Ally Invest Review – Commission-Free Online Stock Trades
Ally Invest is an award-winning online discount brokerage firm featuring commission-free ($0.00) online stock trades and options,. You can invest with IRAs, dividend investing, & more.
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Ally Invest Review
Ally Invest
Ally Invest is a popular online stock broker that lets you trade stocks, ETFs, and options without paying a dime in commissions. You’ll also find low prices on mutual fund trades, as well as a Robo Portfolio if you don’t want to DIY.
Whether you’re new to investing or have some experience placing trades, Ally Invest might be a good fit for you. In this Ally Invest review, we’ll take an in-depth look at this service to help you decide if it’s the right stock broker for you.
Ally Invest Features
| Ally Invest | Features |
|---|---|
| Commissions & Fees | $0 |
| Options Trades | $0 + $0.50 |
| Mutual Fund Trades | $9.95 |
| Types of Investments | Stocks, Penny Stocks, Options, ETFs, Mutual Funds, Bonds, FOREX, Futures |
| Types of Accounts | Taxable, Joint, Custodial, Trusts, Limited Partnerships, Partnerships, Non-Profit Retirement Accounts (Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, Rollover IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, 401(k), Solo 401(k), Annuities) College (529, Coverdell) |
| Managed Portfolio Option | Ally Invest Robo Portfolios |
| Banking Services | Checking, Savings, CDs, Money Market |
| Account Minimums | $0 |
| App Availability | iOS, Android, mobile-optimized website. |
| Customer Service | 24/7 phone, live chat, and email until March 25, 2020. Hours will change to 7 a.m.–10 p.m. ET until further notice, due to the coronavirus outbreak. |
| Margin Availability | Available |
| FINRA CRD# | CRD#: 136131 |
| SEC Registration Number | SEC#: 8-66982 |
| Current Promotions | Ally Invest Promotion – Up to $3,000 Cash Bonus |
Open a Brokerage Account with Ally Invest
Additional Features
- Cash Enhanced Robo Portfolio. For investors who don’t want to DIY, Ally Invest offers a Cash Enhanced Robo Portfolio, essentially a robo-advisor. (See more details below.)
- Dividend Reinvestments. Ally Invest offers free automatic dividend reinvestments (DRIPs) with the ability to purchase fractional shares. Investors can apply automatic DRIPs to all — or select — stocks in their portfolios.
- Cash Sweep. Ally Invest lets account holders place uninvested money in an FDIC-insured sweep account to earn interest.
- Free Tools. Ally Invest offers several useful free tools for helping you make the most of your investments. You’ll find a probability calculator that can help you determine whether you’ll hit your goals, as well as the Maxit Tax Manager, which will come in handy when dealing with the tax implications of investing.
- Account Records. Ally Invest maintains records for account holders, including trade confirmation reports, monthly or quarterly account statements, and tax documents such as 1099 forms. Ally Invest stores account records online and lets you download them in PDF, Quicken, or Excel format.
- Ally Invest and CoolTrade Partnership. Ally Invest recently partnered with CoolTrade™ to offer Ally Invest customers access to automated stock trading. This capability is available in the Ally Invest trading platform and gives Ally Invest clients the ability to make fully automated stock trades. This service has a monthly subscription and is aimed at professional-level traders.
What Is Ally Invest?
Ally Invest is an online stock broker owned by Ally Financial. Ally Financial created the service in 2016 when it purchased a popular investing platform called TradeKing and rebranded it as Ally Invest. Over the years, Ally has improved and expanded on TradeKing’s award-winning features.
Ally Invest’s “sibling” company is Ally Bank, an online-only bank that offers great interest-paying accounts. Because Ally doesn’t operate any brick-and-mortar banking offices, the company can afford to pay higher APYs than its more-traditional counterparts. At Ally Bank, you’ll find savings and money market accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and even interest-paying checking accounts. Thanks to Ally Financial’s banking wing, you can pair your Ally Bank account with your Ally Invest account for a one-stop shop for your financial needs.
You can find out more information in our Ally Bank review.
How to Get Started with Ally Invest
Getting started with Ally Invest is easy. Opening an Ally Invest account takes about 15 minutes.
Like all brokerages and other financial institutions, Ally Invest requires new account holders to enter the standard personal information such as name, address, SSN, employer information, trading experience, financial information, etc.
Funding Your Ally Invest Account. You can transfer money into your Ally Invest account when you open your account. If you have an Ally Bank account, you can fund your Ally Invest account instantly.
Transferring Money. Ally Invest allows investors to link a bank account to their Ally Invest account to transfer money via ACH transactions. ACH deposits are subject to a five-business-day trading hold and cannot be withdrawn for 10 business days.
This hold policy could make you miss a hot idea if you aren’t prepared. You can link only one bank account to your Ally Invest account, so it’s best to plan before you open your account.
How Does Ally Invest Work?
The Ally Invest platform is both intuitive and robust. Ally Invest’s trading interface lets investors complete multiple transactions from the same page, so you can set up covered calls, puts, spreads, straddles, and other trading options from one screen. That’s likely more advanced than the average investor needs, but technical traders will find these features useful.
