11 Best Online Stock Brokers for Beginners of December 2023

The best brokerage for you will reflect your investing style and what you want from a brokerage (for example, robo-advising or active trading, or access to a human financial advisor). Everyone’s investment goals and preferences are unique, so there is no perfect brokerage for everyone. Once you know what features you’re looking for, look at costs, platforms, available account types, and investment options to lock in the decision on what’s best for you. You can open a regular brokerage account or retirement account, such as a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or SEP IRA, through Acorn Later. Ally Invest is best for active traders looking for $0 minimum deposits, commission-free investing, easy-to-use trading tools, and 24/7 market access.

• It’s the same philosophy as if you were investing through a company sponsored 401k.
• The company is finding a way to earn money off of the trades of those customers, and often this involves selling the order flow from those customers to another party.
• Beginners and long-term investors may find the most value, particularly those interested in stocks and ETFs, and in buying fractional shares.
• Ally’s self-directed brokerage accounts also offer commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, and options.

It also offers a great bank account, lending products, and other financial tools to help you get an understanding of your investments. For new investors, some of the best online brokerages for beginners also offer a robo-advisor service — some exclusively operate this way. The market is flush with options to buy stocks through mobile apps that also support other financial needs, like budgeting, banking, and cash transfers.

Trading platforms tested, data findings

There is certainly no shortage of investment options, but the differences (not to mention tax treatment) amongst them is vast. The kind of returns you can expect from a bond fund versus equities are very different, as are their time horizons. Options and crypto might be considered more volatile assets than bonds but can also offer higher returns. TD Ameritrade is good for beginners because of all of the information it makes available to guide you into the world of investments. New investors can take advantage of all kinds of educational material, including more than 200 instructional videos, tutorials and more. Another important metric to consider in seeking out the best online broker for beginners is availability of account type.

• Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services.
• It’s essential to carefully read and follow the instructions provided by the firm during the account opening process.
• True to their name, discount brokers are much cheaper than full-service brokers, and most offer zero-commission stock trading.
• However, its relatively weak educational content may leave true beginners in the lurch, and it lacks access to a few common asset classes.
• Some brokers will allow you to open a new account with $1, while others have minimum initial amounts, especially for mutual fund accounts.
• The best online brokerages provide an intuitive interface and a variety of account types to serve your needs.

Stash lets you choose how to invest—whether you’re a self-directed DIY investor or prefer automated investing that removes the guesswork. You’ll have access to a personal brokerage account, a retirement account, and Smart Portfolio—a robo-advisor that builds a diversified portfolio based on your risk profile. You’ll also receive the Stock-Back debit card that earns up to 1% back in stock every time you use the card (excluding cash withdrawals, money orders, prepaid cards, and P2P payments). Traditional full-service stock brokers do more than assist with the buying and selling of stocks or bonds. They often offer a wide array of services and products, including financial and retirement planning, investing and tax advice and regular portfolio updates.

Best overall for beginners, Fidelity

TD Ameritrade offers similar low fees to other large investment brokerages, with many account types available with no recurring fees and no minimum balance requirements. As with most other brokerages on this list, there are no fees for stock or ETF trades as well as no base fee for options trades. Instead of working with a human broker or self-directing your stock trading account, you use a robo-advisor to set your portfolio on cruise control.

Best Banking-brokerage Combo Online Brokerage for Beginners: Ally Invest

These approaches are based on different factors, including present and future goals, time until retirement and lifestyle expectations. To learn more about our rating and review methodology and editorial process, check out our guide on how Forbes Advisor rates investing products. Third-party research reports from Argus Analyst, Investars and many more are available within the client portal. Stock market beginners can take advantage of the screener section to research potential investments. Our tests showed that Fidelity Investments has excellent customer service, with agents going above and beyond to help. After navigating the menu, representatives answered the phone almost immediately.

Online brokers let you follow markets and trade securities from anywhere, as they are almost universally available via mobile apps. They provide fast execution of trades, and most best online brokers for beginners importantly they are much less expensive than a traditional broker. Robinhood is on a mission to “democratize finance for all” by making it easier to access financial markets.

Fidelity may be the most investor-friendly broker out there, making it a top choice for beginners. This broker offers it all and does it at a high level, with remarkable customer service, too, especially by phone, where you can get an answer to your detailed question in seconds. If you’re a new investor looking to get your feet wet with investing, where should you start? Investor’s Business Daily’s Best Online Brokers 10th annual survey for 2022 measured investor sentiment toward online brokers’ performance and can help you find the online broker most suitable for you. The full results can be found in IBD’s list of the Best Online Brokers for 2022.

Best Online Stock Brokers for Beginners 2023

Robinhood has also worked to improve its customer service and now offers 24/7 chat and phone support, so you should be able to get your questions answered at any time of day. Beyond just stock trading, there’s been growing interest among young investors in option trading as well. According to the survey, TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) and E-Trade ranked highest when it came to option trading platforms. Of course, attracting a lot of young investors doesn’t mean a broker offers the best services that will help them trade successfully. Robinhood, for instance, wasn’t rated highly overall by its customers or for key features like customer service and trade speed execution. On these measures, the brokerage firms below earned their place on our list of the best online brokers for stock trading.

Beginners and long-term investors may find the most value, particularly those interested in stocks and ETFs, and in buying fractional shares. Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets. Robinhood introduced support for purchasing fractional shares and automatic dividend reinvestingin December 2019. Robinhood makes fractional share trading easy—when you go to place an order, you can elect to buy the stock by a number of shares or by a dollar amount.

Whether you’re an experienced investor or just getting started, you can buy and sell stocks, ETFs, and other investments via an online broker. The best online brokers have $0 stock and ETF trading, thousands of no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual funds, and low-cost futures and options trades. The top online brokers also offer robust trading platforms, plenty of tools for researching and managing your investments, and excellent customer support that’s available when you need it. New investors look for brokerage platforms that have tools and resources to help guide their investing journey. The best online brokers for beginners are easy to navigate, have strong educational features, provide excellent customer service, and offer a range of portfolio construction options. Some trading platforms for beginners also have low minimum balance requirements and offer demo versions to help you get started.

Mutual funds and bonds aren’t offered, and only taxable investment accounts are available. Still, if you’re looking to limit costs or trade crypto, Robinhood is a solid choice. Stock brokers are people or firms licensed to buy and sell stocks and other securities via the stock market exchanges. Decades ago, the only way for individuals to invest directly in stocks was to hire stock brokers to place trades on their behalf. Many discount brokers typically offer $0 account minimums, making it easy for almost anyone to get started.