $4.95 per trade with an extra $0.65 when you trade options. These prices are fantastic and set the bar when it comes to discount brokers. They are way cheaper than some of the tough competition, including Etrade and TD Ameritrade.

What I disliked about the prices of Schwab were their account deposit. If you want to get started with this platform you’re going to need $1000 to invest right off the bat. Not everyone has this money lying around. However, an added bonus with Charles Schwab is that they offer over 200 commission-free EFTs, which will please a lot of investors.

Research and Tools

Among all the platforms I have used over the years, Charles Schwab is one of the best when it comes to research and tools. They provide everything that any trader/investor would need and more. If you’re looking for third-party research, look no further as Schwab has news sourced from Reuters, Standard and Poor’s, MorningStar and many others. They also have a unique tools that presents a viewpoint of stock from Charles Schwab’s own in-house team, which is very different. They have a group of experts that will give advice and commentary on particular stocks. They allow you to customize your charting experience and all provide an extra 34 indicators to add to your interface. Very impressive indeed.

Customer Service

Charles Schwab is one of the best when it comes to live support either over the phone or via live chat. When I first opened my account with the broker I was immediately called by a rep welcoming me and asking if I had any questions about their service and platform. Their service is 24/7 and they answer the phone very quickly. However, where they fell short is with their email support, which we suggest you avoid at all costs. Our emails were ignored and no response was ever given for some queries.

Conclusion

Charles Schwab is one of the higher quality platforms available to traders. They provide an array of tools and features that make researching and analyzing a breeze. Even though they have some impressive features they still remain to be one of the cheapest platform on the market, making them great for beginners. The only problems with the platform are the $1000 account deposit and the major issues with their email system. Other than that, we highly recommend Schwab when it comes to brokers.

Questrade is an online broker that is not for everyone and what I mean by this is that it won’t be very useful for individuals outside of Canada. For Canadian residents, however, it makes an excellent platform to make trades and investments in the US market. The platform is offered exclusively to residents in Canada and has a ton of options and features that make it stand out from the competition. They have various plans and commission structures to suit all traders and styles.

Even though the broker is based in Canada, you still get access to all the major US exchanges, Forex and precious metals. You can also set up retirement plans and savings account and a whole range of other specialist savings account suited to all occasions. As a company, they currently manage over 5 billion in customer assets and has been in operation since 1999.

This is an excellent platform if you are Canadian and are looking for a way to access the US stock market. If you want to learn more about this platform, continue to read the article.

Commissions and Fees

The commission structure for Questrade is a little complicated as they have a few different options depending on the type of trader you are. Each plan covers all the different areas, including stocks, options and ETFs. In total, there are two different models to choose from: the democratic pricing model or the Questrade Advantage pricing model.

The democratic pricing is their standard pricing model that sets stock trades at $.01 per share with a minimum charge of $4.95 and a max charge of $9.95. Options are $9.95 including a $1 contract fee.

The Questrade Advantage model includes a further two different plans to choose from. To access the Questrade Advantage model, you first need to subscribe to one of their advances market data plans. You then have to choose between the variable plan and the fixed plan. The main difference is that you are charged per share with the variable plan.

No matter which choice you make, EFTs will be commission-free.

Research and Tools

I was very impressed by the research that was presented on the Questrade platform. They allow you to perform some in-depth analysis into stocks and is located in their Market Research center on their website. The platform uses MorningStar which is the go-to provider when it comes to stock research and because of this, the analysis was easy and quick. You can easily compare equities and EFTs in the Canadian and US markets and the screener make the job so much easier. If you’re looking into mutual funds, they have a high-quality system that is also powered by MorningStar.

Other Features

Questrade offers clients the ability to use two different trading platforms: IQ Web and IQ Edge. Over the two, Edge was the better pick and provided more detail and analysis when it comes to looking at stocks and options. The platform worked perfectly and didn’t bug-out when I had it running on my Chrome Browser. It will display everything you need, including live streaming quotes, charts and watch lists.

Conclusion

Questrade is an excellent platform to use if you are a Canadian resident. It will allow you to trade in both the Canadian stock market as well as the US one and it provides you with a number of high-quality features. The platform is suited to a range of trades thanks to their varying price plans and they use MorningStar as their main research platform, making everything so much easier. If you’re looking to get started in the stock market, this will be a great broker to go with.

