Best Investment Companies Overview
The five top rated financial investment firms that are growing faster than their peers are
E*Trade, Schwab, Ally Invest, Webull, and TD Ameritrade. This article
will make a detailed analysis of each broker and try to determine what exactly investors like about these companies that cause them to expand.
E*Trade
E*Trade was founded in 1982 as TradePlus. The company launched its IPO in 1996 as E*Trade Financial
Corporation. In 2005, the company acquired Harrisdirect, and it purchased OptionsHouse. Today, the
company has over $330 billion in client assets deposited in brokerage and bank operations.
E*Trade has over $2.94 billion in annual revenue and 4,200 employees. These company associates are
available over the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some of them are located at the firm's 30
brick-and-mortar locations in 17 states.
E*Trade has grown since its IPO with successful and creative advertising campaigns and a wide range
of financial services. Besides stocks and ETFs, the broker offers fixed-income products and more
than 10,000 mutual funds. Of these, approximately 4,200 have neither load nor transaction fee.
Managed accounts, financial planning, and bank products are also available with the firm. Portfolio management begins at just 0.30% for a $10,000 balance and includes low-cost ETFs. Paying a higher asset-based fee and depositing more funds increases the type of securities available. E*Trade offers two different checking accounts, one of which has unlimited ATM fee reimbursement with a Visa debit card. With such a wide range of financial assistance, the company should continue to grow in the future.
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Schwab
Another brokerage firm showing strong potential is Charles Schwab. Founded in California in 1971, the company went public as The Charles Schwab Corporation in 1987. In 1997, the company had a million online accounts, and just one year later, it had double that amount. In 2003, the company launched an FDIC-insured bank, and by 2012, it had more than $2 trillion in client assets. Today, it has offices around the world and services around 10 million accounts.
What has fueled such consistent growth is attention to the customer. The broker offers 24/7 customer service in the United States, with 325 branch locations for clients who want in-person service. An on-line chat function is available on the broker's website, and Chinese speakers can reach an associate over the phone who speak Mandarin or Cantonese.
The company recently updated its website to have a more functional menu. This has made navigation easier and faster. Besides the website, Schwab has a user-friendly mobile app that offers live streaming of financial news free of charge, courtesy of CNBC. Other useful features are available, also at no cost, including bill pay and mobile check deposit. An excellent desktop platform, StreetSmart Edge, is available to clients who have a minimum balance of $1,000.
A good fund selection keeps investors coming back to the broker. Schwab has more than 3,000 mutual
funds that are no-load, no-transaction-fee products. An effective screener is able to sort through
all these products by using criteria such as Morningstar rating, expense ratio, standard deviation, and performance history.
Charles Schwab Bank offers a good checking account that can be linked to a securities account. It comes with checks and a Visa debit card, both of which are free. The broker reimburses all ATM fees incurred worldwide when using its debit card.
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J.P. Morgan Chase
J.P. Morgan Chase Bank has a lot of customers, and the financial conglomerate knows they invest in
taxable accounts and IRA’s. The company wants a part of their business, so it has launched J.P. Morgan
Self-Directed Investing, a new discount broker. JPM customers have access to US-listed bonds, stocks,
mutual funds, options, and ETF’s.
What has attracted so many investors to J.P. Morgan is the broker's emphasis on low fees and
commissions. Charging just $0 for stock and ETF trades, the brokerage house is one of the
lowest-cost firms in the business. Option contracts are at 0¢ each. The firm offers all
mutual funds with no transaction fee.
Despite the broker's nice pricing schedule, it has found the ability to provide some good trading
tools free of charge. J.P. Morgan has a browser-based platform, and it is free for all clients.
Besides a wide range of securities offerings, J.P. Morgan also offers a similar to a robo-advisory
service called Portfolio Builder. Customers answer a few online questions (risk tolerance, time horizon, and so forth), and then the
program recommends stocks and ETF’s based on the answers.
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TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade today has more than $1.3 trillion in client assets, with customers placing around
700,000 trades per day. The company began in Omaha, Nebraska in 1975 with much smaller operations.
Starting in the early 2000's, the firm began buying other companies, fueling its growth. In 2009, TD Ameritrade purchased thinkorswim, which at that time was the fastest growing broker.
The acquisition of Scottrade gave TD Ameritrade almost overnight a much larger presence
in the brokerage world. The broker now has more than 450 brick-and-mortar locations across the United
States. This network is the largest of any on-line discount broker.
With the acquisition of thinkorswim, TD Ameritrade gained one of the best trading platforms in the industry. The thinkorswim software has some of the best charting tools of any program available. It has 400 technical studies and several drawing tools. Trade Architect is a simpler browser-based platform that might be a better choice for newer traders. Both are free to use and include live streaming of CNBC at no extra cost.
These excellent tech tools are what keeps investors coming back to the firm. In addition to these platforms, the broker also offers three mobile apps, one of which is a thinkorswim version that has the same powerful charting tools as the desktop software. Two of the three apps also offer live streaming of business news. A platform for Apple Watch is also available. Surprisingly, the broker doesn't charge anything to use any of its technical offerings.
TD Ameritrade hasn't stopped at just investment services. The broker offers its customers the ability to attach checks and a Visa debit card to a trading account. There is no cost for this useful service, and ATM fees are fully reimbursed with no maximum.
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Wrapping Up
While some top financial investment firms are shrinking in size, these five have expanded, sometimes from nothing. The fact that investors trust them with
enormous sums of money is a good sign that these companies have excellent financial services.
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