In a financially digital world, investing for everyday people is becoming easier than ever.
Most new investors look to online brokers to start trading, but with so many to choose from, it can be hard to narrow down to the broker that will be best for you. At Investing Simple, we're committed to helping you find the broker that suits you best.
In this article, we will be taking a deep dive into two of the hottest online brokers on the market now: TD Ameritrade vs M1 Finance. Whether you are concerned with the features, fees, pros, or cons of TD Ameritrade or M1 Finance, we have you covered. Let's get started!
M1 Finance is a free investing platform tailored towards long-term investors. The app is designed to allow investors to streamline and automate much of their investing. Traders looking for a way to quickly buy and sell stocks will not find this with M1.
TD Ameritrade is an older and more well-established platform that tailors moreso towards active traders. With significant data and charting capabilities, TD is well-known among traders.
Both platforms allow investors to buy and sell both stocks and ETFs. However, TD also offers a host of other asset classes including options and mutual funds. Either platform will also allow you to open a retirement account and invest on a tax-advantaged basis.
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TD Ameritrade Review 2021: Best Brokerage Platform? |
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M1 Finance Review 2021: Best Free Investing App? |
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TD Ameritrade is a popular online broker that offers fantastic trading services at extremely competitive prices. Whether you are interested in stocks, ETFs, options, or many other asset classes, TD has you covered.
The broker has been around since 1975 and has a much longer track record than many of the newer investing apps. However, this also means that they tend to be slower to adopt newer features and trends.
TD Ameritrade's mission is to help everyone get into the financial markets, no matter how deep their pockets are. They are able to do this by offering competitively priced services to their users. Helping you find financial stability is very important to TD Ameritrade, and they provide tons of features to help you accomplish this. 
TD Ameritrade offers the ThinkorSwim (TOS) application to all of their users. This platform is where traders are able to study stock charts and trends as well as access significant data. You are also able to execute trades from within the platform and most active traders choose to spend most of their time using TOS.
Longer-term investors can choose to use the traditional TD platform for a simpler interface. The TOS app can certainly be intimidating to newer investors, and in general, the mobile app will suffice for simple orders and basic research.
Both platforms can be used either from desktop or mobile depending on your style.
If you are a fan of dividends, you will be a fan of TD Ameritrade's income calculator. This tool on TD Ameritrade's website allows you to automatically calculate your annual dividend income from your stock portfolio. For those of you wondering how much you'll need to invest to live off of the dividends, that is exactly what this tool is for.
There is also a chart that shows the monthly income you will receive from your stock positions. For the income investor, this tool is crucial to mapping out dividend returns and staying up-to-date on your monthly income.
Among the most notable features of TD Ameritrade's services is its industry-leading equity research, free of charge. Given my personal experience with TD Ameritrade as my online broker, I have read tons of helpful research reports on companies I am considering.
Of the many research firms that cover stocks offered on TD Ameritrade, Credit Suisse is one of the most well-regarded. Credit Suisse covers many of the stocks that are offered on TD Ameritrade, and you can check out all of their price targets and equity research reports free of charge.
These help investors do more of their research and evaluations within their trading platform and save them from needing to navigate between multiple platforms just to plan a single trade.
Although TD Ameritrade's goal is to keep costs low for its users, it is still important to be informed of some broker fees before deciding to open an account.
Sure, there is no commission for stock trade execution through the ThinkorSwim trading platform or the official TD Ameritrade website. However, if you are looking to have a broker-assisted trade there will be a fee of $25. This fee may seem steep for those with a small account, but if you are placing a large trade and want a broker's advice/assistance, the fee may be worth it.
In terms of options, TD Ameritrade charges a $0.65 options trading fee per contract. And, if you are looking for a broker-assisted options trade, you will be looking at $25+$0.65 per contract.
Regarded as the "Finance Super App," M1 Finance is an online broker that lets you borrow, invest, and spend with optimal benefits and low costs. The app has picked up lots of steam in the last year, and for good reason. Let's take a look at the company's mission to really find out what the creators of M1 are really striving for on this "Super App."
M1 Finance is committed to empowering its users. Empowering them to make the right financial choices and being a helping hand through the entire process. M1 Finance focuses on automation and competitive pricing to help you manage your finances in the most convenient and optimal way possible.
M1 Finance's automation tools let you select a risk-tolerance, time horizon, answer some questions, and create a portfolio for you to invest. These are comprised of ETFs, some of the most diversified financial products in the world, used to make the investing process seamless and effective. And as a new investor, who wouldn't want that?
Many other platforms will charge a management fee for helping you design a portfolio that meets your needs. However, M1 Finance makes money through other means that don't involve charging commissions or management fees.
Similar to TD Ameritrade, M1 Finance charges no commissions on the stocks and ETFs that it offers. You can track your portfolio on a line chart and see how your portfolio is constructed through a pie chart offered by M1.
The M1 Finance pie is a signature piece of the platform and is what you will use to structure your portfolio. Instead of purchasing individual shares of stocks and ETFs, you'll design your pie with the allocations to different investments and then as you add money to your M1 account, it will automatically be allocated according to your pie.
Fractional shares are one of M1 Finance's more unique features. This lets you buy portions of companies instead of being forced to buy full-priced stocks or ETFs. For example, instead of spending $3,000 on a share of Amazon, you can buy 10% of a share for only $300. This is a fantastic feature for those who have smaller accounts but want to diversify.
This allows your pie to be fully invested because you don't have to wait until you can afford a full share to make a purchase.
M1 Finance's fees are embedded in its account structures. There are two types of accounts that are associated with M1: M1 Plus and M1 Basic. While M1 Basic is free of charge, the more advanced M1 Plus does have an annual fee.
The M1 Plus account comes with an annual fee of $125. This fee may seem steep for smaller accounts, but the M1 Plus account does come with added benefits such as:
Most M1 users won't feel the need to upgrade to M1 Plus, but your choice will come down to what you find to be important in an online broker. In general, you'll see the most benefit from the upgrade if you plan to take advantage of M1 Borrow or M1 Spend.
At the end of the day, TD Ameritrade and M1 Finance each have their own unique features.
If you are interested in stock trading and seeking out a highly technical trading platform for technical analysis, TD Ameritrade may be a great choice given its TOS trading system. If instead, you are looking for a highly automated investing experience with limited fees, M1 Finance may be a great option.
Beginner investors will likely find an easier experience getting set up with M1 Finance, but those looking to do any day trading will need to opt for TD Ameritrade.
Either way, both of these brokers are well-regarded by their users and very beginner-friendly. Each has its own pros and cons, but both are top-notch and very high quality. It all comes down to your interest level, financial goals, and the time you have to devote to trading.
In the end, both platforms are free to use so you are able to sign up for both and try them out to see which one you prefer.
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