The Ally Invest platform features online equity, options, and fixed-income trading tools including real-time portfolio information, advanced order entry, customized charting and alerts, free research and integrated news, stock, option, and mutual fund screeners, volatility charts, a pricing probability calculator, enhanced option chains, and interactive educational information.
Ally Invest also has an extensive selection of tutorials and videos to help you if you ever get stuck. Ally Invest’s Learning Center offers tutorials on a number of investing topics. The Learning Center utilizes a variety of different media, including articles, blogs, free live webcasts and webinars, podcasts, video tutorials, calculators, tools, e-books, newsletters, and links to external resources.
You can find almost any information an investor may need in the Learning Center or through its external sources. The Learning Center is accessible to everyone, regardless of whether or not you have an Ally Invest brokerage account.
Investment Options
Ally Invest offers a variety of investment options to meet most individual investors’ needs, including:
- stocks
- bonds
- mutual funds
- options
- exchange-traded funds (EFTs)
- U.S. Treasury and Agency Issues
- CDs
- FOREX (foreign currencies)
- Ally Invest also features a no-fee IRA
Ally Invest Robo Portfolios
If you’d rather not DIY your investment portfolio, the Robo Portfolios option might be a good fit. Essentially, this Ally Invest product is a robo-advisor that uses computer algorithms to create and maintain a portfolio suited to your risk tolerance and goals.
With this option, the bulk of your portfolio will consist of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). However, Ally Invest will always set 30% of your assets aside as a cash buffer. This helps protect your portfolio from stock market downturns. Plus, you’ll earn interest.
Best of all, there are no advisory fees associated with a Robo Portfolios account, and the minimum investment is only $100.
Pricing
Ally Invest has always been low-cost (as was TradeKing). However, in October 2019, the company announced that it was eliminating commissions for U.S. exchange-based stock, options, and ETF trades. In addition, Ally Invest decreased the per-contract price for options to 50 cents.
Although Ally Invest doesn’t offer any fee-free mutual funds, its pricing is among the cheapest in the industry. The commission on more than 8,000 funds is $9.95 per transaction.
Ally Invest doesn’t require a minimum to open or maintain an account.
Ally Invest iPhone, iPad, and Android Apps
Ally Invest currently offers smartphone apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android. These apps let you check account activity, trade stocks and options, research, track stock news, and more. Ally Invest also features a mobile-optimized site if you prefer using a standard web interface. You can check out the Ally Invest iPhone and BlackBerry apps here.
The Ally Invest Community
The Ally Invest community is well organized and well run. It features a blog and forum section where members can trade notes and ideas and learn from each other.
Members can track recent trade activity and trade notes from those willing to share insight into why they made a trade. They can also join Ally Invest community groups, which Ally Invest members organize and run.
There are many groups, including those for beginning investors, options traders, and those who prefer to specialize in different types of investments, including value stocks, penny stocks, ETFs, hedge funds, dividend stocks, and various market segments such as automotive, biotech, or individual companies.
Ally Invest Pros & Cons
- Commission-Free Trading. You’ll pay zero commissions when you invest in U.S. exchange-listed stocks, options, and ETFs.
- Robo Portfolios. If you don’t want to DIY, you can use the Robo Portfolio robo-advisor service, which requires a minimum deposit of $100 and has no advisory fees.
- Excellent Customer Service. Ally Invest normally offers 24/7 Customer Service. However, they have changed the hours due to the coronavirus outbreak. Starting March 25, 2020, Customer Service (phone and live chat) is available 7 a.m.–10 p.m. ET.
- Easy-to-Use Platform. The Ally Invest trading platform is easy to learn and use.
- Plenty of Tools and Resources. Whether you’re a brand-new investor or an experienced trader, plenty of tools and resources can help you improve.
- Ally Bank. You can open an Ally Bank account and create a one-stop shop for all of your financial needs.
- No Fee-Free Mutual Funds. At some other brokerages, you’ll find a large assortment of fee-free mutual funds. That’s not the case at Ally Invest, but for the mutual funds you can trade, the transaction fee is only a low $9.95.
- No Brick-and-Mortar Branches. Sometimes, you just want to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with the person who’s managing your money. Like other online-only discount brokers, Ally Invest has no offices to visit. However, Ally Invest offers excellent customer service via phone and online chat.
Ally Invest Promo Codes
Ally Invest is currently offering a promotion that gives new customers up to $3,000 in bonus cash when they open a new self-directed account. How much you earn depends on your deposit amount.
Here’s a table showing how big of a bonus you could get with a new Ally Invest account:
| Ally Invest Bonus | Deposit or Transfer |
|---|---|
| $3,000 | $2MM+ |
| $2,000 | $1MM – $1.99MM |
| $1,200 | $500k – $999.9k |
| $600 | $250k – $499.9k |
| $300 | $100k – $249.9k |
| $250 | $25k – $99.9k |
| $100 | $10k – $24.9k |
Ally Invest Review – Conclusion
Overall, I think Ally Invest offers great value and capability in a low-cost, easy-to-use package. Based on my experience and its award-winning features, I don’t hesitate to recommend Ally Invest if you’re looking for a new brokerage firm.
Who is Ally Invest best for? Ally Invest is a great option for both beginning and experienced investors, as well as those who want a Robo Portfolio rather than going the DIY route.
