If you prefer ETFs over funds, that’s not really an issue – but you can more cheaply buy and sell Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard branded mutual funds directly with those brokers, if that is your objective. Ally Invest is a subsidiary of Ally Bank, a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Equal Housing Lender. Its securities products and services are offered through Ally Invest Securities, a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Its advisory products are offered through Ally Invest Advisors, a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment advisor.
- To start, you’ll answer a few questions to help us figure out what you want and need from a financial advisor.
- The Ally Invest platform provides an array of fundamental research and market data for invests to ponder over.
- Unlike Schwab, it does allow clients to opt out of the heavy cash holding by paying an annual management fee of 0.30%—higher than competitors that offer more features, like Betterment and Wealthfront.
- That said, Ally’s savings account rate is lower than what you could get with competitors like Discover and Capital One.
Although the interest rate on Ally Bank’s savings account is impressive, it’s not unusual. Many online-only financial institutions have rates that are similar or even slightly higher. The fact that Ally doesn’t have a minimum deposit requirement also puts it on par with many other banks and credit unions.
Ally Invest review: Good for both hands-on and hands-off investors who want choices
The mobile app also has a research page that has news headlines, recent quotes, major market indices and their performance for the current day, and a list of NYSE market movers. There were no screeners available on the mobile app, but selecting a security brought up helpful fundamental information, technical data, and news for that security. The mobile app will likely meet the needs of traders who know what they want to trade.
The broker offers 24/7 phone support and an online chat function to quickly route you to a representative. There are also more conventional means, such as email, though customers don’t have the option of going to a physical branch for assistance. But this latter point probably shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for most investors. Ally Invest Robo Portfolios is another option for those looking to take an automated approach to investing. For just a $100 minimum investment, Robo Portfolios will invest based on your goals and automatically rebalance your portfolio daily.
Cash-Enhanced Managed Portfolios
Merrill Edge brings strong research and education to the investing space, offering a solid trading platform for stocks, bonds, options and funds. The investment information provided on this page is for informational and general educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment or financial advice. Bankrate does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it provide individualized recommendations or personalized investment advice. Investment decisions should be based on an evaluation of your own personal financial situation, needs, risk tolerance and investment objectives.
Is Ally Invest right for you?
For those that like to invest on the move, you’ll be pleased to know that Ally Invest have launched a dedicated mobile app across Android, iOS and even Windows. Moreover, you also have access to 36 drawing tools, as well as over a hundred chart studies. These analysis tools are further supported by profit and loss graphs, as well as a probability calculator that takes in to account implied volatility. Fundamental analysis refers to the evaluation of a specific company, asset or security, based on both internal and external factors. This might include financial performance, demand and supply, interest rates or profit forecasts. Essentially, due to the sheer strength of the Ally Invest customer service department, if you are ever unsure about anything, you can simply call the support team to have a one-on-one discussion.
Educational, Fundamental and Technical Analysis Tools
Other fees you may see include no-load mutual funds at $9.95 per trade and a number of service fees for certain transfers and transactions, like returned checks and IRA transfers. Tastytrade offers some of the lowest commissions around, whether you’re trading stocks, options or even cryptocurrency – and it actually caps your commissions on the latter two. Traders should find a lot to like here, among the commissions, trading platform and the variety of trading securities on offer, though long-term investors may bemoan the lack of mutual funds. Firstrade is a solid brokerage offering that may particularly appeal to options traders because of its commission-free options trades. You’ll also get access to quality research and its mobile app, but mutual fund investors may be disappointed by the small number of no-transaction fee funds available.
Ally Invest fees and features data
As mentioned, Ally Invest only provides an ETF screener on the Ally Invest Live website. The stock screener’s basic functionality is utilized for both the mutual fund and ETF screeners on the primary website, with some adjustments as appropriate ally invest review for the different asset types. For example, the mutual fund screener includes the total expense ratio as part of the criteria. Bankrate follows a strict
editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate.
Ally Invest provides additional coverage of up to $37.5 million, including up to $900,000 in cash with an aggregate cap of $150 million. Plus, it promises a secure connection when accessing and managing your accounts. Whether you choose a Self-Directed Trading account or a Cash-Enhanced Managed Portfolios account, Ally Invest promises to provide you with low-cost funds. Ally Mobile is available as a free download for both iOS and Android platforms.
For example, an advisor can better help you plan to send your three kids to college and move into a new home than a robo-advisor algorithm can. These different types of charts allow you to study and analyze how certain investments are performing. You can even customize this tool so you can better see what you’re most directly interested in.
Ally Invest has a robo-advisor vertical known as Cash-Enhanced Managed Portfolios. Cash-Enhanced Managed Portfolios are ideal for hands-off investors who aren’t sold on the DIY approach and aren’t convinced that they need to pay premiums for help from human financial advisors. If you’ve been thinking about moving your investments to a new broker, Ally Invest needs to be on your shortlist. Part of the Ally Bank family, it’s one of the top investment brokerages available, especially when you look at all the services they have for just about every area of your financial life. The $9.95 to initially buy into mutual funds it is lower than many I have seen (and significantly lower than E-Trade at $19.99 and Vanguard at $35).
The content on Money Crashers is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial advice. Should you need such advice, consult a licensed financial or tax advisor. References to products, offers, and rates from third party sites often change. While we do our best to keep these updated, numbers stated on this site may differ from actual numbers.
Traders who bank with Ally will also find the broker’s mobile app particularly useful, automatically linking your Ally banking and Ally investing accounts. With Ally Forex, you can trade over 80 currency pairs, plus gold and silver in real time. The platform is aimed at more experienced traders, offering a wider set of technical analysis tools and over 18 technical indicators and charting tools.
Ally Bank, one of the most popular online banks offering some of the highest interest on savings anywhere, purchased TradeKing in 2016. As an SIPC-member, customer accounts up to $500,000, including a up to $250,000 in cash, are protected in the event that Ally Invest fails. So Ally offers a solid selection of low-cost funds that is competitive with anyone. But this option presents substantial long-term costs, which are covered in the next section. If reducing the management fee to zero is your primary motivation, then you might also look at SoFi Automated Investing, which charges nothing, or Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, which has a no-fee option.
That said, if you want to choose the socially responsible portfolio option, your costs will jump. The funds used there range from 0.15 to 0.25 percent, or about $15 to $25 annually for every $10,000 invested. That’s still reasonably cheap in the grand scheme, just not at rock bottom. This option gets you a robo portfolio at no additional expense, though you’ll still have to pay for the expense ratios of any funds you have in the portfolio, as you would at any robo-advisor. As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy.