The stock market is an incredibly complex and dynamic environment. Even if you have years of experience under your belt, it can be difficult to keep up with everything that’s going on in the market.
But there are apps for that! These apps will help you stay on top of all the latest news, trends, and developments—and even help you predict how they’ll affect the market. And if nothing else, they’ll give you something fun to do during your commute!
Table of Contents
Best Apps For Stock Analysis
Today, the whole world is going mobile and fast. The role of mobile technology is increasing and has major impact on people’s day-to-day lives. Now, investors trust on their smart phones and tablets more than their laptops. Because of the increasing usage of mobile technology, app developers are working hard to meet the needs of these investors. There are a lot of great investment apps on the market; here are some worth checking out to stay on top.
- MarketWatch
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
Gather important financial news, global market stories, prices in real time and daily analysis of the market, this free app keep you updated with the stock market news, even when you’re on the go.
Pros:Quick access to new stories with MarketWatch makes it that much easier to remain up to date with all that you need to know – required for any investor.
Cons:This app requires to swipe up and down to check out the latest market update, which is spontaneous compared to swiping left and right and usual in other apps.
- Forbes Intelligent Investing
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
If we talk about some trusted names in the financial world, there are few that can compete with Forbes. With video interviews, panel discussions, investment articles, and features relevant to the market, this is one app you can’t neglect.
Pros:This app gives a good insight about the world of finance from valued professionals. It’s up to date and current news features and enables the user to save favorite videos and features.
Cons:This app takes a disappointingly long time to open; with screen freezing issues, some sections are empty. The interviews with top experts in the field aren’t lively but just as you become captivated in an interview, the video freezes.
- Bloomberg
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
When it comes to up-to-the-minute information on stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies all over the world, few apps do it better than Bloomberg. Besides trackers for this info, which you can customize as you see fit, the app also offers breaking news and headlines from Bloomberg’s global journalism network. The app presents these features in an easy-to-use, highly eye-pleasing package.
Pros:Bloomberg provides lots of customization options; Stock summary and Graphs that help investors make an informed decision.
Cons:Users with wide portfolios probably need more information than what Bloomberg app provides. User can’t hide news sections that are not relevant.
- SigFig
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
SigFig stands out for going the extra mile to provide such service that could make it your most trusted adviser. SigFig will give all the information about the hidden fees, overcharges, drifting funds, and other problems that you might use to neglect. SigFig also offers suggestions to optimize your gains.
Pros:This app gives you the best way to look at your stocks and other investments. Shows everything clearly, in the best format, suggests better investments according to their automatic algorithms.
Cons:Many other investment apps offer complete services for storing and checking investment data and updating your portfolio; SigFig is no exception.
- AnalystRT
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
If you’re one that uses analyst ratings as part of your research, check out AnalystRT. This app includes analyst ratings for thousands of stocks and allows you to create a watch-list for stocks that you’re considering to buy.
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Pros:With Analyst Rating Tracker, you can track Buy, Sell, Hold stocks ratings given by research analysts from world’s largest banks and research firms in the palm of your hands.
Cons:There is no website interface for the data; you cannot access the same info from website.
- StockTouch
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
This app features a unique view of global stocks and ETFs. You can change the way it categories the stocks between percentage gains, market capitalization, volume, and alphabetical.
Pros: This app has very attractive, responsive graphical interface that provides a quick view of market trends and charts and summary information.
Cons:You can’t monitor ETF’s, mutual funds, or stocks not categorized in the top 100 of their sector.
7.ChartIQ
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
Technical traders would love this app. In this app you can view, bar, line, candlestick or wave charts with various indicators. You can even include trend lines, remarks, rays, sections, and zig zags.
Pros: all the news, posts and opinions from more than 200,000 users of ST can be viewed at the right of the screen.
Cons: Some functionality just doesn’t respond
- E*TRADE
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
This is exactly an all-in-one app, that not only allows you to get real-time price quotations for almost any stock, ETF, mutual fund, or option, but you can also buy and sell them.
Pros: voice recognition, barcode scanning, educational videos, research reports and additional chart features are added in this app.
Cons: Once orders executed, there is no functionality available to easily close out positions from the menu.
- Motif
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
Motif Investing helps you in making your investment strategies in a safe environment. The app uses themed portfolios to explain the ups and downs of function markets and gives a valuable learning experience.
Pros: Motif does offer investors the opportunity to essentially create their own ETFs.
Cons: Motif doesn’t offer the trading tools and research opportunities of some traditional brokerages
- Personal Capital
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
Personal Capital simplifies procedures by giving you a platform to organize all of your investment information in one suitable place. The app’s greatest deal is its simplicity and effectiveness; it will shorten your broad financial status in into a concise summary.
Pros: Personal Capital can be used on your computer, smart phone or tablet. This makes it easy to check or track accounts on the go.
Cons: There really isn’t much bad about this app. It’s exceptional for a free tool.
- Stock Twits
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
StockTwits is just like Twitter for traders. Along with the Twitter-style feed, there are some traders who also post charts and videos offeringfree technical analysis. If you’re a short-term broker, this is very useful app to watch and top of all, it’s free.
Pros: StockTwits is ideally suitable for those who need a social network to keep them updated in to what other investors are thinking and doing.
Cons: Twitter feed doesn’t update often enough, the stream doesn’t automatically update.
- CNBC Real-Time
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
The CNBC Real-Time app gives you free access to real-time stock prices – before, during and after market hours, straight from both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Marketplace.
Pros: In this app, additionally you will receive CNBC breaking news alerts, top news stories & analysis, and access to the latest CNBC business video clips, interviews and market updates.
Cons: The ads in this app are problematic and exhausting. The previous version was reasonably good as the ads used to take a very little space. However the current version has the 10 percent of the content space and ads never disappears.
- Daily Stocks
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
The Daily Stocks app can provide you all the technical updates of the market and is aimed to focus on trends in the marketplace built on some technical analytical techniques. This kind of information is mainly the field of fairly serious traders.
Pros: Daily Stocks works great in landscape and portrait mode, but landscape mode shows you a little more information and it’s very easy to use.
Cons: There is lack of international markets data information; means that non-US investors will find it somewhat inadequate.
- Yahoo Finance
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
Yahoo Finance app is a complete finance place. It delivers breaking news, related market synopses, lending rates, and other financial news. In this app, there are segments for investing, news & estimation, personal finance, and tools for chasing the market and creating an online portfolio.
Pros: Yahoo Finance is complete and has information for every investor, regardless of experience or knowledge.
Cons: The data loading issues and the overall usage make it not nearly as user friendly.
- Stock Guru
15 Must-Have Apps For Investors
Stock Guru is a robust engine that delivers real time study for nearly 7,000 stocks. You can analyze risk, drive, financial power and a exclusive guru rating that sums up all of the data for those who don’t want to dive into the details.
Pros: This is the only hedge fund holding tracking app in the market to view hedge funds.
Cons: One downside in this app is that it doesn’t have enough hedge funds in their database.
best stock analysis app for beginners
Getting started with your investing journey can present a lot of consternation: what to invest in, how to invest in stocks and which stock trading or investing apps should beginners use to avoid becoming overwhelmed?
Thankfully, with the advent of FinTech services, many stock trading brokers offer beginners access to the stock market for no cost and with easy-to-understand interfaces.
This list walks through the best stock trading apps and software packages for beginners and up. While we prize no commissions, we more want to focus on providing the best overall user experience that aligns with this site’s overarching aim: building long-term wealth.
That often means investing in low-cost index funds you plan to hold for long periods of time.
Take a look below at the best stock trading apps for beginners to consider opening and using to trade stocks and ETFs. We highlight the best stock trading app for beginners and best stock app to start investing first.
What are the Best Stock Trading Apps for Beginners?
investing from smartphone medium
In truth, no one app serves every individual person’s needs the same. Some investors choose to follow a more active approach while others would rather a set-it-and-forget style.
While I espouse the latter more so on this site, I don’t necessarily think investing in individual stocks is a bad approach when using research and analysis to guide your decision-making.
In fact, stock advisor services like the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers have shown tremendous outperformance over the last two decades and really represent a significant value for investors looking to rely on others for making stock picks.
Some stock newsletters may even want to practice a more active form of trading and get vetted stock alerts sent directly to their phones to take advantage of market movements.
As long as you account for your risk preferences and level of commitment to following the market, your investment choices will depend on you.
No matter your investing style, when you want to get started investing, you want to look for apps that provide the functionality you want without feeling overwhelmed.
Therefore, the best stock trading app for you depends on your experience, trading goals, and desired level of educational support.
Beginners benefit from apps that have the least amount of fees and a lot of charts, quotes and educational stock research sites. But they also don’t want to get lost in all this distraction if they can’t make sense of the information provided.
The adage of “keep it simple, stupid” usually applies—especially at the start.
Apps that provide a one stop shop for managing your personal finances often act as a great starting point.
This means including your banking and investing needs, but also services that act as the best stock news apps for you to follow the market and learn as you go.
As you develop a better understanding of the market, you’ll want to extend your investing reach into new areas and see if other investing styles suit your needs. Your app should accommodate this.
With that in mind, this list of the best stock trading software platforms for beginners tries to offer simplified investing experiences at the start but ones which can still serve your needs as you grow your investing knowledge.
I try to highlight free apps where possible because investing your money shouldn’t come with charges unless the service provides other value-added products for managing your money. Descriptions of each app follow the table below.
App Best For Fees Promotions
robinhood logo
Robinhood ☆ 4.4 / 5
Basic stock and ETF investing; options Commission-free trades Free stock with sign up
webull logo
Webull ☆ 4.7 / 5
Self-directed investors and intermediate traders Commission-free trades Five free stocks with $5 deposit, valued between $27 – $9,600 and $5 worth of crypto for making one crypto trade
betterment logo
Betterment ☆ 4.8 / 5
Investors looking to build a globally-diversified portfolio 0.25% AUM None
public logo
Public.com ☆ 4.7 / 5
Social theme-based investing interests Commission-free trades $10 free stocks for signing up
sofi logo
SoFi Invest:
iOS, Android, & Desktop ☆ 4.6 / 5
Fee-free active trading and automated investing Commission-free trades Free stock worth between $5 – $1,000
acorns logo
Acorns ☆ 4.8 / 5
Automated investing in the background into diversified investments $3/month – $5/month $10 sign up bonus when making first deposit at account opening
m1 finance logo
M1 Finance ☆ 4.3 / 5
Passive investors
Fee-free active trading and automated investing Commission-free trades and automated investing; $125/year on M1 Plus subscription for custodial account $25 sign up bonus with $5,000 deposit
stash logo rebrand
Stash ☆ 4.6 / 5
Young investors looking for a complete personal finance platform
Everyday people looking to start managing their finances $1/month – $9/month $5 stock bonus for making a deposit of $5 or more
vanguard logo
Vanguard ☆ 4.2 / 5
Basic ETF investing Commission-free trades None
- Robinhood: Best Stock Trading App for Beginners
robinhood
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
Sign up here
Robinhood became the first commission-free stock trading app by slashing trading commissions to $0. Others in the industry had no choice but to follow if they wanted to remain relevant to retail investors.
Likewise, many new stock trading mobile app options like Robinhood have cropped up in recent years, many of which feature on this list.
The service offers commission-free stock trading, as well as the ability to make ETF trades, as well as options trading and penny stock investing, commission-free. Robinhood doesn’t support mutual funds on its mobile app or desktop trading platforms.
Robinhood’s stock trading app offers a simple and easy-to-use design. Many have found this useful for placing their trades by not overcomplicated it.
Robinhood brokerage accounts have no account minimum requirements.
Robinhood carries Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) coverage on all brokerage accounts.
Robinhood | Commission-Free Trades, No Minimums
Robinhood is an investing app famous for its commission-free trades on ETFs, options and cryptocurrency.
It has no account minimums and comes with a free stock upon signing up for the service.
