Firstrade Review
Firstrade is a deep discount broker offering zero-commission trading on penny stocks, options, and even mutual funds — great for budget-conscious traders. Chinese-speaking customers will appreciate Firstrade’s comprehensive support in Cantonese and Mandarin, adding a unique layer of accessibility.
That said, Firstrade's trading tools and educational resources trail industry leaders. While the platform is user-friendly and bolstered by innovations like FirstradeGPT, it lacks the depth needed to satisfy advanced traders. Whether you're exploring fractional shares or testing AI-driven research, Firstrade’s strengths depend on your specific needs.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Firstrade is great for dollar cost averaging investors. On top of no-commission stock, option, and ETF trades, Firstrade doesn’t charge for mutual fund trades.
- Fractional shares are available for 4,000 stocks/ETFs, and the minimum trade size is only $5.00.
- Firstrade has bolstered its options capabilities. Options Trade Ideas (powered by OptionsPlay) provides trading ideas and reports on specific strategies.
- Firstrade's mobile stock trading app is easy to use and provides good charts.
- Firstrade provides exceptional support for Chinese-speaking customers.
Cons
- Firstrade is stronger in pricing than features. I found its trading platform and tools to be adequate but well behind the best brokers for 2024.
- Investor education is thin and could be better organized. For example, an article about funding education was located in the retirement tab.
Overall summary
Feature |
Firstrade
|
---|---|
Overall | |
Investment Options | |
Commissions & Fees | |
Mobile Trading Apps | |
Platforms & Tools | |
Research | |
Customer Service | |
Education | |
Ease Of Use |
Firstrade trading platform screenshots
Mobile app:
Learn more
If you prefer trading on the go, see our picks for best mobile apps for stock trading.
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 this year's testing, 135 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks, with wait times logged for each call.
Customer service representatives were asked for assistance or details for prospective customers in several areas of broker services, including account opening, trading tools, apps, rollovers, active trading, and more. Here are the results for Firstrade.
- Average Connection Time: 1-2 minutes
- Average Net Promoter Score: 7.1 / 10
- Average Professionalism Score: 7.5 / 10
- Overall Score: 7.43 / 10
- Ranking: 9th of 13 brokers
Is Firstrade good for beginners?
While Firstrade didn't make it onto our current shortlist of best trading platforms for beginners, it’s inexpensive, easy to use and the mobile app isn’t overwhelming. For Chinese-speaking customers it could be the best choice. Sophisticated investors and traders will find better fits among our top-ranked brokers for 2024.
Does Firstrade have fees?
Yes, Firstrade has fees, but they are mainly for incidental services, such as transferring the account out. Firstrade does not charge annual account fees, nor does it charge trading fees for stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and options.
What is the minimum deposit for Firstrade?
Firstrade has no account minimums, so feel free to open an account simply to try out the tools and features.
What is FirstradeGPT?
One of the first brokers to explore using an AI copilot in their research offering to clients, Firstrade recently launched FirstradeGPT, powered by FinChat.io, to generate technical and fundamental market analysis. The app has a ChatGPT-style chat interface that uses either your own or pre-defined prompts to interact with the FirstradeGPT model and receive streaming responses including complex graphs and bar chart data.
How does Firstrade make money?
Like virtually all online brokerages, Firstrade makes money through payment for order flow, or PFOF. In this practice, a broker receives payment for routing its clients’ transactions through particular market makers. The practice is the subject of some controversy but remains common industry practice. Fidelity is an exception in not accepting PFOF. (Learn more about PFOF.)
Is Firstrade safe?
Yes, Firstrade is safe. Firstrade was founded in 1985 and is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, or SIPC, which provides up to $500,000 of coverage of a client’s assets in the event of broker bankruptcy. Its clearing firm, Apex Clearing Corporation, provides additional insurance.
Does Firstrade offer instant deposit?
Firstrade can accept money via ACH transfer, wire transfer, check, and asset transfer. Firstrade will give you up to $1,000 of instant buying power on your initial ACH deposit.
About Firstrade
Founded in 1985, Flushing, New York-based Firstrade is a deep-discount online broker that offers $0 stock, ETF, mutual fund, and options trades. Firstrade was among the earliest U.S. brokers to launch retail cryptocurrency trading and embrace AI tools.
Firstrade 2024 Results
For the StockBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards, announced on Jan. 23, 2024, all U.S. equity brokers we reviewed were assessed on over 200 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. New to investing? Check out our beginner's guide on how to invest.
Category awards
Firstrade | Penny Stock Trading |
Rank #1 | |
Streak #1 | |
Best in Class | |
Best in Class Streak | 2 |
StockBrokers.com 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 in-house experts’ deep authority in the field; brokers cannot pay for preferential treatment. Here’s more about trustworthiness at StockBrokers.com.
Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools for U.S. investors, collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process; this makes StockBrokers.com home to the largest independent database on the web covering the online broker industry. We test all available trading platforms for each broker and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables.
As part of our process, all brokers had the annual 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.
Read next
- Best Day Trading Platforms for 2024
- Best Stock Brokers & Trading Platforms for 2024
- Best Stock Trading Platforms for Beginners of 2024
- Best Stock Trading Apps for 2024
- Best Brokers for Penny Stock Trading of 2024
- Best Options Trading Platforms for 2024
- Best Futures Trading Platforms for 2024
- Best Paper Trading Platforms for 2024