[0:00] So, I just spent the last 4 hours
[0:01] downloading and making an account with
[0:03] every single investing app that I could
[0:04] find. So, every single day for the next
[0:06] month, I'm going to be putting my own
[0:08] money into these brokerages to find
[0:10] which ones are actually easy to use,
[0:11] which ones are secretly charging you,
[0:13] and which are giving you features that
[0:14] are actually useful. And I'm going to be
[0:16] ranking each of these brokerages on a
[0:18] tier list from S to F. I'll see you guys
[0:20] in 30 days from now. All right, so it's
[0:22] been quite a while since I recorded that
[0:23] first part of the video, and I've gotten
[0:24] a chance to use all of these apps. So,
[0:27] I'm going to go ahead and start out with
[0:28] Robinhood. Robinhood was the first
[0:30] brokerage I ever had. I actually opened
[0:32] it up on my 18th birthday, and pretty
[0:34] much everyone that I knew in college
[0:36] used Robinhood to invest, and like all
[0:38] the all the young people that I know.
[0:40] And that's because it is very, very
[0:41] beginner-friendly. Buying a stock on a
[0:44] brokerage like Fidelity or Schwab
[0:47] compared to Robinhood feels like you're
[0:49] filing your taxes. And despite receiving
[0:51] a lot of hate, things that the younger
[0:54] generation like mine would think come
[0:56] standards with brokerages are only here
[0:58] because of Robinhood. Back in the day,
[1:00] all the brokerages would charge you $5
[1:02] to $10 every single time you bought a
[1:04] stock. But then, in 2013, Robinhood came
[1:08] with zero commissions, meaning you could
[1:09] buy stocks for free, and by 2019, every
[1:12] single brokerage had to follow them.
[1:14] They also made fractional shares
[1:15] popular. If you wanted to buy something
[1:17] like Amazon, you would need the full
[1:19] $250 to buy the share. But, with
[1:23] Robinhood, you can buy just a fraction
[1:25] of it. So, you could even just buy $1.
[1:27] You also get instant deposit, so as soon
[1:29] as you transfer money from your bank
[1:30] account to Robinhood, you can
[1:32] immediately buy stocks with it. With a
[1:34] lot of big brokerages, you still have to
[1:36] wait 3 to 5 business days to be able to
[1:38] buy, which makes it hard if a stock
[1:40] drops or something to be able to
[1:41] capitalize on that. Robinhood also gives
[1:44] you before-and-after-hour trading. So,
[1:46] if some news comes out after hours, you
[1:47] can go ahead and buy or sell a stock. A
[1:50] lot of brokerages still don't give you
[1:52] that. So, I'll go ahead and show you
[1:53] Robinhood. If you open up the app, you
[1:55] can see all the money that you have in
[1:57] it, like total. You can see your
[1:58] different holdings, recurring
[1:59] investments, and then your watchlist is
[2:02] at the bottom. Those are all just the
[2:04] stocks that you're watching. If you want
[2:05] to buy something, just go to the search
[2:06] tab. I'll buy some Apple, hit buy, and
[2:09] then I will buy $100 of it, and then
[2:12] swipe up. And then, just like that, I
[2:15] went ahead and bought Apple, that easy.
[2:17] And then, it'll be with the rest of my
[2:18] stocks on my main page. Now, all that
[2:21] user-friendliness does come with some
[2:23] downsides, though. For the most part, I
[2:25] would argue that investing should be
[2:27] boring. For the most part, you should
[2:28] just buy and hold the S&P 500, and then
[2:31] that's it. But, Robinhood gamifies
[2:34] things, and a lot of beginners don't
[2:35] understand what they're actually doing.
