I checked the Fidelity site https://www.fidelity.com/why-fidelity/trading and the same 91 iShares/Fidelity ETFs that were free are still free (I was wondering if that was a "gotcha", but it's not).
Competition is a good thing . Of course, Merrill Edge is still better if you keep $50k/$100k in the account and qualify for free trades under BofA Preferred Rewards.
I checked the Fidelity site https://www.fidelity.com/why-fidelity/trading and the same 91 iShares/Fidelity ETFs that were free are still free (I was wondering if that was a "gotcha", but it's not).
Competition is a good thing . Of course, Merrill Edge is still better if you keep $50k/$100k in the account and qualify for free trades under BofA Preferred Rewards.
We saw that late last night online as well! Lower trades, lower options trades, lower margin rates, lower ER fees, etc. all help.
"For us, this is a real commitment to being the undisputed value leader," he said. .... Fidelity hopes young investors, among others, will be attracted to its lower fees. "Millennials are starting to come into the market, and they represent a huge customer segment for the future," Subramaniam said. Last year, the company launched Fidelity Go, a robo-adviser catering to "digital first" investors.
Kudos to the industry waking up and slashing costs.
"Save like a pessimist, invest like an optimist." - Morgan Housel
They also have an offer for 300/500 free trades if you open a NEW account or transfer into an EXISTING account of $50,000 or $100,000. The free trades are good for two years. FYI
livesoft wrote:So what? Lots of places have free trades for the things that one should want to buy. And that includes Fidelity.
In other words, $4.95 is still a rip off.
Its all relative.When I started investing almost 50 years, commissions were probably $50 on average and varied based on the number of shares and total value of the trade. That was more than a days wages for a lot of folks. And bid -ask quotes always used fractions (25 1/4 bid - 25 3/4 ask as an example) Now that was a ripoff.
livesoft wrote:So what? Lots of places have free trades for the things that one should want to buy. And that includes Fidelity.
In other words, $4.95 is still a rip off.
Its all relative.When I started investing almost 50 years, commissions were probably $50 on average and varied based on the number of shares and total value of the trade. That was more than a days wages for a lot of folks. And bid -ask quotes always used fractions (25 1/4 bid - 25 3/4 ask as an example) Now that was a ripoff.
If I mark up a service ∞% for you and rebate you $5, I'm still ripping you off
"To play the stock market is to play musical chairs under the chord progression of a bid-ask spread."
This is incredibly good for investors, because it makes it even more indifferent whose brokerage you use for your investments, particularly if there's a gap in commission-free coverage for one category you're investing in. In addition, for those of us with taxable investments, this makes tax loss harvesting, including during the very choppy times of late 2015/early 2016, much easier on the wallet.
I'm a Fidelity customer since the 1980s and it makes no difference to me. It might be detrimental to many customers who didn't pay for trading at all because they used mutual funds and no-commission ETFs. Now they may be coaxed into actually paying a commission.
The price drop seems more designed to create social media buzz (advertising) than any real benefit to customers.
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It may be small or token dollars, but every little bit helps. Fidelity, now it's your turn, do I hear $2.95?
That same press release also mentions a drop for Schwab index funds:
As previously announced, starting tomorrow, expenses for the Schwab market cap-weighted index mutual funds will be lowered, their investment minimums will be eliminated3, and the use of a single share class will ensure that even the smallest investor can invest at low costs historically available only to large institutions.
livesoft wrote:So what? Lots of places have free trades for the things that one should want to buy. And that includes Fidelity.
In other words, $4.95 is still a rip off.
Many on here do buy individual stocks, either as a real part of their portfolio (how un-Boglehead of them!) or as a small pot of play money. For those who don't want to set aside $25,000 or $50,000 or $100,000 to get commission free trades, this is indeed good news.
Last edited by jrbdmb on Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I checked the Fidelity site https://www.fidelity.com/why-fidelity/trading and the same 91 iShares/Fidelity ETFs that were free are still free (I was wondering if that was a "gotcha", but it's not).
Competition is a good thing . Of course, Merrill Edge is still better if you keep $50k/$100k in the account and qualify for free trades under BofA Preferred Rewards.
I see the above mentioned many times, and I thought I'd point out another option - 30 free Merrill Edge trades per month if you have $25,000 invested in either a Merrill Edge account (cash balance) or a Bank of America deposit account. This is separate from the Preferred Rewards bonuses. I've done this deal so my son can learn investing in low priced stocks while I try to gradually convert him to the Boglehead philosophy.
I don't trade often, so a $3 savings on commission is not significant. Not getting a good price execution versus current bid/ask can easily wind up costing more than the commission...