Robinhood | Commission-Free Trades, No Minimums
Learn More
- Webull: Best Stock Trading App for Intermediate Traders
webull sign up
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
Sign up here
Webull came into the stock trading world in 2018 when it started challenging Robinhood for market share. This stock trading app offers commission-free stock trading as well as commission-free trades on ETFs, options and cryptocurrencies.
Like most investing apps available, the company provides access to trade on your smartphone, tablet or desktop.
As touched on above, it charges no commissions for the trades because Webull makes money on other actions you take, like Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), margin loans, interest on cash and service fees for their Nasdaq TotalView Level 2 Advances quotes subscription.
Webull also provides you access to several powerful tools you can use for in-depth trading analysis. These low-cost or free services easily make the stock trading app one of the best stock research and analysis apps for conducting technical analysis.
If these account features sound attractive, you’ll also be happy to learn your Webull stock trading app and brokerage account comes with no account minimum you must meet or maintain. Finally, to de-risk your sign up, Webull also runs frequent promotions that give free stocks.
Read more in our Webull review.
Our Self-Directed Investing App Pick
Webull | No Minimums, Free Trades
The Webull app offers free equity, crypto and option trading, advanced reporting and in-depth analysis.
LIMITED TIME OFFER ($27 – $9,605 value): Open an account and deposit at least $5 to receive 5 free stocks ($27-$9,600 value) and make 1 crypto trade to earn $5 of crypto.
Webull | No Minimums, Free Trades
Learn More
Our Review
- Betterment: Best Investment App for Automation & Tax-Loss Harvesting
betterment sign up
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
Sign up here
You can use the Betterment robo-advisor platform to buy fractional shares of ETF index funds like the S&P 500 in taxable accounts as well as individual retirement plans.
The service does not allow you to invest in individual stocks but will automatically place deposits into fractional bits of index fund ETFs aligned with your portfolio objectives.
The features of this platform make it one of the best investment apps for beginners, specifically being most suitable to investors looking to diversify instantly as they make contributions to their accounts.
The service charges an all-encompassing 0.25% assets under management fee but can justify this expense in taxable brokerage accounts through its tax-loss harvesting feature.
Lowering your taxable income through their tax-loss harvesting feature is one of the products that justifies the 0.25% AUM fee for holdings in a taxable account.
It works by selling losses to lock in short-term capital losses and lowers your taxable income while taking your proceeds and placing them into a similar investment.
This lowers your taxable income or other capital gains and quickly covers the 0.25% annual AUM fee.
Further, based on your intended financial goal, the company provides investment advice by tailoring your portfolios to accomplish these goals.
Betterment led the way for robo-advisor services and investing apps for beginners, growing from a small business to what now represents a significant book of business.
Using them has become a popular choice for people looking to invest toward specific goals without the need for any investing experience for a reasonable fee.
Our Robo-Advisor Pick
Betterment | Investing Made Better
This app gives you the tools, inspiration and support you need to become a better investor.
Start with as little as $10 and use the top-rated mobile app to optimize your investment portfolio through automated investing and diversification
Customize your risk tolerance and investment goals with guidance available at any time
Nearly 750,000 customers use Betterment to invest
Betterment | Investing Made Better
Learn More
- Public.com: Best Investing App for Beginners
public.com sign up
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play.
Sign up here
Public.com is a commission-free investment app for beginners that allows stock and ETF trades. The stock market app targets Millennials and Gen-Zers who have attuned their senses to social media and have interest investing in the stock market.
While the company previously followed the lead of apps like Robinhood with monetizing Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), or receiving kickbacks from clearinghouses for routing trades to them, they’ve recently abandoned this practice.
Instead, they now rely on other revenue streams as well as a “tipping” system.
This places this beginner investing app firmly on the side of retail investors and not pledging allegiance to Wall Street clearinghouses.
Why is Public.com the Best Investing App for Beginners?
What Public.com is really about is making investing like an investing social network, where members can own fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, follow popular creators, and share ideas within a community of investors.
What Public.com aims to do above all else is make the stock market an inclusive and educational place, with social features that make it easy to collaborate as you build your confidence as an investor—for free.
For younger investors who want to align their investing with their social preferences, as well as keep good company to socialize and learn from others, Public.com might be the app for you.
