Name: Fidelity
Brand: Fidelity

Fidelity might be for you if: You're looking for a broker with low fees and deep research tools. Fidelity offers $0 commission stock trades and thousands of $0 commission mutual funds. In short, it's big, smart, and affordable. In this Fidelity review, we'll cover everything you need to know to decide whether this brokerage is for you.

Ratings Methodology

Fidelity

Our Rating:

Rating image, 5.0 out of 5 stars.

5.0/5

Bottom Line

Fidelity is massively popular because it works for beginners and advanced investors. You get $0 commission trades, tons of investment types, and good customer services you can meet in-person. Fidelity's research is top-notch without being overwhelming. Open an account with Fidelity to invest on an affordable platform that grows with you.

Fees:

$0 commission for online U.S. stock and ETF trades; trade fractional shares for as little as $1

Account Minimum:

$0

Alternatives to Consider

We recommend comparing brokerage options to ensure the account you're selecting is the best fit for you. To make your search easier, here's a short list of our best trading platforms of 2024.

Broker	Best For	Commissions	Learn More
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.	Easy fractional investing in stocks and bonds.	$0 commissions, 1%-2% crypto markups	Learn More for Public On Public's Secure Website.
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.	Low mutual fund fees.	$0 per trade	Learn More for J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing On J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing's Secure Website.
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.	Long-Term Investors, Stocks and Options Traders	Commission-free; other fees apply	Learn More for ETRADE On ETRADE's Secure Website.

We tried it: Our team's experience

Here at Motley Fool Money, we pride ourselves as real users of most of the products across our site. Writer Brittney Myers uses Fidelity personally -- here's a summary of her experience:

Finding investments

Fidelity's app is one of the simplest to use that I've tried, and it's so easy to navigate. It makes it especially easy for me to find the stocks I want to buy.

I also like that Fidelity offers me a few different ways to discover new stocks or interesting index funds if I need a little help finding my next investment. You can see all sorts of trending stocks, including those that are winning -- and those that aren't.

Each stock's info page is minimal while still being pretty informative, giving you current and historical performance data, as well as some essential company research. I'd love to see more detailed data and some more charts (can you ever have too many charts?!) in the app.

Fidelity investment performance screenshot

Viewing investment performance over time

I like, but don't love, Fidelity's tools for tracking and analyzing an investment's performance over time. You get all the standard information you'd expect, like up to 10 years of performance history in a few intervals, and some general recent news.

I like that I have an easy way to see my current positions and how they've recently changed. And having a Wishlist of must-watch stocks is also super useful for tracking investments I'm considering putting money in sometime soon. (Note: If you've made fidelity.com watchlists, they may not show up in your app.)

Overall, I'd really love to have more data and more customization options for how to display that data. But I get that it would clutter an otherwise very clean interface, so it's a tradeoff.

Monitoring portfolio performance

One feature of the Fidelity app that I really dig that I haven't seen much anywhere else is the ability to set all kinds of alerts for specific products. This can be an awesome way to keep a close eye on your portfolio's performance.

For example, I can set an alert to let me know when my stock increases or decreases in value past a certain dollar amount or percentage. This can let me know it's time to buy more or sell at a profit.

I also like to keep tabs on potential new investments. What's better than a helpful notification letting you know it's time to make money?

Brittney's final thoughts: Fidelity's app is clean and minimal -- for better or worse

Fidelity could be worth a try if:

You want a clean, simple app interface.
You like having enough data to make a decision, without a lot of excess information.
You're an experienced investor and don't need help learning the basics.

If these points appeal to you, the Fidelity app could be a good choice.

Otherwise, you may find it lacking in detail and substance. In this case, consider an investing app more tailored to your investing needs.

Investment offerings

Fidelity offers basic and advanced investment types, plus fractional shares. You can even buy crypto on the Fidelity app, though you must open a separate crypto account.

Investments

Bonds
Crypto
ETFs
Foreign markets
Options
Precious metals
Stocks
Mutual funds

Brokerage accounts

Crypto
IRA
Margin
Robo-advisory
Roth IRA
Traditional brokerage
529 plans

TIP

Other financial services

Fidelity has expanded to offer more than stock trading. It also offers banking services, all of which can be accessed in the Fidelity app.

