Looking for the lowest cost online broker? Just find the service that offers the lowest trading commissions and sign up, right? Not so fast. Each broker has its own fee structures, discount offers, and a number of less visible costs associated with account ownership. Luckily, we are here to help simplify the process of finding the broker that offers the best deal for you.
Below we break down the basic fee structures for all of our reviewed brokers. At the end, we decide which brokers meet our minimum criteria to be recommended from a commissions and fees perspective.
We urge everyone to read the commission and fee agreements for each broker thoroughly before investing. Fees can vary widely depending on account value, trading frequency, the types of trades involved and other factors. The information on this page is accurate as of the date of posting but is subject to change at any time.
Commissions and Fees by Type
Click on the links below to access the detailed breakdown pages.
- Discounts and Special Offers
- Stock Trading Commissions
- Options Trading Commissions
- Mutual Fund Commissions and Fees
- Account Maintenance Fees
- Margin Rates
- Account Transfer and Closing Fees - find out how to get transfer fees reimbursed and even how to get paid to switch brokers
- Commission Free ETFs - some brokers offer a selection of ETFs that can be traded with zero commissions
Other Additional Fees That May Apply
- Regulatory transaction fee (typically less than $.01 per $100 of sales proceeds)
- Paper trade confirmations (typically around $2)
- Paper monthly statements (typically around $2)
- Wire transfer fees (typically $20 to $60)
- Account transfer fees (typically $40 to $60)
- American Depository Receipt (ADR) fee passed on from the issuing / managing bank (typically $.01 to $.05 per share)
Final Analysis
We have chosen to forgo our standard A-F grading scale for the purposes of comparing commissions and fees. Instead, we have chosen to use a simple pass or fail grade with three criteria. These three criteria are as follows:
- Stocks: Brokers need to offer some way for customers to trade stocks for $10 or less. If this is not possible, the broker fails
- Options: Brokers need to offer some way for customers to trade options for $10 + $1/contract and exercise contracts for $15 or less. If this is not possible, the broker fails.
- General: There must be a way to avoid an account maintenance fee. If a fee of any amount is mandatory, the broker fails.
| Broker | Stocks | Options | General |
| eOption | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| E*TRADE | Pass | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Fail - quarterly fee unless 2 trades per quarter, less than $5k+ assets or other conditions |
| Fidelity | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Firstrade | Pass | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Pass |
| Interactive Brokers | Pass | Pass | Fail for IRAs (quarterly fee) and minimum $10 monthly fee if commissions do not reach that level |
| Just2Trade | Pass | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Pass (though IRA annual fee may apply) |
| Merrill Edge | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| OptionsHouse | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| optionsXpress | Pass | Fail - per contract pricing too high | Pass |
| Schwab | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Scottrade | Pass | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Pass |
| ShareBuilder | Pass | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Pass |
| SogoTrade | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| TD Ameritrade | Pass | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Pass |
| thinkorswim | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| TradeKing | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Vanguard | Fail - commissions too high for those with less than $50k in assets | Fail - commissions are simply far too high | Fail - quarterly fee unless $50k+ assets |
| WellsTrade | Fail - commissions too high for non-PMA accounts | Fail - exercise / assignment is too expensive | Fail - quarterly fee unless $50k+ assets or PMA account holder |
| Zecco | Pass | Pass | Fail for IRAs (quarterly fee) |
We feel that our commission and fee criteria is more than lenient and that any broker that fails in one of the above categories is simply not even close to being competitive with the value offered by top competitors. All brokers that pass all three criteria are at the very least viable broker choices.
To reiterate one more time, please make sure that you verify the commissions and fees of all brokers before investing. We try to keep this page update this page as often as possible but commissions and fees can and will change at any time.
Related articles:
Taxes
Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs)
Summary Reviews