For those interested in starting to trade on Public.com, the online broker platform for beginners offers a free $10 signup bonus if you make an initial deposit. Further, you can share your special link with others and gift them free stocks (fractional shares) as well.
If this sounds like an interesting investing app, open an account and make an initial deposit (no account minimum needed to meet, so any amount will do) to see if the app meets your social and investing needs.
Read more in our Public.com investing app review.
Public.com | Commission-Free Themed Investing
Public.com offers zero-commission trading on thousands of stocks and ETFs, available as fractional shares
Uses a social feed where members can share why they believe in certain companies (or don’t) and can post comments on others’ trades
Can invest in curated lists of stocks and ETFs for people to aggregate investments by interest area or values
Public.com | Commission-Free Themed Investing
Learn More
Offer valid for U.S. residents 18+ and subject to account approval. There may be other fees associated with trading. See public.com/disclosures/.
- SoFi Invest: Best Investment App for Beginners
sofi invest free stocks
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play.
Sign up here: (iOS), Android, Desktop
SoFi Invest is a stock market app that allows you to place stock and ETF trades alongside investing in cryptocurrency.
The well-known brand in the personal finance space recently entered into the investing world by offering free trades on stocks, ETFs, cryptos and more. SoFi doesn’t offer options trading nor mutual funds.
The service provides you the ability to trade actively or stand back and let its automated investing tools takeover as a robo-advisor.
Therefore, this stock market app might make a good place to hold your investment accounts because you’ll have options of how to invest money.
The company wants to serve all customers who have an interest in improving their financial situation alongside participating in their other personal finance products like refinanced student loans, money management, credit cards and more.
SoFi Invest | Free Investing
No trading fees or commissions
No account minimums
Invest in Stock Bits (fractional shares)
Trade select cryptos
Automated investing options for a hands-off approach
SoFi Invest | Free Investing
iOS Sign Up
Android Sign Up
Related: 10 Best Stock Tracking Apps [Investment Portfolio Management]
- Acorns: Best Investment App to Learn
acorns
Available via Apple iOS and Google Android.
Sign up here
Acorns is an investing app for minors and young adults who wish to start with a small amount of money in their investments.
With more time, these recurring contributions and rounded up deposits from your purchases will grow into a larger portfolio. Hence the company’s name, Acorns: start small like an acorn but grow strong into a mighty oak tree.
Because portfolios start with small balances most often through Acorns, the service has no account minimum.
The robo-advisor micro investing app charges a monthly fee for users for providing investment advice through its robo-advisor functionality. Though, it doesn’t charge trading commissions when your gets invested on your behalf.
Instead, it charges an account fee depending on the subscription plan you select for your account.
Currently, the service has two offerings including Acorns Personal for $3/mo and Acorns Family for $5/mo.
These subscriptions provide various products which fit well for goals of young adults like investing young and managing your money prudently.
The service easily acts as one of the best money apps for kids with its all-in-one platform (Acorns Family).
Their plans come as follows:
Acorns Personal ($3/mo):
Acorns Invest: Invests spare change through the popular “Round-Ups” feature, earns bonus investments and provides access to financial literacy articles.
Acorns Later: Offers tax-advantaged investment options like individual retirement accounts (IRAs)
Acorns Spend: This service acts as your bank account, offering free withdrawals at over 55,000 ATMs nationwide and no account fees and the ability to earn up to 10% bonus investments
Acorns Family ($5/mo):
Everything in Acorns Personal (Acorns Invest, Later and Spend)
Acorns Early: This allows you to take advantage of the best way to invest $1,000 for your child’s future and can teach you how to invest as a teenager or minor through opening a custodial account.
Learn more in our Acorns review.
Our Micro-Investing App Pick
Acorns | Invest, Earn, Grow, Spend, Later
From acorns, mighty oaks do grow. Grow your oak!
In under 5 minutes, get investment accounts for you and your family, plus retirement, checking, ways to earn more money, and grow your knowledge.
Famous for investing spare change automatically through Round-Ups, this all-in-one financial app helps younger generations start investing earlier.
