Fidelity Review

Fidelity is a value-driven online broker offering $0 trades, industry-leading research, excellent trading tools and an easy-to-use mobile app. Fidelity was rated in the top five in nearly all the categories we analyze in our annual review of online stockbrokers, and is a repeat No. 1 winner overall this year. The broker also won our 2023 industry awards for Innovation, New Tool, Order Execution and Fractional Shares.

Pros & Cons

Overall summary

Investment options

Fidelity provides all the benefits an investor would expect from a full-service brokerage, including the entire spectrum of investment services, from stock trading to retirement guidance.

Cryptocurrency: In late 2022, Fido rolled out bitcoin and ethereum trading to clients in 36 states, with a spread of 1% added for purchases and an additional 1% deducted for sales. Several other brokers charge less and offer more coins.

Fractional shares: Fractional shares trading enables investors to buy a fraction of a share instead of a whole share. For example, for a stock trading at $500 per share, investors can buy 1/10th a share for $50. In 2023, Fidelity remains our favorite broker for fractional shares trading thanks to its meticulously designed order ticket and dedication to giving customers the lowest-cost executions.

Other investments: While futures and forex trading aren’t offered, international trading is, which lets customers trade in 25 countries and exchange between 20 currencies. In the international trading department, only Interactive Brokers, which is built for pros, offers more global access.

Retirement services: Fidelity offers traditional, Roth and rollover IRAs alongside excellent education and tools for retirement planning, and the broker charges no miscellaneous fees for IRA accounts.

Commissions and fees

After factoring in order execution, where Fidelity reigns supreme, Fidelity’s $0 stock and ETF trades consistently yield additional value for customers, and it skips some charges many other brokers drop on their customers.

Penny stocks: Unlike many brokers, Fidelity charges no additional fees for trading penny stocks.

No payment for order flow: Rare in the industry, Fidelity does not accept payment for order flow, or PFOF. In fact, alongside Charles Schwab, Fidelity is the only broker to show customers the price improvement received on eligible orders.

Zero expense ratio mutual funds: Fidelity distinguishes its offering with the addition of several zero expense ratio mutual funds, helping investors save on costs, compared to funds available from competitor Vanguard. For example, the symbols FNILX, FZIPX, FZROX, and FZILX offered at Fidelity come with no minimum deposit and a zero expense ratio. Transaction fee mutual funds cost $49.95 to purchase.

Incidental fees: All brokers have incidental fees. Unlike many other firms, Fidelity doesn’t charge for transfers out. Most of the other unusual fees are either lower than average or in line with the industry. If you expect to rack up incidental fees, use our broker comparison tool to find the best broker for you.

Mobile trading apps

Fidelity offers two mobile applications and all accept the same Fidelity username and password, so you can choose and use them as you see fit. One is the “flagship” Fidelity experience; the other, Bloom, caters to personal finance novices. What Fidelity lacks is a dedicated trading app.

Fidelity mobile app: Fidelity’s mobile experience is cleanly designed, bug-free, and delivers a clear picture for its users. While active traders may be left wanting more, for the majority, Fidelity delivers.

Ease of use: Navigation is simple. The layout is intuitive and finding what you’re looking for is easy.

Customizable dashboard: Upon logging in, a customizable dashboard experience greets you. Cards cover everything, from market news to portfolio and watch list insights.

Charting: Charting is clean and includes after-hours charts, which is nice; however, only eight indicators are available on the iOS main app – well below the industry average of over 30.

Other unique features: Research is robust and exactly what one would expect to find after using the website. Among many other highlights of the mobile app is the note-taking functionality, which allows you to log personal thoughts on individual stocks and the broader markets. There is also live streaming TV from Bloomberg within the mobile app, matching the Active Trader Pro desktop platform.

Fidelity Bloom: Bloom won our Best New Tool award for 2023. It uses behavioral finance principles, brief challenges and positive reinforcement to tackle emotional issues that prevent people from achieving financial goals. Fidelity borrows from the field of heuristics, which are mental “shortcuts” people take in making complex decisions. It’s a unique approach that we think can have distinctly positive effects on many people, especially those just starting to save for the future.

Fidelity Spire: Fidelity announced the beginner-friendly Spire mobile investing app will no longer be available as of March 27, 2023. We hope Fidelity offers a replacement. Some investors might be intimidated by Fidelity’s flagship app, and there are some excellent apps out there that cater to novices, such as Interactive Brokers’ Global Trader.

Mobile app drawbacks: While Fidelity thrives in its offering of mobile research, it struggles in the active trading department. To better serve active traders, Fidelity should consider a separate dedicated app, a strategy employed by both TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE.

Fidelity Mobile app gallery

Fidelity Bloom app agallery

Other trading platforms and tools

Fidelity’s website provides everything an everyday investor needs to manage a portfolio. Active traders will appreciate Active Trader Pro, Fidelity’s flagship desktop platform, which is loaded with trading tools. Our gripe with it is that it feels choppy. Moving widgets can’t keep up with mouse movements. That might be due to its Java base; other platforms that use HTML5 are quicker.

