What makes fidelity investments different

Here are some behind-the-scenes ways Fidelity makes money from you—and for you. Fidelity has all the account and research amenities you would expect from a large broker.

These include flexible screeners, trading idea generators, advanced charting, access to in-house and third-party research, and more. The stock screener makes it easy to match your ideas with potential investments. You can view lists of stocks in a theme that's interesting to you—such as data services or drones. You can also build your screen using more than criteria that meet your goals, including environmental, social, and governance ESG scores from MSCI.

Several expert and thematic screens are built-in and can be further customized. You can build your screen using 88 criteria, from exposure and trading characteristics to volatility and analyst ratings. Alternatively, you can narrow your ETF search by choosing one of the themes, such as market cap, fixed income, or socially responsible investing SRI. The mutual fund evaluator looks closely at each fund's characteristics. While it tends to promote Fidelity funds, that's not unexpected given who owns the platform.

The options market scanner, powered by LiveVol, offers some built-in scans that you can use or you can create a custom scan based on criteria like volume, implied volatility, order flow, and time spreads.

Active Trader Pro has 26 predefined filters to search for options trading opportunities based on volume, open interest, option contract volume, volatility differentials, earnings, and more. You can create custom screens from about individual criteria. Fixed-income investors can use the bond screener to narrow down the nearly , secondary market offerings. The yield table updates every 15 minutes, and clicking on any yield value displays a list of all the bonds or CDs that meet the product type, ratings range, and time to maturity TTM criteria you selected.

This scanner is flexible, but the layout takes some getting used to. There's also a bond ladder tool that helps you build a staggered fixed-income portfolio to provide a steady income stream.

All Fidelity platforms have charting capabilities. The web-based platform has integrated technical patterns and events powered by Recognia, as well as social sentiment scores provided by Social Market Analytics.

The charts on Active Trader Pro offer the most flexibility of all the platforms. You can select from various chart types OHLC , line, mountain, candlestick and time-based chart periods. There are also more than 60 fully customizable technical indicators and all the standard drawing tools you would expect.

While the charting on the mobile app is relatively limited, it's a step up from what's offered by many other brokers. They are intended to help you with nearly any financial need, from creating a budget to reviewing your investment strategy.

Fidelity offers several trading idea generators to help you find, analyze, and implement options trades. The market scanner lets you scan using preset or custom filters. The Argus Options Report provides ideas for both covered calls and calendar spreads.

Fidelity also offers a profit and loss calculator, a probability calculator, and a strategy evaluator to help you evaluate options strategy alternatives. News is available on all platforms from various sources, including Briefing. Streaming real-time news is available only on Active Trader Pro. Quantitative and qualitative measures on each stock research page include MSCI data and standings against peers. You'll find additional proprietary and third-party research on each stock or ETF page.

Fidelity clients are automatically enrolled in cash sweep programs. Your uninvested cash is automatically swept into your choice of money market funds. You can specify dividend reinvestment when you buy a dividend-paying stock.

In the mutual fund evaluator, there is a socially responsible theme by Morningstar. Fidelity offers a variety of tools to help you figure out if your portfolio is on track. You can use it to track your net worth over time, create and manage your budget, view your recent transactions, and integrate it with other Fidelity planning tools. You can maintain a trading journal and attach notes, graphs, and other market data to your trades. The Fidelity Learning Center offers educational content in various formats, including articles, videos, webinars, infographics, and recorded webinars.

There's a mix of Fidelity and third-party content, including courses intended to guide learners forward. An easy way to find topics is to enter a few keywords in the "What can we help you find today?

The sessions are interactive and usually have fewer than participants. Sessions are broken down into six topics: daily market briefings, options trading, trading tools, trading basics, technical analysis, and live webinar follow-up. The mobile apps feature "Learning Programs" to help beginners better understand market and investing concepts. In July , Fidelity launched a separate mobile app called Fidelity Spire, designed to help you "plan, save, and invest smarter.

Spire also serves up helpful articles related to your goals. Rounding out Fidelity's educational offerings are an investing glossary, a comprehensive FAQ section, and guest access for non-customers to use its research and education. Fidelity's security is up to industry standards:. Fidelity has one of the most transparent and easy-to-understand pricing schedules in the industry. There are no minimums to open an account, and its margin rates are some of the most competitive in the industry.

Commission, fees, and margin rates are all stated clearly in one place. Stocks, ETFs, and options have zero commissions, and many fees that brokers traditionally charge—such as account transfer fees and bank wire fees—have been eliminated.

The only costs you may have to hunt for involve forex—the company doesn't post information about that asset class on its website, so you have to call for details. Fidelity has been one of our top picks in a variety of categories for three years running. This downloadable trading platform is a complete solution for new-to-experienced traders and investors, scoring near-perfect marks for the most important features.

Active traders will benefit from level II quotes, heat mapping, a trade journal and more than 45 market filters.

The platform is easy to use and has most of the features traders need including real-time analytics and trading ideas. Fidelity received a perfect score on our survey for order types. Beginner-to-experienced investors can access most order types including conditional and durational orders. Multi-leg options orders are also available. Note that some conditional orders are not available on the mobile app. The company claims to be the only firm that voluntarily reports full price improvement savings with the Financial Information Forum FIF standards.

Fidelity managed portfolio options are expansive. There are various tiers of managed accounts from basic and hybrid robo-advisors to fully managed portfolios at a variety of service and price points. Watch out for fees, however, as some surpass those of competitors.

The basic Fidelity Go platform provides a diversified investment portfolio and automatic rebalancing. This switches to a percentage-based fee model of 0.

Fidelity Personalized Planning and Advice combines Fidelity Go with live financial advisors for a more customized experience. The Fidelity mobile app is highly rated on Google Play and the iOS store and has all the features investors might need. Users get most of the basics from the online platform, including portfolio monitoring, banking, and research. A new beta trading experience in the app enables trading, research and portfolio monitoring from the home dashboard.

Fidelity offers a wide range of securities suitable for most investors, from stocks, options and fixed income to among the best selection of mutual funds. International trading is a differentiator for Fidelity; the firm provides access to 25 global markets.

Fidelity, along with Charles Schwab, is also one of the first major brokers to offer fractional share trading. The only assets lacking at Fidelity are futures and cryptocurrency. Offering Available? The research offerings at Fidelity outshine those at the majority of online brokerage platforms. Research is categorized according to asset class with a wealth of tools, screeners, lists and reports for stock, ETF, options, IPO and fixed income investors.

Investors will appreciate the quality third-party research reports and scorecards from major financial firms like Compustat, Zacks, Argus and Reuters. Each asset class gets unique screeners and lists to help you choose the best financial assets for your portfolio. For example, ETF investors will find screening by fund family, performance, volume and comparisons.

Options investors, meanwhile, can quickly access statistics, IV index, quotes and charts, probability calculator, and profit and loss calculator. Stock investors have innumerable tools for fundamental and technical research. The lists include sector, market cap, dividend yield , market movers and more.

Investors can view premade screens or create their own based on criteria. Summary cards highlight top information. Economic, social and governance ESG scores along with intra-day social sentiment scores are available.

We ran extensive customer service tests considering accuracy of responses and wait times for phone, email and text customer service. Our phone calls to the company were answered promptly, generally within two to three minutes. All emails were answered within one to two days, with several within a few hours. Each email question received a correct answer. The company stands out with voice recognition for customer service.

Other industry standard security features include:. Account insurance is more than adequate for most investors. The privately owned company is now managed by granddaughter Abigail C. Johnson, CEO and chairman. Credit Cards Credit card reviews. Best credit cards Best rewards credit cards.

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