Just $3 or $5/mo.
Bonus: Get $10 to start
Acorns | Invest, Earn, Grow, Spend, Later
Learn More
Related: Best Acorns Alternatives: Micro-Investing Apps to Use
- M1 Finance: Best Robo-Advisor Investment App for Beginners
m1 finance
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Google Android.
Sign up here
M1 Finance offers commission-free stock and ETF trades but also provides automated stock trading according to your predetermined investment decisions as this site’s top robo-advisor pick.
What we like most about this app is the ability to make recurring deposits that automatically get invested into your portfolio.
M1 Finance acts as a singular personal finance app to assist with building wealth through automating your investments into diversified portfolios, having a bank account and linked debit card that provide market-beating interest rates and have access to valuable personal finance literature.
Most importantly, investing with M1 Finance can be as simple as depositing money, setting your stock and index fund selections and having the platform automate your investments on your behalf.
I’ve said it before, but this truly automates your investments if you set up recurring deposits, allowing your wealth to build.
From there, M1 Finance automatically rebalances your portfolio in line with your stated asset allocation targets. Doing this at regular intervals has been shown to improve overall portfolio performance.
It does so by moving outperforming funds into underperforming ones, capturing a value effect over time as returns revert to the mean.
Consider opening an investment account with M1 Finance. The app has no account minimum unless you choose to open an IRA, for which you’ll need to deposit at least $500.
Read more in our M1 Finance review.
Our Self-Directed Robo-Advisor Pick
M1 Finance | Smart Money Mgmt
M1 Finance’s Smart Money Management gives you choice and control of how you want to invest automatically, borrow, and spend your money—with available high-yield checking and low borrowing rates.
Special Promotions: Open an account and make a $5,000 deposit within 14 days to receive a $25 bonus* and get 1-year free of M1 Plus ($125 value).
M1 Finance | Smart Money Mgmt
Learn More
Our Review
Higher deposit bonus tiers available, worth up to $250. Terms & conditions apply.
- Stash: Stock Market Investment App
stash sign up
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play
Sign up here
Stash is a mobile-friendly personal finance app that comes paired with investing options and a checking account. Stash acts as a low-cost, all-in-one financial platform and gets included in this list as a result.
While the app primarily caters to hands-off investors looking to automate their investing, you can also actively select stocks to trade. You can do all of this as you spend money and make recurring deposits into your account.
Stash offers custodial accounts for real beginners (young investors), or those under the age of 18. Getting started early on your investing journey can build real long-term wealth over time as your returns compound.
Stash comes with a recurring monthly fee but justifies this with a full-service personal finance platform.
Of note, while it does charge a monthly account service fee for its full-suite of products, it does not charge trading commissions for your investment holdings nor does it have an account minimum.
Stash | Investing Made Easy
Stash is a personal finance app that simplifies investing, making it easy and affordable for everyday Americans to build wealth and achieve their financial goals.
By signing up and making a $5 deposit, Stash will also provide a $5 sign up bonus.
Stash | Investing Made Easy
Get Your $5 Bonus
- Vanguard: Free Stock and ETF Trades Stock Market App
vanguard sign up
Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play.
Sign up here
This list wouldn’t be complete without the aptly-named company at the vanguard of fighting for the retail investor: Vanguard. The company has long sought to lower investing costs for retail investors by offering market index investments for increasingly affordable rates.
In fact, John Bogle originated the idea of index fund investing and first offered them to retail investors as mutual funds and eventually exchange traded funds (ETFs).
These low-cost investments have saved retail investors billions of dollars over the years, allowing their brokerage account returns to compound further.
While apps like Robinhood have slashed trading commissions to $0, Vanguard has led index fund investors to virtually $0 fund expenses as well. When combined, you invest in the stock market for almost nothing.
Talk about a great accomplishment for the small investor looking to invest steadily over time.
Vanguard excels as a free stock trading platform when you wish to buy and sell Vanguard securities like index fund ETFs or mutual funds. You pay no commissions on their ETF products like VTI, or mutual funds like VTSAX and VFIAX.