Platforms overview: Active Trader Pro includes several unique, brewed-in-house tools, including Real-Time Analytics (streaming trade signals) and Trade Armor (real-time position analysis). Options trading with Active Trader Pro is also impressive and includes a variety of analyses. Overall, Fidelity competes among the best brokers for day trading and best for options trading.

Website watch lists: Fidelity’s website watch list tool is my personal favorite among all the brokers I’ve tested in our annual review. Streaming quotes are included as well as 48 total columns of data to choose from. Furthermore, the workflow is seamless, making it a breeze to transition into equity research or into the docked order ticket to place a trade.

Charting: In Active Trader Pro, charting is cleanly laid out and includes 22 different drawing tools, 129 optional studies, custom user profiles, chart trading, alerts, notes, and more. Trading Central (Recognia) is also incorporated to automate the identification of common technical patterns.

Research

Fidelity’s active mutual funds have their roots in deep research (read “One Up on Wall Street” by Fidelity superstar manager Peter Lynch if there’s any doubt). That legacy continues in the suite of available research. Fidelity’s services support thoughtful investing.

Stock research: When we pulled up research on Apple shares, Fidelity offered 11 third-party research reports for stocks and one Fidelity report that provided consensus information. We also found two PDF reports for the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) ETF. Though Fidelity provides ample third-party research, we also like the deeper dives from the proprietary research teams at Merrill, E*TRADE, and J.P. Morgan. Surprisingly, mutual funds don’t get PDF reports, but almost any piece of information is onscreen, so no big deal there.

Fidelity provides rich market commentary, as do other top-tier brokers, but it’s also exceptionally good at curating third-party news and thought pieces. Where some brokers provide simple news feeds, Fidelity scours and presents the best of the web, and it consistently chooses well, helping readers to feel well-informed about the markets.

Screening for trade ideas: Fidelity’s stock, ETF, and mutual fund screeners are easy to use, rich in data, and set the benchmark for the industry. Thematic investing, ESG (environmental, social and governance) data, Morningstar ratings — the list of features is extensive.

Education

There’s something for everyone in Fidelity’s educational offerings. Fidelity does a great job of organizing content into roadmaps with progress tracking, as well as sorting by experience level, category and content type. Articles, videos, webinars, infographics, courses, and even podcasts are made available to customers.

Learning center: Fidelity’s Learning Center collects educational content in one spot, including archived webinars, classes for beginners, and a large variety of categories that each contain numerous articles. There is even an AI-driven recommendation engine to suggest educational content. Fidelity’s YouTube channel provides a library of archived videos organized by playlist with related educational content published throughout the week. The innovative Youth Account has its own learning center with the goal of helping teens develop good financial habits.

Retirement education: Fidelity stands out with its retirement education. It offers a variety of in-house calculators to provide you with a proper diagnosis of your financial position. To show the depth of their tools, aside from the usual “How much money will you have to retire?” worksheets, Fidelity has a ”Substantially Equal Periodic Payments/72(t) Calculator” that can help you find out the most tax-efficient IRA withdrawal amounts if you are below 59 ½ years old.

Customer service

To score Customer Service, StockBrokers.com partners with customer experience research firm Confero to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the United States. For our 2023 Broker Review, 168 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks, with wait times logged for each call.

Customer service representatives were asked for assistance or details in several areas of broker services, including account opening, trading tools, apps, rollovers, active trading, and more. Here are the results for Fidelity.

• Average Connection Time: 1-2 minutes
• Average Net Promoter Score: 8.8 / 10
• Average Professionalism Score: 8.4 / 10
• Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
• Ranking: 3rd of 14 brokers

Banking services

While Fidelity is not itself a chartered bank, it does offer various banking-related services and delivers a reliable experience that includes access to more than 200 retail service centers. A cash management account is available and includes bill pay and use of a debit card. The Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature credit card offers 2% cashback on all purchases. Fidelity Bloom, a program tailored to personal finance novices, also provides rewards. Fidelity offers no loyalty rewards for using multiple products, an area in which Bank of America - Merrill Edge is unsurpassed. Given Fidelity’s thrifty approach, this isn’t surprising.

Final thoughts

The Green Machine continued to dominate our rankings in our 2023 Annual Online Stockbroker Review on the strength of its breadth of services, ease of use, low cost and compelling educational content. While short-term traders and market professionals might have some needs other brokers address better, everyday investors will find Fidelity to be an excellent choice.

