Today I wanna take an in-depth look at what I feel is the best old school investing platform
that has done an incredible job adapting to the modern world of investing and if you play
your cards right, it could help you become a multimillionaire for free.
Alright lets jump right into it.
What is going on everyone I hope you are all having a fantastic day.
So obviously we’ve spent a lot of time on the channel talking about more modern investing
in finance tools but there’s something to be said for a tried and true investing platform
and that’s where Fidelity comes in.
The reason I say this is an old-school brokerage is because well Fidelity was founded in 1946
and is old.
But I think a lot of naïve investors especially of my generation turn away from these platforms
just because they’ve been around for a long time but end up missing out on some great
advantages as a result.
So fidelity is largely intended to be used as a desktop based platform however they do
have a fantastic mobile app with millions of five star reviews that I think competes
with the likes of Robinhood and M1 finance which we’ll draw a lot of comparisons to
today.
No they might not have that sleek silicon valley design which is why a lot of people
view them as old school but they actually offer a lot of features and account options
that some of those aforementioned modern platforms just don’t have.
Opening your standard brokerage account can be done right from a computer or smart phone
and will quickly allow you to start trading stocks, ETFs, options, Index funds funds,
and now even cryptocurrency’s.
The cryptocurrency trading is pretty limited so if that’s what you’re looking to do
then this might be the platform for you and they don’t currently offer commodities or
futures trading but unless you’re looking to day trade future corn contracts than you
probably don’t care about that.
And the best part is all of this is now completely free.
There are some random small fees with very specific types of trading like options contracts
cost $.65 per contract for example and there are still fees associated with brokerage assisted
trading which is just when you call a broker on the phone and they assist you with the
trade but for 99% of us who are just buying and selling ETFs and stocks on our own there
are no trading fees across-the-board and Fidelity has now large illuminate any and all account
fees as well meaning you can get started for free.
Like I said you of course have your standard individual brokerage account but they also
have rollover IRA‘s, traditional IRA‘s, Roth IRA‘s, SEP IRAs, self-employed 401(k)
options their Fidelity go Robo advising platform, 529 college savings plans, custodial accounts,
health savings accounts, trust and estate account options, and the list goes on.
I literally just scratched the surface but in general one of the biggest advantages that
a platform like Fidelity has over some of those newer platforms like Robinhood or M1
finance is they have way more account options beyond your standard brokerage and retirement
accounts.
So if you’re just looking to trade individual stocks then maybe it is overkill but if you
need a personalized account option for a tax managed international equity index strategy
then thats something that Robinhood just doesn’t have and a huge advantage for Fidelity.
Regardless of which account option or options you decide to go with, they really offer a
one-stop solution and also have cash management account options small business accounts and
most of what you could ever need in terms of your financial life.
Getting back to investing specifically though their stock screeners offer more than 140
criteria allowing you to sift through the thousands of different investment opportunities
that are at your fingertips and they have a wide array of educational resources including
articles, videos, entire webinars, and personalized investing advice catered to your situation.
They even have a live trading strategy desk where you can literally ask professional coaches
specific questions in real time.
I’m not trying to rip on Robinhood but just as a comparison, you can hardly get someone
on the phone to answer a basic password reset question.
Fidelity also uss some awesome trading technology that searches for the true best price available
and achieve that 87% of the time which could really start to add u if you are trading a
lot.
We’re getting a little bit in the weeds but for the 90% of investors who are just
looking to buy and hold a few different ETFs or index funds, not only will you have access
to all of the quotes and charts and watchlist and information that you need to pick the
right investment but Fidelity also offers a number of their own ETFs that have no management
fees.
That probably doesn’t sound like a big deal but 99% of the time if you go and buy any
index fund or ETF, even if you don’t have to pay a fee for the transaction, the fund
itself is usually going to charge a management fee they can range from nothing in the case
of many of Fidelity’s funds up to several percentage points each year they can really
start to eat into your profits.