Ally Invest is one of the newer broker platform on the market and kind of appeared overnight. However, this should not put you off the platform as it has some incredible features, including its trading price. This platform is going to be excellent for beginners who want to get their feet wet without spending too much money before they’ve even started. This is because Ally Invest is well-known for being one of the most competitively priced brokers on the market.

The platform was actually born through TradeKing after it was acquired in 2016. Since then, Ally Invest has been a main competitor against its higher priced competition. Ally also has a lot of features that make it a go-to source for many investors. These features include their educational materials to help beginners and their live responsive interface. Despite the lower price, they also have a lot of research options, allowing traders to know the market before getting involved.

This Ally Invest review will go through the platform and will look at all of its features. If you’re interested in Ally Invest and want to know more, continue to read this article.

Commissions and Fees

As I have previously stated above, Ally Invest is one of the cheapest platforms on the market. It can safely hold the title of a “discount broker” as it allows beginner investors to come in and get started on a budget. One of the featured that I loved it that, despite having a low fee, an account doesn’t require any deposit and can be opened for free.

Coming back to the fees, for a standard stock trade, you will be charged a mere $4.95. If you plan on trading options, you will be charged with an additional contract fee of $0.65, which is still very cheap when compared to the competition. Ally Invest used to be pitched against Options House but this has been acquired by ETrade (a more expensive broker). However, if you plan on trading stocks lower than $2, you will be charged an extra $0.01 per share. Unfortunately, Ally doesn’t offer any commission-free EFTs.

Research and Tools

Despite the lower price, Ally Invest offers an adequate array of research tools that make investing a breeze. They have a simple interface that allows you to see everything you need when evaluating a stock. You can check up the earning reports and there is even a column that will show you the trends associated with your stock of choice. They even offer a peers comparison chart for equities that is not seen often enough amongst other platforms. The one area that they do full short on is third-party data. Most platforms will offer at least 4-6 different third-party sources but Ally Invest only offers 1 – Standard and Poor’s. However, with the price of the platform, I can see why they only have one source.

Customer Service

Ally Invest is pretty good when it comes to customer support, especially over email and live chat. They were quick to response and seemed very knowledge with my questions and queries. In fact, out of all the platforms I have tried, they were one of the best. However, where they lack is in their phone support. Although I was connected very quickly, they didn’t seem very attentive to my needs and didn’t give an overall great impression. They were very knowledge but didn’t give me that “wow” factor I like to look for.

Conclusion

Ally Invest may have appeared overnight but has made a great impression in the discount broker scene. They can safely hold the discount title with their crazily low prices and beginner friendly software. I would say they are better for frequently traders because they’re cheap but don’t provide a lot of research. If you are thinking about buying and holding, we recommend you go with a platform with better research tools. However, overall, Ally Invest is a great platform that you should definitely consider.

Just2Trade is one of the few brokers that are trying to achieve the impossible. The perfect discount broker. What I mean by this is that they are a discounted broker that charges the cheapest rates in the industry and this is something that is very hard to do. If you aren’t charging very highly for your trading platform, you will struggle to make money to fund the research tools and additional features. The extra features are always more important and they are the reason people will go for the premium platforms. As a result, Just2Trade is not a good platform and doesn’t provide traders with an adequate array of useful tools.

However, they are excellent for budget traders who just want to get their feet wet. They have one of the cheapest commission fees on the market. Despite this, it may be worth putting your money in a different broker, especially one that will give you a decent customer experience.

Commissions and Fees

Right off the bat we will be looking into the fees and commissions of the discount broker. This is especially important as this is the main feature of their platform that brings in the investors. They are incredibly cheap when it comes to stock commissions, only charging you a flat-rate of £2.50 – one of the cheapest in the industry. There are few gimmicks and tricks with this and you get what they promise. If you want to trade options, you will have to pay a cheap $0.50 contract fee.

Although I mentioned that you will receive these prices without any hidden costs, there is one you should definitely know about. That is that real time streaming quotes are only given in the first 15 minutes of every day. If you want to keep viewing the real time quotes, you will have to pay a monthly fee of $7.99.