To me, more than this it would be helpful if the big three (or four or five) offered fixed mutual fund trades on our (customer) schedule. For instance, Schwab's automatic investment plan (AIP) invests only on 5th and/or 20th of the month. If I wished to automate for 4th and/or 19th, I'm out of luck. Do any of the major firms offer this (and can this somehow be done with Schwab as well that I am unaware of)?
Nice... One month too late for them. I just switched my main brokerage account over to Merrill Edge for free trades, and the awesome rewards card, and $500 cash for $100,000 assets. Still have my ROTH at Fidelity though, so this is appreciated, even though I don't trade much.
wander wrote:It's good for investors. But, I don't think it help me much since I enjoy 100 free trade at WF.
I keep hoping that TD Ameritrade will offer a similar deal since I already do most of my banking at TD, but so far no such luck. So I've parked $25,000 at BoA to get 30 free trades / month at Merrill Edge (100 free would be better, but not for the $100,000 balance requirement).
And I agree with the comment below, $9.95 at TD Ameritrade was already noncompetitive, now it is just ridiculous.
Last edited by jrbdmb on Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
How much annually are you folks paying in trading fees? I really had no idea people on this forum were paying fees. What a revenue boon for these investment firms. Seems like chasing low ERs could become irrelevant pretty quickly as the fees add up.
It's really more of an issue for us slice-n-dicers, and to a lesser degree, folks with significant taxable accounts who do tax loss harvesting. If you're a 3Funder, then there's really no excuse at all to ever pay commissions.
I don't understand some of the criticism in this thread. How aren't lower fees better? I pay commissions to Fidelity up to six times a year for RSU and ESPP trades. Why am I supposed to be cynical now that they've reduced the commission I'll pay by nearly 38%?
The only time I've paid transaction fees recently was when Tradeking had their $200/3k deposit bonus (not available anymore). You were required to make three trades to get it.
Theoretical wrote:It's really more of an issue for us slice-n-dicers, and to a lesser degree, folks with significant taxable accounts who do tax loss harvesting. If you're a 3Funder, then there's really no excuse at all to ever pay commissions.
Folks with significant taxable accounts should especially never pay fees.
It would be nice if all brokerages had a certain number of free trades per month with qualifying balance that isn't too astronomical, say 250k or even 500k. Having to jump through the checking account hoop at Merrill Edge for a number of free trades is something I would rather not deal with.
Longtermgrowth wrote:It would be nice if all brokerages had a certain number of free trades per month with qualifying balance that isn't too astronomical, say 250k or even 500k. Having to jump through the checking account hoop at Merrill Edge for a number of free trades is something I would rather not deal with.
What is so difficult about the checking account hoop? You set it up once and forget about it. Then if you have $50k you have more free trades than you should possibly want to use. (for life, perhaps)
"To play the stock market is to play musical chairs under the chord progression of a bid-ask spread."
Longtermgrowth wrote:It would be nice if all brokerages had a certain number of free trades per month with qualifying balance that isn't too astronomical, say 250k or even 500k. Having to jump through the checking account hoop at Merrill Edge for a number of free trades is something I would rather not deal with.
What is so difficult about the checking account hoop? You set it up once and forget about it. Then if you have $50k you have more free trades than you should possibly want to use. (for life, perhaps)
As I recall, if you already have a Merrill Edge account the application for the checking account is pre-populated to a large extent. It took just a few minutes. There are other Preferred Rewards benefits too, like cash-back increases on the credit cards.
As I recall, if you already have a Merrill Edge account the application for the checking account is pre-populated to a large extent. It took just a few minutes. There are other Preferred Rewards benefits too, like cash-back increases on the credit cards.
Of course; I actually made the mistake of going to my local BofA branch office (waste of time) and even that didn't take long. Only annoyance is BofA charges fees to transfer out of (maybe in?) checking into other banks -- so I just never use the account.
The VISA card is nice -- $200 signup bonus and the 50% rewards kick in next month. Woohoo! This deal is incredible.
"To play the stock market is to play musical chairs under the chord progression of a bid-ask spread."
Not bad at all, if I may say so. Ameritrade is now cheaper than Fidelity was and the same as Schwab was. It also makes sense in light of their Scottrade purchase.
triceratop wrote:
What is so difficult about the checking account hoop? You set it up once and forget about it. Then if you have $50k you have more free trades than you should possibly want to use. (for life, perhaps)
It wasn't terrible to set the checking account up and I hope you're right about it staying simple. I just worry that they will start charging the checking account fee in the future, that there might need to be some minimum level of activity with the checking account, or that the preferred rewards program will be discontinued down the line; leaving us having to close out the monthly fee checking accounts and transfer to another brokerage. I'm in for the ride now too, so we'll see how it goes.
triceratop wrote: Only annoyance is BofA charges fees to transfer out of (maybe in?) checking into other banks -- so I just never use the account.
