I like IB, I have accounts with IB and never have had any problems, its with Brokerages that don't put a penny in IT that drive me crazy but they can't afford to invest in their business because their only charging you $0.10 x $.40 (per contract) when their costs include routing fees costs plus $.10+ or more depending on which Exchange you use. Options are not cheap to trade, they cost the Brokerages lots of cash unless you provide liquidity 90% of the time. IB is a great Brokerage, so is LightSpeed and LiveVol, I like all of them because their not afraid to give us the best platforms!
They can reduce their rate to a price that might surprise you, I think anything below $.60 including routing fees is cheap. Fidelity will adjust their commission if you have volume and commissions and a long-term relationship. My girl's ex-husband was a heavy trader, he got them to reduce her commission on par with Tradier's price. I think the attacks against Fidelity are not fair when you consider all the perks begineers are getting, their not a bad brokerage for newbies. I can trade most platforms except those that crash constantly, when one of my former Brokerages kept crashing on all my computers that drove me insane! I was long 13,000 shares of a nasty stock that got pumped from $4.10 (I bought in at $4.20 and put out 13,000 at $4.80 (6000 shares got filled at $4.80) the rest got filled at $3.10 because it crashed and their Trading Desk could not pick up the phone because they were swamped with a swarm of angry traders! I knew I was screwed when price blew past $4.70 to a final burst at $4.80 filling 6,000 shares. I tried to cancel and get out of the rest of my position at $4.00 but their Platform showed a "Hour glass" symbol spinning in circles for minutes. When I finally got out it took the guy on the phone 2 minutes to get my order out after making sure it was me. His slow access to their Trading System sucked badly, two minutes to put a order in costed me from $4.00 to $3.20 Market Order got filled at $3.10 (7,000 shares) and soon that stock was under $2.00 at $1.50 while all the Short Sellers were laughing their butts off!
I was on the phone for 10 minutes watching my stock implode while the cheap commissions costed me $7,000 and thank goodness I used a Market Order instead of being cheap, wanting a limit-order because a avalanche of limit-orders got passed by because of the Market Orders usefulness. How many orders of saving $.10 per contract (my current rate on the Broker replacing that one is $.10 will it take to make up that $7,000 plus many others I got hammered on because I thought Cheap Commission was good for trading. Now I will pay for order quality, order execution because you save more money with good executions than cheap rates! IB gives you the best of all worlds, Traders get a great price and their not trying to slam you with "order of routing fees". IB is a good Brokerage!
Fidelity for traders is awful - these guys are arrogant and incompetent and need to be held accountable - folks the only way for us to have a voice is in action - move 100% of assets our of Fidelity, tell everyone you know that they should not use fidelity for any investment management, tell your employer or in the case you are the decision maker not to use fidelity for 401k services - hit them hard - The system is never up to date with lots, or balances and even when they acknowledge that I am right there answer is "oh well" wait for next batch update - they hire idiots that have NO Knowledge of day trading or simply do not care. I am moving 100% of my assets out of fidelity to both a better investment management and trading platform - I have zero confidence in even managing a 401k with fidelity - where is the SEC and others in doing the job way pay them to do in making companies like fidelity accountable - all this so called regulations are a joke when the reality is NO accountability. any recommendations on where to move to?
I agree about Fidelity Active Trader Pro. Bugs galore and lockup city. I don't even bother now. It locks up all the time. They need to do to that application what Boeing should do to the 737 Max ; DUMP IT and start ALL OVER AGAIN. Jim the Doomkoft
I though I would find you malcontents under fidelitysucks.com, anyhow, have been using IB for 14+ years and new to Fidelity. For the past year due to in law issues have taken over the acct. and since its a family trust have little choice but to accept Fidelity at this juncture. I cannot believe they have the audacity to claim "for Active Traders", the major issues are too numerous to mention since I am trading at the present time waiting for the FOMC. Their software was written by non traders, their charting is an absolute joke, and never mind their research. I have argued and cajoled since I am an active trader and a $10 round trip is ludicrous vs IB. Note they did give my son (500 free trades for moving his 401K to a IRA, for two years no less) so I am also handling his account. The biggest joke is how they claim to save money by their algo, so yes last year on one account did save $150 with $1600 in commissions. DUH! Just the platform alone not only has bugs, but why do I have to manually refresh, and I cannot stare at the screen since you have a choice of 3 colors (black , blue and white) as opposed to all the RGB's available. There is also nowhere you can catch the spread, or decide to stop loss or purchase via a few clicks of the mouse, constantly inputting your symbol , qty, and instead of limits everything has to be a market order (level 2 is a joke). I must admit, I am sure that they are the best for a mutual fund investor but anyone who actually trades for a living cannot live with Fidelity.
%% I liked Fidelity better than E-Trade, Scott Trade,LOL. [NOT a prediction or big endorsement]. But i like IBKR, ALLY,AMTD better than Fidelity or E-trade. I like Fidelity ads in IBD except the fine print where they slam you with extra.....+ ETFs fees ............................................................... BUT i seldom daytrade. And the Fidelity fine print on a full page ad is designed to be hard to read;Fidelity ContraFund tends to beat SPY over many years. BY the way i would never blame ANY broker for a bad fill on a penny stock [-$5.00].
It's the round hole square peg scenario. Trade actively and commission free on a professional grade trading platform with TradeZero America. We would love to have you.
I made an account here specifically do add this post. Fidelity Active Trader Pro is absolutely trash. I have never seen any other windows application as bad as it. it is slow, it crashes, it does not fill orders. I hope others find this topic before they decide to open an Fidelity account. I did not research. i am moving to TD Ameritrade, but that too does not scale properly on a 4k display.
Very simple answer to that one (I agree with everything the original author notes about Active Trader Pro - as it constantly locks up - questions are fielded by the most pathetic AI) ... when you have a 401k with your employer you don't get to pick your broker to trade through. First you have to elect to make it self directed (as opposed to being confined to a handful of Mutual funds that all go in one direction), then you have to use the software available from that Co/Plan/Administrator/Broker Dealer.