Best Discount Brokers
Discount brokers often make more sense for the average investor because they’re less costly and can give traders reduced commission rates on their trades. These discounts can help traders to save on overall trading costs in the long term, especially for retail traders who are day trading on a frequent basis.
This lower cost is usually the result of lower commissions, and it’s the primary benefit of using discount broking. Because they don’t offer any advice, discount brokers have no vested interest in asking the customer to buy or sell a particular instrument.
By allowing traders and investors to conduct their own market research and investment management, discount brokers can reduce the overhead costs such as administrative and management fees. Although most trading brokers do not have fees that are considered that expensive, they can add up and eat into profits, especially for specific trading strategies that take advantage of small price movements.
For that reason, we have compiled a list of our best discount brokers who we discovered to have some of the most competitive fees along with top class trading services. If you want to make your own investment decisions, a discount broker may be the way to go.
Top 10 Discount Brokers
ASIC, BaFin, CFTC, DFSA, FCA, FINMA, FMA, FSA, FSCA, JFSA, MAFF, MAS, METI, NFA
$250
1974
1:200
AvaTrade
AvaTrade has very low fees in general, especially for forex trading. They don’t charge any account fees, while deposits and withdrawals are also free of charge. You can trade a great selection of CFD instruments with zero commission fees including forex, commodities, stocks and crypto. On the down side, they do have an inactivity fee. However, that doesn’t kick in until after 3 months and is only applicable if you have funds in your account. If you are day trading, this shouldn’t really be an issue and overall, you can save a lot in commission fees.
IG
IG have very low dealing costs and non-trading fees. You can buy and sell thousands of global shares and trade ETFs, with low commission rates and zero commission on some US shares. The forex spreads are very competitive whilst they have industry leading technology to ensure quick trade execution speeds at the best available prices.
They do not charge for most deposits or withdrawals provided no currency conversion is required. If a currency conversion is required, there is a standard and reasonable FX conversion fee of just 0.5%. All deposits to your CFD trading account are free except for those via credit cards.
However, if your account is inactive for a period of 24 consecutive months, there will be a rolling monthly charge. This is a really long time to be inactive especially as they are a good broker for day trading. The inactivity fee won’t apply if you don’t have any funds in your account. They are very well established and regulated un multiple jurisdictions, making them one of the best brokers you will find for discounted trading fees.
DEGIRO
The DEGIRO fees are very low when compared to direct competitors. You will normally pay less than €1 per trade, while some banks can charge anywhere between €10-20 per transaction plus monthly fees. The broker offers cheap stock trading on an intuitive yet perhaps slightly limited trading platform, with a maximum charge of around €5 per trade. Unlike most trading brokers, they dont charge any inactivity fees.
I appreciate how DEGIRO are fully transparent about their fees. There are no fees which do not appear on the brokers fee schedule. I think they are a good broker for day trading when you consider that there are no inactivity fees, nor is there a minimum trading amount imposed on account holders. Just keep in mind that as with most brokers, there is a financing rate or overnight rate that will be charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than one day.
I would say that DEGIRO are one of the cheapest options overall, even if you are not an active trader. They can save you a lot in commission over the long term and have a fantastic range of trading products and services for all types of investor. The broker charges some of the cheapest commission fees for ETFs, shares, bonds, and gilts. They are also regulated and supervised by multiple regulatory authorities which can give you peace of mind.
Firstrade
With Firstrade, you can trade through user-friendly yet powerful online platform or mobile apps with very low commission of $0 per trade. The broker has a full suite of investment products including stocks, options, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), mutual funds, bonds and CDs.
There is no minimum stock trading deposit and account maintenance fee which is great. The costs are relatively low for self-directed online trades. There are no minimum stock trading requirements on the number of shares per trade. You can have as little as one share per trade.
Because Firstrade has no commissions or account fees, the broker ranks as extremely low-cost overall and is tough to beat. However, there are fees for dealing over the phone and possible wire transfer fees when making withdrawals.
Robinhood
Robinhood has no monthly fee, no account maintenance fee, and no trading or commission fees for stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrency. Another advantage is that they do not charge any withdrawal and inactivity fees whereas some competitors do. The broker has very user-friendly mobile and web trading platforms that make it easy to analyse the markets, place and manage trades.
Robinhood Securities generates income on uninvested brokerage cash that isn’t swept to the brokerage cash sweep network of program banks, primarily by depositing this cash in interest-bearing bank accounts. Investing with a Robinhood brokerage account is commission-free. They don’t charge you fees to open your account, to maintain your account, or to transfer funds to your account.
Freetrade
Freetrade is a UK-based financial technology company which offers a freemium share dealing service. They make it simple to invest and trade in the stock market, commission-free. The Freetrade app is modern, sleek and very user friendly which makes it suitable for traders of all experience levels.
Ally Invest
Ally Invest offer USA client self-directed trading and managed investing with competitive fees. They provide a great selection of versatile platforms, quality trading tools and educational content for beginners. Whether you are day trading or looking to hold positions for the long term, I think they are certainly worth consideration for anyone located in the USA.
Webull
Webull is an online brokerage where you can trade an extensive selection of financial products via user-friendly platforms for desktop and mobile. They have some good tools for market analysis and learning materials for beginners. Whilst they charge relatively low fees with no minimum deposit, there is a limited choice of payment options.
TradeStation
TradeStation have an excellent proprietary platform, vast range of robust tools and learning resources for active traders to trade thousands of instruments online with low commission fees. On the negative side, I found the funding options are limited and there is no support for trading forex. The TradeStation platform fees are quite high and unlike some other brokers, they do charge inactivity fees and for mutual funds transactions.
FXDD
Founded in 2002, FXDD are a regulated online broker with flexible trading platforms and accounts with or without commission, depending if you want lower spreads or not. They have a good selection of useful trading tools with daily market analysis and educational materials to help you find trading signals and make informed decisions.
Conclusion
Each broker chosen in our best discount brokers category is the result of thousands of hours research and analysis across hundreds of brokers over a number of years. We have done all of the hard work for you to help try and identify the best discount broker for your own individual needs. Hopefully this can save you time shopping around and trading fees in the long run.
Some of the most important factors that contribute towards a good broker for discounted trading have been considered including things such as the available financial instruments, platforms, apps, tools, execution, liquidity, fees, education, funding options, regulation, customer service and more.
Each of our chosen discount brokers have undergone and passed our stringent broker reviews with flying colours, based on what we consider to be amongst the most important considerations when choosing a discount broker for trading online. These brokers are well-established within the online trading industry, providing top discount trading conditions to traders and investors of all experience levels.
Having the best discounted brokers according to our findings listed in one place, can help you save time when looking for the best discount broker for your own individual needs.
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