I'll have to check for the transfer fee. I moved money from outside savings to BoA checking to pay the credit card bill and haven't noticed a fee doing that.
There were so many forms to read with their online bill pay for the card, couldn't make out for certain if I would get hit by a fee for linking my other checking account as payment to the card or not
triceratop wrote:
What is so difficult about the checking account hoop? You set it up once and forget about it. Then if you have $50k you have more free trades than you should possibly want to use. (for life, perhaps)
It wasn't terrible to set the checking account up and I hope you're right about it staying simple. I just worry that they will start charging the checking account fee in the future, that there might need to be some minimum level of activity with the checking account, or that the preferred rewards program will be discontinued down the line; leaving us having to close out the monthly fee checking accounts and transfer to another brokerage. I'm in for the ride now too, so we'll see how it goes.
triceratop wrote: Only annoyance is BofA charges fees to transfer out of (maybe in?) checking into other banks -- so I just never use the account.
I'll have to check for the transfer fee. I moved money from outside savings to BoA checking to pay the credit card bill and haven't noticed a fee doing that.
There were so many forms to read with their online bill pay for the card, couldn't make out for certain if I would get hit by a fee for linking my other checking account as payment to the card or not
Sure; But the fee will be less than the sign-up bonus ME was willing to pay to get me to sign up!
"To play the stock market is to play musical chairs under the chord progression of a bid-ask spread."
malabargold wrote:I wouldn't use M-L if they paid me.
The bastion of high fees and fighting fiduciary rules
for far too long.
We're talking Merrill Edge. That's a great discount brokerage.
Merrill-Lynch raised to the power of Bank of America.
Two of the worst financial services companies for customers
known, in my experience.
I hope it's something better now, but the combo makes me
me queasy.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Nobody forces you to use the BofA account (I do not). Plentiful free trades are hard to come by for modest account balances though; and that's before the best-on-the-market credit card rewards are taken into account.
I haven't seen any Bogleheads complain about Merrill Edge service or experiences.
"To play the stock market is to play musical chairs under the chord progression of a bid-ask spread."
I'd like to see Fidelity BrokerageLink drop its fees on non-NTF open-end mutual funds, now at $49.95 in my retirement plan that doesn't allow trading ETFs or stocks. Why the huge disparity?
Yep, the mutual funds transaction fees are the single major difference between the Big Three and their smaller competitors like Scotttrade, IB, and TradeKing. On the other hand, if there's a fund you absolutely want with Fido, you can get it for $5/month with automatic investing (and free with Ameritrade).
investordoc wrote:They also have an offer for 300/500 free trades if you open a NEW account or transfer into an EXISTING account of $50,000 or $100,000. The free trades are good for two years. FYI
Except the value of those free trades just went down and there are other options (FF miles, cash, Apple gift card) for transferring in money that may be worth more.
Earl Lemongrab wrote:We're talking Merrill Edge. That's a great discount brokerage.
Do you have to park $25,000 cash in a bank account to be qualified for the 30 free trades a month? If that is the case, then I rather invest elsewhere because I only need to trade a few times a year and the $25k can give me better return than the money I say from trading.
Earl Lemongrab wrote:We're talking Merrill Edge. That's a great discount brokerage.
Do you have to park $25,000 cash in a bank account to be qualified for the 30 free trades a month? If that is the case, then I rather invest elsewhere because I only need to trade a few times a year and the $25k can give me better return than the money I say from trading.
That is one way to qualify but is not how most Bogleheads qualify. I qualify by using the Preferred Rewards program, which requires $50k in securities in my ME account. So I just transferred in some Vanguard ETFs in kind.
"To play the stock market is to play musical chairs under the chord progression of a bid-ask spread."
malabargold wrote:Merrill-Lynch raised to the power of Bank of America.
Two of the worst financial services companies for customers
known, in my experience.
You're free to dislike what you want. My experience with both has been very positive. They have a great rewards setup and one of the best brokerage bonus programs around. The customer service has been knowledgeable and efficient. I can't remark on your past experiences because I don't know what they were or whether they actually involve Merrill Edge.
. Of course, Merrill Edge is still better if you keep $50k/$100k in the account and qualify for free trades under BofA Preferred Rewards.
Lower trades, lower options trades, lower margin rates, lower ER fees, etc. all help.
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