Fidelity Review

Introduction

Founded in 1946, Fidelity is currently one of the biggest and oldest brokerage companies in the world, regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It is considered to be one of the safest brokers to work with, thanks to its long track record and its top-tier regulatory compliance.

Fidelity offers access to a wide range of trading instruments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and options), low or zero commissions for some of them, detailed fundamental data, and good charting. Their services cover a wide range of issues, but we’ll try to stick to some of the most important.

Platforms

The company offers its trading services via three main platforms: web-based, desktop, and mobile. Speaking of the web platform, it’s easy to navigate, comprehensive and includes advanced screeners using research and strategy-testing tools based on 10 years of historical data.

Active Trader Pro is a piece of software designed for active traders, available for free since 2019 and including a few important features: intuitive shortcuts, pre-built market, technical and options filters, advanced options tools, multi-trade ticket, and others.

Lastly, Fidelity’s mobile app is quite impressive, based on the reviews available online, offering real-time quotes, multi-leg options trading, a notebook where clients can save ideas and articles, as well as a consolidated version of the company’s research offerings.

DMA Trading

There are several positive aspects of working with Fidelity and we should talk about them briefly. The company eliminated commissions in October 2019 for stocks, ETFs, and options. Speaking of mutual funds, the market index funds are not available with absolutely no expense ratio (Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund, Fidelity Zero International Index Fund, Fidelity Zero Large Cap Index Fund, and others).

To keep the pace with other competitors, Fidelity is among the companies that don’t have a minimum deposit required to start trading. Last but not least, the company excels when it comes to research, currently working with 19 providers (Thomson Reuters, Recognia, McLean Capital Management, and others).

Also on fees, Fidelity ranks as a company charging low fees, not just trading-related, but also when it comes to financing and overnight rates, withdrawal fees, inactivity fees, and others. We must also appreciate that the company’s fee structure is one of the most transparent in the market.

Pros and Cons

• E*Trade provides trading services for some ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds for free.
• One of the most transparent and the most affordable fee structure.
• Three different trading platforms suited for any kind of trader.

• For mutual funds that do carry fees, the rates are relatively high, as compared to other companies.
• Credit/debit card deposits and withdrawals not available with Fidelity.
• Limited customizability for trading platforms.

Summary

Fidelity is a trusted and popular DMA broker, currently offering services for a wide range of trading products. However, as seen in our review, the company has both pluses and minuses, which means each trader should asses whether Fidelity is the right broker or not.