If you’re new to investing or trading, the best thing you can do is find a broker that welcomes your inexperience. This is exactly the type of sentiment you’ll find after reading countless Fidelity reviews. Fidelity is arguably the best broker on the market for novice investors. And it offers a lot to love as not only your first broker, but your long-term broker. 

Fidelity Review: Things to Love

Keep reading as we break down the many great things about Fidelity and explore some of the areas where the platform might not offer the features you need. 

User Experience

Let’s start with the obvious: Fidelity is extremely user-friendly. Not only is the online interface easily navigable and smooth, the app is equally as uncomplicated. Everything is right where you need it. No matter if you’re reviewing your portfolio or exploring options chains. The UI results in wonderful UX. 

Customer service also falls into this category. Like most modern brokers, Fidelity account holders can get a live representative via phone, email and live chat 24/7. There are also 200 local branches.  You can learn more about customer interaction through the various Fidelity reviews across the internet.

Access to Research

Not only is the simple interface great for first-time investors and traders, the learning center offered by Fidelity is one of the best among major brokerages. Not only does the learning center help make Fidelity a more navigable broker, it’s also a completely free way to learn the nuances of more advanced trading and investing strategies. New investors will find everything they need, all in one place.

There’s also access to third-party research from 20 reputable authorities, including Recognia, Thomson Reuters and McLean Capital Management, among others. 

Low-to-No Fees

With no account minimums and zero commissions, there’s no barrier to entry for new investors when it comes to Fidelity. There’s also more than 3,400 no-transaction-fee mutual funds and zero-fee index funds. Users can realistically start trading for under $50. All told, new and experienced investors will get more from their money from a brokerage that’s virtually fee-less. For advanced traders, expect very low $0.65 options fees.

Thinking about transferring after reading Fidelity reviews? There’s no transfer, closing or inactivity fees, either!

Diversity of Securities

Fidelity offers access to all major tradeable securities, including stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, options and index funds. It even offers fractional shares, as per the new trend of investing.

It’s a reliable platform for long-term investors and traders alike. That said, it falls a bit short for those with appetites for crypto, futures or forex. But, as the brokerage is geared towards more retail investors, this is hardly to become problematic. 

Opportunities For Improvement

Almost every Fidelity review is high across the board. But there’s two small areas of improvement that could make it the ultimate brokerage if remedied.

First, the lack of more advanced investment products—specifically crypto—is a knock against the company. Many modern retail investors see crypto as a viable long-term security and demand for it is high (as evidenced by its value). That said, Fidelity does offer a robust catalog of crypto topics and educational materials, which could signal a move into crypto in the future. 

Second, for a beginner-friendly brokerage, Fidelity has surprisingly high fees for broker-assisted trades. While the ease of its interface makes these trades rare, some investors who still prefer broker assistance could find themselves paying upwards of $30 per trade. 

Outside of these two, very small opportunities for improvement, Fidelity is about as good a broker as they come.

The Bottom Line on Fidelity

Fidelity reviews hit the nail on the head: this is a superb broker for beginners and one that makes it easy to keep your account there for the long term. Ease of use, access to resources, low-to-no cost trades and the broad array of securities available makes Fidelity among the best brokerages out there.

Did you know Fidelity also offers retirement accounts and assistance? For the latest retirement strategies and passive income tips, sign up for the Wealthy Retirement e-letter below.

Can you find a Fidelity review that has a negative opinion of the company in general? If so, you may want to consider your options. Otherwise, Fidelity is a great place for new investors to create their first portfolio.

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