Further, the company also recently announced it will no longer charge trading fees on competitors’ ETF trades as well. This marks a departure from the company’s long-standing position of charging commissions on other investment firm’s ETF trades.
My only complaint about the stock market app comes from its clunky nature. In particular, I don’t see the app as some paragon of investing app functionality. I use the app for managing my work’s 401k plan and my son’s 529 brokerage account.
I will admit firsthand to its bloat and lack of clarity for calculating my investment returns. I’d never pick stocks individually and invest in them through the Vanguard stock trading app.
While the app shows raw dollar returns, it fails to do so on a percentage basis, complicating my understanding of how well they perform on an apples-to-apples basis with my investment vehicles I hold elsewhere.
As a counterpoint to this, by offering stripped down reporting and functionality, the stock trading app may encourage you to visit it less.
By touching your diversified investments less often, you won’t run the risk of fiddling with what usually works: holding diversified investments for long periods of time and seeing compounding returns.
Related Questions on Stock Investing Apps for Beginners
Below you will find several frequently asked questions related to the best investing apps for beginners.
Can I trade stocks for free?
young woman looking on smartphone happy
Traders in the 1980s paid an average of about a quarter per share to buy or sell a stock. The brokerage app Robinhood paved the way and offered traders zero commission stocks. Other companies, seeking to remain competitive, had no choice but to provide the same.
As a result, many apps now avoid charging trading commissions on your trades. Some apps still charge fees but those are the minority. In fact, most investing apps only charge these fees for other value-added services.
After slashing trading costs to $0, you might wonder how these brokerages can afford to make a profit. You might even reason that hidden fees pad these brokers’ accounts. After all, brokerages still need to make money as profit-seeking companies.
Now, most brokers find other ways to monetize their retail traders. They do this by charging interest on margin loans, offer premium services for fee-based subscriptions or one-off services and lend retail trader-owned securities to institutional clients.
For most beginner traders, none of these fees affect you.
Can you invest for free?
young adults planning medium
Usually, stocks qualify as riskier investments than exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or long-term investments, such as a retirement fund. Luckily, many stock apps allow you to invest in ETFs and retirement funds for free as well.
For example, the stock trading app Webull offers commission-free ETF, stock and options trading. You can use the service to open a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, or Rollover IRA.
The service does not charge opening, closing or annual account fees. If you wish to add on a subscription to Nasdaq TotalView after your first three months, you can for a nominal $1.99/mo fee.
Be sure the app you choose to trade stocks has no account minimum as you might not have a significant amount of money at the start.
How much money you invest at the beginning doesn’t necessarily correlate to how much money you’ll have down the road. Everyone begins somewhere. So, you might as well not have limits at the beginning with an account minimum.
The investment apps highlighted here avoid an account minimum for trading stocks on their brokerage account options. Some require a minimum deposit for establishing an IRA.
What are the best stock trading apps for beginners?
Robinhood
Webull
Betterment
SoFi Invest (iOS, Android, Desktop)
Public.com
Acorns
M1 Finance
Stash
Vanguard
The Best Free Stock Trading App Platforms for Beginners
young adults laughing medium
In the last decade, trading apps have become far simpler and easy to use for investors. While certainly a boon to many, this can also encourage trading more than previous brokerages.
Being able to trade without fees, starting with a small amount of money (i.e., low or no account minimum), from the convenience of your smartphone makes stock trading accessible to more people than ever before.
This cuts both ways. As a result, I always espouse a passive investing strategy in low-cost, diversified index funds.
The trading platforms above all allow stock and ETF trades at a minimum, the best investment options for beginning investors looking to trade for the first time on powerful mobile app services.
Fortunately, many of the best stock trading apps for beginners allow for both active and passive investing styles. As you mature as an investor, you’ll want investment apps that can meet your needs.
Choose one or more stock apps mentioned above to start investing in your future. See which one works best for you.
As you develop your investing experience and skillset, you might upgrade to other brokers who offer stock futures trading, forwards or day trading. However, plain vanilla stock investing is also a great idea if you follow the “keep it simple, stupid” motto.
Conclusion
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