BitFlip
License: Not Regulated
Fidelity
License: SEC
Merrill Edge
License: FDIC, FINRA
BestRate.org
License: Not Regulated

ally

VeryGood 6.50
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Overview
  • Program details
  • Reviews
  • Charts

ally Review

  • Great trading platform
  • Wide array of tradeable assets
  • Low and competitive fees and commissions
  • Excellent customer support
  • Highly regulated
  • No physical branches
  • No free ETF trading
  • Trading platform is somewhat limited

Ally Invest, previously known as “TradeKing” is the budget-friendly online trading brokerage by Ally Financial Inc. The online trading brokerage successfully operated as TradeKing for 10 years before being acquired by Ally Financial in 2016, making this Ally Financial’s first online trading brokerage service. Ally Invest now provides traders with a wide array of financial instruments to trade, along with sophisticated trading tools and analytics. Since Ally Invest is owned and operated by Ally Financials Inc., the brokerage is licensed and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Ally Invest strictly services traders from the United States and is headquartered in the US at P.O. Box 49050, Charlotte, NC 28277-3432. Since Ally Financial rebranded the TradeKing brokerage into Ally Invest, they have grown substantially and now serve more than 250,000 customers and holds $4.7 billion in assets. It’s obvious that Ally Invest is a successful online trading brokerage with a large customer base, but are they the right broker for you? Find out in the following review as we discover what the Ally Invest online trading brokerage has to offer.

show more

Trading Platform

Ally Invest features their own proprietary web-based trading platform that’s compatible with numerous web browsers and operating systems including mobile devices. The platform is streamed on the HTML5 programming language and features a beautifully designed interface with lightning fast capabilities. The entire platform is extremely easy to use and features advanced trading capabilities and a complete charting package. The entire process of technical analysis is very pleasing as traders have access to 84 technical indicators, an array of charts, time frames, and drawing tools. The platform does an excellent job at accommodating both advanced and beginner traders with their easy to use yet complex capabilities. The platform implements some advanced features such as:

  • Automated and managed portfolios with “Robo Advisors” to better manage a trader’s long term goals.
  • Customizable trade alerts so you can capitalize on opportunities
  • Fixed income bond searches so that traders can select bonds that fit their desires.
  • Developer API for customized software tools.

Overall, the trading platform provided by Ally Invest is very good and accommodating to nearly every kind of trader’s needs.

Exchange Markets

Ally Invest features a wide variety of financial instruments to invest in across the international markets. For instance, traders can invest in thousands of Stocks, more than 12,000 Mutual Funds, a variety of ETFs, Fixed Income Securities, Options Contract, Penny Stocks, Forex, Futures, and IRA/ROTH IRA.

Fees and Commission

The fees and commissions charged by Ally Invest are quite favorable for traders and competitive with the industry standards. Regular stock trades incur a commission of just $4.95 per trade and options trades are the same $4.95 plus $0.65 per contract. While these commissions are low, they can be lowered to $3.95 per trade for stocks and $3.95 plus $0.50 per trade for options. The commissions will be lowered to these rates if the trader maintains a balance of $100,000 or trades at least 30 time quarterly. Some downsides regarding the fee structure of Ally Invest is that they do not offer commission free ETFs like many other brokerages do, and they do not offer transaction-fee-free mutual funds. However, their mutual fund commission of just $9.95 is quite competitive. All in all, the fees and commissions imposed on traders by Ally Invest are fairly low and competitive with other online trading brokerages in the same class as far as services go.

Security and Fairness

Ally Invest is a very safe and secure online trading brokerage as they are highly regulated by competent regulatory authorities and are a licensed financial services company within the United States. Also, Ally Invest is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which insures customer funds of up to $500,000, with a maximum of $250,000 for cash claims in case the brokerage becomes insolvent or shuts down shop. Apart from the investment fund compensation scheme, Ally Invest employs top of the line security protocols to protect the clients fund and personal information. Client funds are also held securely in segregated bank accounts of Ally Bank. All in all, Ally Invest is highly secure and fair online trading brokerage.

Support

The award winning customer support provided by Ally Invest is phenomenal. Support representatives can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via a variety of methods. Support representatives can be reached via live chat, email, telephone, and mail. The support received is always very responsive and informative with a great level of care. The only unfortunate thing about the customer support is that Ally Trade has no physical locations for clients to visit as they are strictly an online trading brokerage. Additional methods of support include an FAQ page, and communication through Ally Invest’s social media channels.

Conclusion

Ally Invest is a viable online trading brokerage for both beginner and experienced traders and investors. The trading platform provided to traders is highly intuitive and advanced while at the same time featuring a simple and easy to use interface. One of the best aspects of the Ally Invest trading brokerage is their favorable trading fees and commissions. Traders will benefit from lower trading costs compared with other similar brokerages. Ally Invest is also highly safe and secure and takes customer care very seriously. All in all, we can recommend trading with Ally Invest.

Ally Invest Q&A

The following are the common questions that customers inquired about Ally Invest.

Is Ally Invest regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Is Ally Invest a scam?

No, Ally Invest is a legit broker and it’s licensed in the United States.

Where is Ally Invest based?

Ally Invest is based in the US at P.O. Box 49050, Charlotte, NC 28277-3432.

Screenshot

Ally Screenshot
Details
ally Reviews by Traders
Rate Broker and write a review
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
RParker
208 reviews
Review date 02/08/2018
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Ally has a reputation for mediocre offerings amongst competitors, I found this to be accurate.
Ally doesn't seem to take itself as a professional brokerage yet.
Napoleon
161 reviews
Review date 02/08/2018
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Ally has a great platform to access the markets as well a strong range of equities inside those markets to work with.
Ally's trading experience is pretty limited. They also don't have a true headquarters, just a PO box which I find somewhat unsettling.
Trading Charts