Best Fidelity Alternatives for 2024!

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is a publicly listed company with over four decades of experience and 2 million clients. It has won Barron’s ‘Best Online Broker’ award for five years running. IBKR is as reliable as online brokers come, with an A- credit rating and a strong capital position.

Its product suite is comparable to Fidelity’s, but IBKR arguably has a more comprehensive offering for traders. The advantages include:

• Advanced trading dashboard with ‘Advanced Market Scanner’ and ‘Risk Navigator’ products;
• Futures trading (which Fidelity doesn’t have);
• Margin rates from 4.33% (compared with 7.75% with Fidelity).

Stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds are commission-free only for US users. For international investors, the cost to trade these instruments is still low (just $0.0035 per US share traded). Options are between $0.15 and $0.65 per contract. Futures are between $0.25 and $0.85. You can also hold a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Inherited (Traditional and Roth) IRA, Rollover IRA, and SEP accounts with IBKR. Here’s the all-important section on transfers if you do decide to switch:

If you do decide to move to IBKR, see if a friend is already a client. Excluding Spain, Israel, and Japan, IBKR will reward your friend with a $200 referral, and you can receive $1 worth of IBKR stock for every $100 deposit, up to $1000 worth of IBKR shares. It might not be much, but it’s better than nothing!

Webull is a relatively new online trading platform having started out in 2017. It’s a Chinese-owned company operating in the U.S. and Hong Kong. This isn’t necessarily a red flag though. Webull is a member of FINRA and SIPC which gives $500,000 in investor protection including up to $250,000 in cash.

Plus, Webull is best for traders. Unique trading tools on Webull include:

• Real-time news;
• 60 technical indicators;
• Extender hours trading;
• Multi-screen trading for desktop;

Webull has crypto trading features too, but it’s only available 23 hours per day (trading closes from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for reconciliation services). So, while Webull’s crypto features are nice to have, crypto traders may prefer Coinbase for lower fees and more cryptocurrency pairs.

Still, Webull’s a solid choice for everyday investors due to its commission-free system. But there are some hefty account fees to take into account:

You can now also add a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, or a rollover IRA account. If an IRA’s transfer value is more than $5,000, Webull will also give a $75 bonus too. 

And there’s more. If you are a U.S. resident, are at least 18 years old, and have a valid social security number, you can also get up to 12 free stocks with Webull. 

Once you open an account, you get two free stocks. If you make a deposit within 10 days, you will also qualify for either four, eight, or 10 additional shares. These have to be claimed from the rewards section within 30 days and will be awarded on a fractional share basis.

E*TRADE was founded in 1982 and subsequently bought out by Morgan Stanley in 2020. That acquisition allows E*TRADE customers to access free analysis and research from Morgan Stanley’s financial experts, strategists, and portfolio managers.

Combining these resources with Power E*TRADE — the company’s trading platform — makes it an exciting alternative to Fidelity (there’s a reason it was voted Kiplinger’s ‘Best Online Broker in 2022’). Power E*TRADE was designed for traders with features such as:

• Live quotes;
• On-demand news from the Bloomberg Terminal;
• Pattern recognition for Technicals;
• Risk-reward analysis;
• Implied volatility for earnings;
• Personalized data points;
• 145 charting tools;

E*TRADE’s fee structure is fair too. Trading stocks and ETFs is commission-free, options are $0.65 per contract, futures are $1.50 per contract, and bonds carry a $1.00 fee each. Other relevant account charges are as follows:

E*TRADE offers Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, Rollover IRAs, SEP IRAs, as well as 401(k)s for additional contributions.

If you’re deciding to move from Fidelity to E*TRADE, opening an account only takes a few minutes. You can earn a $3,500 cash bonus simply for funding or transferring money across. The bonus is determined by the size of your transfer, as shown below, and it is available until the end of 2022.

Public.com was founded in 2019. It has an A+ rating accredited by the Better Business Bureau, as well as a member of FINRA and SIPC.  The platform is for U.S. residents only — Public.com is not yet available internationally. 

Public.com stands out for a few reasons:

• Its “alts” selection — the name its gives to collectibles;
• No payment for order flow (PFOF);
• Covers your other broker’s asset transfer fees;
• Premium subscription service.

But other than that, the product selection is limited to just stocks, ETFs, and crypto. IRA accounts are not available with Public.com at the moment.

Another thing to be aware of is that alternative assets are not covered by FINRA or SIPC. In its own words, Public says:

“Alternative assets” usually refers to investments that fall outside traditional asset classes like stocks, bonds and cash.

Despite the shortfalls, there are still no transaction fees on stocks or ETFs at Public.com [29]. There’s also Public.com Premium, a subscription service for $10 per month. It gives exclusive research and market insight from Morningstar as well as VIP customer support. After-hours trading is free if you have a Premium subscription — otherwise, it’s $2.99.

The only real hidden fee — if you would call it that — with Public.com is the $5 inactivity fee if you don’t use your account for six months. But other than that, costs are generally just associated with paper statements and posted mail requests. 

If you’re mulling over a switch to Public.com, here’s a rough guide of the cost for deposits, withdrawals, and transfers, along with crypto fees for comparison. 

You can get a signup bonus of up to $10,000 (based on transfer value) if you move investments from Fidelity to Public.com. You will then receive the bonus after one month but with one stipulation. You must keep the transferred investments on Public for six months or the bonus will be taken back. 

New users can claim a free share too worth up to $300 by opening an account and depositing at least $20.