So the fact that you are able to not only purchase these diversified assets with no
trading fees through Fidelity but have zero management fees for the many years that you
own them is absolutely an industry leader and another one of the things that really
sets Fidelity apart not only from those newer modern platforms but from other industry giants
like TD Ameritrade.
For those looking to more actively buy and sell, they also offer active trader pro which
is a more robust trading tool that allows you to create a personalized trading layout
similar to the Think or swim trading platform that TD Ameritrade offers.
I won’t get into that one too much because I’m not exactly a supporter of daytrading
but if that is something that you’re interested in then you’ll want to look into the active
trader pro feature through Fidelity.
No of course we can’t draw comparisons to those modern mobile platforms without talking
about Fidelity’s mobile app as well.
When I first used it years ago I’ll be honest it sucked but it did undergo a huge overhaul
and looks and functions much better now.
Through the app you can obviously trade stocks ETFs options and mutual funds including fractional
shares however at the moment I can’t find a way to trade any kind of fixed income investments.
Obviously there’s only so much information that can be displayed on a small smart phone
screen so you’re not going to have quite as many analysis tools as you would on the
desktop platform but in terms of functionality it’s actually pretty good and most of what
you can do on the desktop platform can also be done right from your smart phone.
They also have a new opt in beta mobile experience that they recently launched so it’s not
what you’re going to see if you just go and download the app but you can opt in to
get a more modern and simplified mobile view and some other advantages that honestly make
it look more and more like a Robinhood or M1 finance.
Beyond the standard forms of investments that you can trade on most brokerage platforms
nowadays, Fidelity also offers thousands of stocks that you can long and short, penny
stocks, over 3500 mutual funds, corporate, municipal, and treasury bonds, single and
multi leg options, Forex trading, IPOs, treasury inflation protected securities and the list
goes on.
I could sit here and read all of that forever but the point is similar to the variety of
account options that we talked about earlier the investment options are much more robust
than any modern trading platform that I have personally used.
I know I am throwing a lot of information at you but the last big differentiator for
Fidelity is actually their customer support and this is a huge one in my book.
I don’t really actively trade at all anymore but when I did, there was nothing more frustrating
than having an issue with an order that was executed improperly or having the wrong type
of order execute and having absolutely no way of getting a hold of a live person to
remedy that issue.
Technology and software malfunction and when it does, it’s your money that is on the
line so thankfully Fidelity offers 24/7 phone line support as well as an online chat with
both humans and A virtual assistant plus for a fee you can talk to a live broker like I
talked about earlier and in my experien their customer service is fantastic and I’ve only
waited on hold for a few minutes at most.
In terms of security, they of course offer two factor authentication, biometric logins
for the mobile platform, and in general they seem to pull out all the stops when it comes
to deep security and privacy of your accounts which is honestly to be expected nowadays.
Alright so don’t get me wrong, I still love those modern investing platforms designed
to do everything right from your phone with a sleek and polished design and I think that
for certain individuals, they absolutely serve a purpose.
Robinhood for example has made investing accessible and affordable to a lot of individuals who
were previously overlooked and it’s largely thanks to platforms like that that the entire
industry is now commission free because even just a few years ago, platforms like Fidelity
charged a fee for every trade that you made.
Now if you’d like to see a more comprehensive comparison between a platform like Fidelity
and a more modern tool like Robinhood then let me know down in the comment section but
as a general rule of thumb I think for a one stop shop of long-term investing, one of these
more robust tried-and-true tools is probably your best bet.
I’ve had to transfer brokerage accounts before and let me tell you it is such a pain!
Often times brokerages will charge fees on both ends of that transaction you might be
forced to sell certain assets which causes tax implications in some cases and in general
it is just a huge headache to change brokerages so if you’re looking to invest for decades
and decades then it seems like a good idea to go with platform that has that proven track
record.
But is always that’s just my opinion but in general I’m a huge fan of the Fidelity
platform myself for a really long time but let me know what you think of it down in the
comment section below and what you feel the biggest differentiators are.
Be sure to check out some of my favorite financial tools using this link down in the description
below and of course thank you so much for your time I really do appreciate it so much
take it easy and I’ll see you in the next one!