Here are our top takeaways for Fidelity for 2023:

1. Fidelity delivers value across its entire client experience. The Fidelity website and mobile app both breezed through our rigorous usability assessments. Furthermore, thanks to a plethora of educational resources, Fidelity is a winner for beginners.
2. Fidelity shines for research, whether you're viewing stock, ETF, and mutual fund quotes or running through a screener to find investment ideas. Investors with IRA accounts will also be impressed.
3. Beyond everyday investors, Fidelity's Active Trader Pro desktop platform is excellent for active trading, including day trading and options trading.

Best Broker Guides

Explore our broker rankings:

• Best Trading Platforms 2023
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• Best Day Trading Platforms
• Best Brokers for Penny Stocks

Is Fidelity a safe company to invest with?

Yes, Fidelity is one of the safest brokerages to invest with. It’s an industry leader with a stellar reputation and fully regulated in the U.S. with the SEC and FINRA, is trusted by over 40 million people and holds over $9.9 trillion in assets under administration.

Money held in an investment account with Fidelity is protected by SIPC insurance, which covers up to $500,000 in securities ($250,000 cash maximum) per customer. Funds held in Fidelity’s cash management account are swept to partner banks and protected by FDIC insurance.

Finally, Fidelity provides additional coverage in excess of SIPC limits through Lloyd’s of London for up to $1 billion across all customer accounts, and with up to $1.9 million per customer for cash.

Is Fidelity good for beginners?

Yes, Fidelity is one of our top choices for beginners, thanks to a solid combination of educational content and friendly mobile apps. Fidelity also offers fractional share stock trading.

Does Fidelity have hidden fees?

There are virtually no account service fees or other hidden fees at Fidelity when you hold a self-directed brokerage account. Fidelity is transparent with its pricing across its platforms. Options trading costs $0.65 per contract, and new bond issues are $1 per bond; there is a flat fee of $19.95 for broker-assisted trades.

In addition, with no minimum investment and zero-dollar commissions for trading stocks, ETFs, and Fidelity mutual funds, you can get started with any trading budget at Fidelity, as long as you choose no-transaction fee (NTF) funds.

There are few other fees: a foreign exchange wire fee (up to 3%), a foreign dividends fee (1%), $100 per stock certificate transfer, and $32.95 per margin liquidation and broker-assisted trades.

What does Active Trader Pro do?

Fidelity Active Trader Pro is a downloadable trading platform with tools for very active stock traders. Like all good trading platforms, it’s filled to the brim with customizable widgets and charts. Most investors don’t require the complex tools in Active Trader Pro, but for active stock and options traders, those tools provide actionable insights on minute fluctuations in the markets.

Does Fidelity Active Trader Pro cost anything?

Use of Active Trader Pro, Fidelity’s downloadable trading platform, doesn’t cost anything. The tool-laden platform is free to Fidelity brokerage customers, and Fidelity doesn’t have account minimums or inactivity fees.

About Fidelity

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Fidelity was founded in 1946 and is one of the largest asset managers in the world (1). As of November 2022, Fidelity was home to over 40 million individual customers and held over $12 trillion in total customer assets under administration (2).

2023 Review methodology

Our mission at StockBrokers.com is simple: provide thorough and unbiased reviews of online brokers, based on an extraordinary level of hands-on testing and data collection. Our ratings and awards are based on this data and our experts’ deep authority in the field; brokers cannot pay for preferential treatment. Here’s more about trustworthiness at StockBrokers.com.

For the StockBrokers.com 13th Annual Review published in January 2023, a total of 3,332 data points were collected over three months and used to score 17 top brokers. This makes StockBrokers.com home to the largest independent database on the web covering the online broker industry.

As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy. Brokers also were offered the opportunity to provide executive time for an annual update meeting.

Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.

Fidelity 2023 results

For the StockBrokers.com 2023 Review, all U.S. equity brokers we reviewed were assessed on 196 different variables across eight areas: Commissions & Fees, Investment Options, Platforms & Tools, Research, Mobile Trading, Education, Ease of Use, and Overall.

StockBrokers.com also presented “Best in Class” awards to brokers for additional categories Beginners, Options Trading, Futures Trading, Active Trading, IRA Accounts, Investor Community, Penny Stock Trading, Banking Services and Customer Service. A “Best in Class” designation means finishing in the top five brokers for that category.

For more information, see how we test.

Primary categories

Secondary categories

Industry awards

Fidelity fees and features data

The data collection efforts at StockBrokers.com are unmatched in the industry. The following tables show a deeper dive into the offerings available at this broker. You can also compare its offerings side-by-side with those of other brokers using our Comparison Tool.

In addition to meticulous annual data collection by our in-house analyst, every broker that participates in our review is afforded the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile. We then audit each data point to ensure its accuracy.

Trading fees

Account fees

Margin rates

Investment options

Order types

Beginners

Stock trading apps

Stock app features

Stock app charting

Trading platforms overview

Trading platform stock chart features

Day trading features

Investment research overview

Stock research features

ETF research features

Mutual fund research features

Options trading overview

Banking features

Customer service options

About the Editorial Team