Which Brokerage is Best for You?
Matching Platforms to Your Skill Level
Something indispensable for any investor is their brokerage. The very business we execute our trades through, get advice from, and of course: pay our fees to. For beginners, picking a brokerage is a scary task. There’s little information over fees, different people you trust may recommend different things, and you most likely end with the costly mistake of downloading RobinHood… Even if you’ve been invested in the stock market for a while now and swear by your brokerage, it may be best for an upgrade! Let’s break down what’s best for beginners, intermediate, and advanced investors.
Beginner Brokerages
For a beginner brokerage, you’re looking for a simple interface, low fees, available education, and much needed guardrails from the advanced features such as: margin, options, and complex order types. Most people misinterpret this as a brokerage that gamifies investing for beginners (RobinHood), this is completely wrong, you want a brokerage that restricts your access to protect your capital; not to lead you down the path of shooting in the dark because it’s fun. The brokerages I’ve found that are the best at this are (In this order):
Charles Schwab — Meant to be beginner friendly, excellent research, planning tools are good, my personal favorite interface.
Fidelity — Great education, good interface, highly regarded customer service.
E*TRADE — Very simplified platform, goal based tools, okay education.
If you’ve been investing for a few years, are ready to try new things, and understand the risk behind more advanced features, it may be time to graduate from these platforms.
Intermediate Brokerages
As a more seasoned investor, you are in need for more in depth screeners, stronger research, and the introductory part of advanced features. With these brokerages below, they give you all of this alongside access to more asset types:
Power E*TRADE Platform — Contains more robust charting, paper trading, and more advanced educational library.
Schwab & Fidelity — Both platforms are scaleable to this level, but no more. Intermediate tools tailored for more conservative investors, not active traders looking into advanced features.
Webull/Robinhood/Public — Feature rich apps with advanced tools too readily available, gamified trading, suspect brands.
All of the listed above have the features you would need access to as an intermediate trader. The bottom three make risky features gamified and accessible (even if it’s your first time investing ever), with little education available on the platform.
Advanced Trader Brokerages
To be distinguished as an advanced trader you most likely need: direct routing, all order types, low margin rates, multi-asset access, etc. All the bells and whistles for maximizing your experience.
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) — Lowest margin rates, ‘Trader Workstation’, API trading.
Tastytrade — Built for options and futures trading, easy customization.
These two platforms are by far the best for not only having all the features you would need, but organizing them in a way that anyone new to the platform can find where they need to go.
So there it is! Determine where you are in your investing journey and plan your brokerage accordingly. Remember there is no “best” brokerage, only what works best for you, your investing strategy, etc. I challenge you if you’re comfortable with your current brokerage—do your own research and audit your current brokerage, do they match your real needs, not just what you aspire to learn?