Research and Tools

This is where Just2Trade really falls flat on its face. Just2Trade relies on the most basic package of MorningStar which isn’t very useful whatsoever. You have to navigate around the interface to find the research module, which is annoying named “trade assistance” in the Cabinet section. When you first enter the research screen, you will be greeted with a lot of information, including breakdowns, news coverage and a lot of data. However, don’t let this fool you as there is a massive lack of information when you dig a little deeper.

One of the biggest issues is that only stocks that are present on major exchanges are pulled up for analysis. This means that if you want to research EFTs and pink sheets, you will have to go elsewhere. In addition, there is no way to perform basic stock screening which is just awful.

Additional Features

When you are using Just2Trade, you will probably use their free platform called Just2Trade+. This is very basic and what you’d expect if you were to use a platform with $2.50 trading fees. You get all the basics that you need, including watch lists, charts, and 92 different indicators. The platform also runs very smoothly on the Chrome Browser which was a surprise but doesn’t even come close to what is offered by better online brokers.

Conclusion

Just2Trade is a bit of a gimmick in its own right. They are trying to be the best discount broker on the web with their crazy cheap fees. However, although they have achieved a cheap fee, they have sacrificed the user experience. They lack basic research features and only use the basic package offered by MorningStar. Their tools don’t come close to the competition and if you want continuous real-time streaming quote, you will have to upgrade to a monthly package. Personally, I would suggest you put your money into another platform.

Everyone has heard of ETrade. Their commercials and adverts are seen everywhere, so it would be no surprise to hear that they are one of the better online brokers to go with when it comes to trading. ETrade handles millions of trades on a daily basis and has thousands of customer accounts. They are one of the oldest on the market and make an excellent choice when it comes to their features and educational resources. This ETrade review goes deep into the details of the broker (as provided by Day Trade Review).

This platform is probably suited towards day and swing traders as it has a tiered commission structure. This means that you receive discounts as you trade more and more. With this in mind, this platform should be avoided by buy and hold type investors, as you will be paying more than most traders.

This is a great platform for beginners and frequent traders. So, with that in mind, let’s learn about some of their features.

Commissions and Fees

When it comes to being a discount brokerage, ETrade doesn’t quite make the cut when it comes to other online broker platforms. ETrade is one of the more expensive platforms to use and you can easily rack up a hefty bill if you aren’t a frequent trader. The reason you’d save more money if you were to trade frequently is because of ETrade’s tiered commission structure. This was briefly mentioned in the intro and the more you trade, the better fees you receive.

If you plan on trading standard stocks, you will be charged $6.95 a trade. However, if you are making more than 30 trades a quarter, you will receive a fee of $4.95, which is substantially cheaper than most other platforms. If you want to trade options, you will be charged $6.95 + $0.75 contract fee. If you make over 30 option trades in a quarter the contract fee will be reduced to $0.50. On the bright side, they do have over 100 commission-free EFTs but there is an account deposit of $500 before you can get started with ETrade.

Research and Tools

ETrade has a ton of tools and features that make it a good platform to do research with. Research and news coverage are incredibly important when it comes to stock trading as news tends to drastically affect the price and volume. When you use ETrade, you have a range of news platforms to choose from, including Reuters, Standard and Poor’s, MarketEdge and SmartConsensus. The 4 platforms provide an adequate platform to research but it does fall short when you consider the competition. For example, TD Ameritrade provides users with 6 sources.

Customer Support

ETrade is excellent when it comes to customer service and they have 30 branches around the country. They provide both phone support and email support but have been known to be a little slow on the phone compared to their competition. They do, however, provide a ton of information for beginners that should get them started when it comes to stock trading and investing.

Conclusion

ETrade is one of the more well-known broker platform that is very user-friendly and more suited towards the beginners in the trading environment. They have a range of helpful tools and have recently acquired Options House to help when it comes to analyzing Options. They have 4 different news sources and are great for frequent traders who make 30 or more trades within a quarter. It is an expensive platform if you buy-and-hold and for this reason, long-term investors should avoid it.