Ally Invest has come on the scene as the latest hot bargain trading platform. Formally known as TradeKing, Ally Financial Inc. purchased the brokerage firm in June 2016. Ally Invest acts as the low-cost brokerage branch of Ally Bank, one of the world’s largest online banks. Ally Invest has become popular with investment nerds, counting more than 250,000 customers and a whopping $4.7 billion in assets. So, is Ally Invest’s success all talk? Let’s take a hard look.
Ally Invest doesn’t have a minimum deposit requirement, and stock trades go for $4.95 a pop. The platform offers a versatile set of trading options — from ETFs, fixed-income securities, corporate agency and municipal bonds, Treasuries, strips and zeroes, CDs, and stocks. Its Forex & Futures platform allows advanced investors to take advantage of over 50 currency pairs, including gold and silver, all the while conducting careful research on through the feature’s resource and analytics tools.
Designed for investors of all skill levels, Ally Invest also comes equipped with a robo-investor, which manages your portfolio using algorithms to trade stocks using the same practices and theories as a seasoned broker. However, for those who are set on polishing their investment skills, Ally Invest’s trading tools can help you fine-tune your trading strategies. The Streaming Charts feature allows you to analyze the performance of securities through six fully-customizable charts, each with over 90 chart studies and drawing tools. The Probability Calculator helps you assess potential volatility before you place trades. Market Data breaks down your performance stats to the smallest detail, through quotes, prices, dividend dates, news, charts, and summaries.
Ally Invest’s rates are comparable to other investment giants like Fidelity and Charles Schwab, and for hot shots with 30 or more trades, the rate for trades drops to $3.95 each, with an additional $.50 for per contract option trades.
Managed Portfolios are another core facet of Ally Invest’s methodology. Available for individuals, joint accounts, Roth, and roll-over IRAs, the portfolio is curated to meet your long-term investing objectives and goals. Intentionally created to give investors peace of mind, the auto balancing feature maintains the target portfolio allocation. An initial deposit of $2,500 is required to open a Managed Portfolio, and the annual fee is .30 percent, which means it will only cost $300 to manage a $100,00 portfolio. This is a significantly low rate compared to the 1.02 percent industry average. However, it’s not the cheapest on the market. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios charge no fee, although they require a minimum deposit of $5,000. Ally Invest’s less-than-desirable rate structure is counterbalanced with its option to move funds into the self-managed accounts.
Opening up an Ally Invest account is an easy way to glide into Ally Bank, which boasts one of the highest interest rates on savings accounts in the country. They also reimburse customers for ATM fees for up to $10 a month.
AllyInvest isn’t ideal for people who need to make instantaneous fund transfers. Moving funds through ACH can take up to five days and 10 days for check. Ally Invest is a completely virtual operation, and all customer service interactions take place over the phone or online.
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