Commissions and fees

Fidelity offers $0 commission trades. You can save big by sticking to no-transaction-fee funds. One thing to watch out for is Fidelity charges you $49.95 for redeeming No Transaction Fee (NTF) non-Fidelity funds within 60 days of buying them -- so hold onto them to save money.

Fidelity is as cheap as it gets when it comes to miscellaneous expenses like statement fees, closing IRA account fees, and returned check fees. Most of that stuff is free.

Reason	Cost
U.S. stock and ETF commission fees	$0
Fidelity mutual fund commission fees	$0
No Transaction Fee (NTF) non-Fidelity funds commission fees	$0
Transaction Fee non-Fidelity funds commission fees	$49.95 per purchase, $0 per redemption
Options per-contract fee	$0.65
Foreign market fees	Variable

Data source: Fidelity.

Margin rates

Margin rates are on the high side for small account balances, but if you borrow more than $500,000, rates begin to get competitive with the best brokers for options.

Amount you borrow	Rate
$0 to $24,999	13.575%
$25,000 to $49,999	13.075%
$50,000 to $99,999	12.125%
$100,000 to $249,999	12.075%
$250,000 to $499,999	11.825%
$500,000 to $999,999	9.50%
$1.000.000 or more	9.25%

Data source: Fidelity.

Research and education

One area where Fidelity really shines is in research. The company boasts that it offers more research than other similarly sized discount brokerage firms. Here are a few of its research capabilities:

More than 20 independent research firms: Fidelity offers access to in-depth research reports from more than 20 independent research firms. Simply look up a ticker and you'll see a list of reports ready to read for free.
StarMine: Thomson Reuters StarMine is a unique tool that gathers analyst ratings and weights them by their historical accuracy. This can also be helpful for determining which research firms have been right about their past price targets for a particular stock, or whether the buy ratings on a company have historically been deserved.
Upgrades and downgrades: Fidelity makes it easy to view the movers and shakers in the market on any given day, showing upgrade and downgrade activity from more than 89 research firms.

Fidelity also offers a number of stock, fund, and ETF screeners so you can quickly search for companies with rapidly growing earnings, funds with low expense ratios with long-tenured managers, ETFs that are highly correlated to another fund you own, and more.

Interface

Fidelity offers a web-based trading platform in addition to a platform for active traders. The advanced platform (Fidelity Active Trader Pro®) does not have any fees or additional costs associated with it and has no eligibility requirements.

Both its trading dashboard on the web and its mobile apps (available on iOS, Android, and Windows) offer the functionality you'd expect, with live streaming quotes, charting tools, and the ability to trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and options right from your browser, tablet, or smartphone.

App

Fidelity's iOS and Android apps both receive high marks from users, mainly for the versatility that lets you manage your account on the go. Here are the current app store ratings.

iOS rating: 4.8/5 stars
Android rating: 4.5/5 stars

Customer service

Discount brokers may forgo sending you a holiday card every year, but that doesn't mean they skimp on customer support. Fidelity has 24/7 phone support for brokerage accounts, plus an online chat service. (We used its live chat feature to ask about its support hours and received a response within 30 seconds.)

There are a few ways to contact customer service:

Phone line open 24/7
In-person locations at 197 branch offices
Online chat is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. EDT to 10 p.m. EDT

Security

Fidelity is a safe place to invest. All Fidelity accounts are covered by SIPC protection up to $500,000, so if Fidelity goes bankrupt, you're covered up to that amount. Plus, Fidelity offers a "Customer Protection Guarantee" that promises to refund you if someone messes with your account and it's not your fault. You can send encrypted messages to Fidelity through the platform, and Fidelity offers you the option to activate multi-factor authentication to further secure your account.

About

Fidelity is one of the biggest and most well-known investment platforms out there. It manages over $5 trillion in assets, a staggering number. As of writing, Fidelity operates 215 Investment Centers in the U.S. It's a one-stop-shop for beginners and advanced investors of all kinds.

Learn more about Fidelity

Keep reading about Fidelity on these pages:

Review sources

Our brokerage rating methodology

At Motley Fool Money, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology

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Our Experts Weigh In: Fidelity Review