In order to invest in stocks and buy shares of companies, you need to have an online stock broker. Selecting an online broker is the first step towards investing. We’ve spent over 200 hours testing and reviewing online brokers and highlighted the best choices for you in 2018.
Best Overall Online Stock Broker
Bottom Line
Without a doubt, Ally Invest is the best online broker in terms of pricing, trading tools, and customer service. $3.95 commissions are with high-volume or high-balance trading, regular commission is $4.95. See the full Ally Invest review.
Up to $3,500 cash bonus + commission free trades for new accounts
Other Online Stock Brokers to Consider
If you plan on trading frequently, and don’t mind depositing $2,500 to open an account, you won’t find a better broker than tastyworks. All closing trades are free at tastyworks, so the highly active trader (i.e. buying and selling stocks multiple times per day in an attempt to profit) will save big on commissions.
Commissions
Account minimum
Promotion
Bottom Line
Tastyworks is an online brokerage created for the active options trader – technology is powerful and commissions are cheap. Full Tastyworks review.
Commissions
Account minimum
Promotion
Bottom Line
TradeStation offers access to advanced trading products at competitive pricing. Full TradeStation Review.
Cumulatively, we’ve spent well over 100 hours finding the best possible online broker for trading stocks, and we’ve narrowed it down to the three brokers you see above.
All three of these brokers have no maintenance fees, software fees, or other hidden BS fees that will eat into your profits. Some traders are very active and trade virtually everyday, but others only trade when an opportunity presents itself. As such, we find it’s best to eschew online stock brokers who charge their clients fees just to have an account.
Besides not having any fees, we’ve given Ally Invest the award of the Best Online Option Broker of 2017 primarily because of their great option trading platform and competitive pricing.
For stocks, Ally Invest is also one of our favorite choices. They have 24/7 customer service and the former TradeKing Live trading platform (keep in mind TradeKing didn’t used to have 24/7 customer service) so it’s really like the best of both worlds combined.
Stocks vs Options
Because a lot of options trading strategies require the simultaneous purchase or sale of stock, it’s best to just pick one broker for all of your trading needs. Although we love trading options at The Options Bro, we also trade stocks.
In the table above, you can click on one of the broker rows and see pros and cons of each broker and who each online stock broker is best for.
We sincerely hope our reviews and comparison tables empower you to make the right financial decision and spend less time looking for a broker and more time placing winning trades!