Once you decide to invest in the stock market, there are several things to do dealing with completing the requirements. Those are opening the brokerage account to buy and sell stocks and exchanging traded funds (ETFs) as well as mutual funds. These times, people tend to open online account of brokerage and do the stock-trading from home.
In this regards, investors are wondering to decide; which is better Fidelity or Merrill Edge? It is due to the fact that they are the two popular choice among investors. Both Fidelity and Merrill Edge have a high rank for either the best brokers for the new users or the experienced inventors.
In this post, you are going to find how Fidelity and Merrill Edge compare on cost and commissions, research, trading platform and many other. So let’s have a look at the following detailed review sections:
Which Is Better Fidelity or Merrill Edge? – Cost and Commission
Both Fidelity and Merrill Edge are offering competitive trading commission. You can buy and sell not only stocks but also EFTs options and mutual funds without the need to break the bank.
Commission price of Fidelity and Merrill Edge can be visibly compared through the type of investment. They don’t have transaction fee for ETF or stock transaction. Other fees can be seen in the following chart.
| Broker | Stocks and ETFs | Stocks Options | Mutual Funds |
| Merrill Edge | $0 per trade | $0 plus $0.65 per contract | $19.95 |
| Fidelity | $0 per trade | $0 plus $0.65 per contract | $49.95 |
Based on the chart above, both of the brokerage have $0 commission revolution. They are even matched in the options trading.
Now the big question is; how do Fidelity and Merrill Edge compare on commission charged for mutual fund orders? Well, they have fees. They also offers thousands of no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual funds.
Mutual Fund Investing
Which is better Fidelity or Merrill Edge? Let’s have a look at their mutual fund investing. In this case, both Fidelity and Merrill Edge maintain a list of NTF funds, meaning that they charge no fee to buy or sell.
The brokerage option is a personal matter. People investing in mutual funds may think that fees are the most crucial factor. However, both Fidelity and Merrill Edge come with thousands of mutual funds investing without leading NTF basis.
The free index funds provided by the Fidelity have no transaction fees either to buy or sell. There is no charge for management fees. This makes you able to open Fidelity account for free when you invest in zero funds and in on going management fees.
Account Minimums
Comparing Fidelity to Merrill Edge can also be seen from their account minimums. This way, both of the brokerage options are closely matching.
In detail, either Fidelity or Merrill Edge offer no minimum accounts. This can be a good fit for most of the investors if they want to start small. For example, if you deposit $100 only per day to make your small deposit, the both broker will just work well for you.
In this case, if you want to make a trade, you must have enough money to purchase at least one share of stock, ETF or mutual friend to make a trade. It would even be better if you have sufficient money to diversify your portfolio.
Trading Platform
Which is better Fidelity or Merrill Edge? Let’s find the answer through the trading platform. This way, both Fidelity and Merrill Edge are online brokers. In fact that active traders tend to demand more from the brokerage than from the long-term investors. This is when Fidelity comes into play by offering an easy-to-use browser solution along with the fully featured platform especially designed for active traders.
Further, the basic web interface is added to Fidelity to provide streaming quotes through the feature of watch list. In addition, you can also utilize some basic tools for charting. Moreover, the platform of Fidelity’s Active Trader Pro on desktop also comes with the functionality that you can expect best from a real trading platform.
Nearly similar to Fidelity, Merrill Edge offers not only a browser-based solution but also its desktop trading platform Merrill Edge MarketPro. This way, many analytical tools, screens and customizable display have been provided by the platform.
However, there are some missing features recognized by some of the users. For example, there is no way to make a complex option trading or situational orders. This way, investors stay at the combined balance of $50,000 in eligible accounts or make 15 trades per quarter qualify in order to use Merrill Edge MarketPro.
International Stock and ADRs
If you are still wondering which is better Fidelity of Merrill Edge, let’s compare them on international stock trading and American depository receipts (ARDs).
The clients of Fidelity can trade on international market in 25 countries and in 16 currencies. This way, its customers can also trade ARDs. These are describes as the shares of foreign stocks that domestically stock. The only drawback is that the international trading will cost more at Fidelity. Later, various commission will be paid by the investors by country and exchange.
On the other hand, the customers of Merrill Edge can trade ADRs yet the broker cannot trade directly on a foreign stock exchange. So, if you have no problem in purchasing the shares of Burberry with an ARD, Merrill Edge is not the option you can take for trading stocks in London.
Many investors experience international markets simply by holding the diversified ETFs and mutual funds. If this is the way how you invest, there is no significant difference between Fidelity and Merrill Edge.
Penny Stocks
Which is better Fidelity or Merril Edge? Viewed from penny stocks, Fidelity has the benefit since you cannot buy or sell the penny stock through Merrill Edge. Though Fidelity comes with allowance to buy and sell penny stocks, you still need to have conversation with the representative on the phone.
Research Quality and Tools
The general rules state that investors have an advantage from accessing to a wealth of research tools and opinions. However, both Fidelity and Merrill Edge have tough offerings.
Fidelity frequently dominates in research among the discount brokerages. This way, there are 12 independent research firms provided, making it easy to view the upgrades and downgrades of the analyst. In this case, Fidelity comes with the access to Thomson Reuters StarMine services that combine the analyst ratings and weights them using the analyst historical accuracy. Fidelity also comes with its proprietary “thematic” research like deep dives into certain investment themes.
By comparison, Merrill Edge stays for its relationships with Bank of America in offering access to BofA/Merrill Lynch ratings over 1,300 U.S stocks. Further,r the customers can tap into a big number of research from Morningstar, Lipper for funds and Merrill Edge’s proprietary Stocks Story feature especially for individual stocks.
What’s more?
Merrill Edge also allows its customers to download the research for mutual funds and ETFs and join Merrill Guided Investing, the monitoring platform for investors who want to obtain information from the experienced investment professionals.
Thanks also to the Merrill Edge mobile app that lets you access the linked Merrill and Bank of America accounts anytime using your mobile device just like you do with Fidelity. Through this mobile app, the investors are able to view a personalized feed both on Android and iPhone.
Final Words: Which Better Fidelity or Merrill Edge
Which is better Fidelity or Merril Edge? Fidelity scores better since it has free zero mutual funds that allow the investors to access international markets. By comparison, Merrill Edge wins the people’s hearts by its relationship with Bank of America, offering a good integration for the customer’s accounts of Merrill Edge.
So which one will you choose? It depends much on your need and your personal choice. Just look over what you need, what you can do and how easy to work with the broker.