[2:37] The complexity is hid behind the user
[2:39] interface, and they make things like
[2:41] trading options way too easy. There is
[2:43] also Robinhood's reputation, the whole
[2:45] GameStop debacle a couple years back
[2:47] still haunts them a little bit. And my
[2:48] least favorite thing is the prediction
[2:50] markets that they added to Robinhood,
[2:51] which is basically just gambling. You
[2:53] can bet on things like sports game and
[2:55] even the election. But, overall, I don't
[2:57] care what anyone says, Robinhood is
[3:00] still S tier. I believe that a couple
[3:02] years ago was their peak, but I still
[3:04] think they're doing great things, and it
[3:05] is still one of the best brokerages to
[3:07] get started with. All right, next up we
[3:08] have Fidelity. And Fidelity is one of
[3:10] the other best brokerages, but it
[3:11] basically takes the opposite approach to
[3:14] Robinhood. Fidelity's been around since
[3:16] the 1940s. It's a bit more old-school,
[3:18] and they have every account type you'll
[3:19] ever need. But, unlike a lot of the
[3:22] other legacy brokerages, they have done
[3:25] a really good job keeping up as far as
[3:27] UI and features go. If you're more
[3:28] conservative, you can buy things like
[3:30] mutual funds and bonds, which is
[3:32] something that you can't really do on
[3:33] Robinhood. And it also gives you real,
[3:35] legit research from like 20 different
[3:37] providers, which you would usually have
[3:39] to pay for. You can also buy fractional
[3:41] shares with Fidelity. And one really
[3:43] cool thing is that they have a cash
[3:45] management account that can substitute
[3:47] for your bank or your high-yield savings
[3:48] account. You even get debit card and
[3:51] checks if you want. It gives you, I
[3:52] believe, 3.6 APY on your money sitting
[3:55] in there, which competes with the best
[3:56] high-yield savings account, and it's
[3:57] just a great place to keep a cash
[3:59] reserve or an emergency fund. I'll go
[4:01] ahead and show you Fidelity's app. It
[4:02] shows you the account balance up first,
[4:05] and then, if you go down, it'll show you
[4:07] the markets. If you go into your
[4:08] investing tab, you'll have all the
[4:10] different positions that you have. Then
[4:12] you have your watchlist, and then
[4:14] if you go over to discover, it'll show
[4:16] you a bunch of different collections and
[4:18] sectors that you can invest into, and
[4:20] then some research, and then even like
[4:22] some TikTok-style shorts, sort of, and
[4:24] then some more articles. Now, if you
[4:26] want to buy, just hit that transact
[4:28] button, and then you can go ahead and
[4:30] search. Today, I will be buying some
[4:32] Tesla just for fun, and
[4:35] >> [snorts]
[4:35] >> I'll just go ahead and hit that buy
[4:36] button. I will go buy dollars, and I
[4:39] will buy $200 worth of Tesla. You just
[4:42] hit that preview buy Tesla, and then
[4:45] just like that,
[4:46] they'll receive your order, and it'll be
[4:48] with the rest of your positions. Now,
[4:50] I've always heard Fidelity hyped up for
[4:51] years, but this is the first time I've
[4:53] actually tried it, and I will say the UI
[4:54] is a bit clunkier than I would have
[4:56] expected, but it's still miles ahead of
[4:58] Vanguard, or, you know, uh even Schwab.
[5:00] There's really no downsides with
[5:02] Fidelity. I would think the only one is,
[5:04] I guess, it is a little bit more
[5:06] confusing than something like Robinhood,
[5:07] but there's basically nothing to
[5:09] complain about, and this is an easy S
[5:10] tier for me. Also, I went the extra mile
[5:12] to bring you this video. I don't think
[5:13] there's ever been a YouTuber that's made
[5:15] a video like this. All that I ask is
[5:16] that if you're thinking of opening up
[5:18] one of these brokerages, use the links
[5:19] below, because you'll get free stocks,
[5:21] and also it helps support the channel.
[5:23] All right, next up we got Webull. And in
[5:24] my opinion, Webull's like, I guess, the
[5:26] Justin Herbert of brokerages. It's not
[5:29] the absolute best, but it is it is very
[5:31] uncontroversial, and pretty much
[5:33] everyone likes them. It's a relatively
[5:35] beginner-friendly app, but it is built
[5:37] for traders, so all the features are
[5:39] going to be tailored to that. You don't
[5:40] actually need any money to open up an
[5:42] account at all, but you will want to
[5:44] deposit some money, because Webull
[5:46] generally has some really good sign-up
[5:47] bonuses. I got $100 of free stock when I
[5:50] made an account. They have different
[5:51] offers, but I'll link the best one
[5:52] below. As far as features go, you get
[5:54] the extended hours, you can buy
[5:56] fractional shares, but my favorite thing
[5:58] with Webull is that they have a paper
[6:00] trading mode. I was around a lot of
[6:02] finance bros in college that thought
[6:04] they were day traders, and then they
[6:05] would go and lose all their money. And
[6:07] whenever someone tells me that they want
[6:08] to day trade, I always tell them to use
[6:10] a paper account. With paper mode, you're
[6:12] making trades and following the market,
[6:14] but you're using fake money, basically
[6:16] like Monopoly money. So, you're getting
[6:18] the XP of trading, but you're not losing
[6:19] all your money in the process. If you do
[6:22] decide to go with Webull, I'd get the
[6:23] premium. It's only $3.99, but basically
[6:26] everything's cheaper. You get a cash
[6:28] management account that gives you 3.6
[6:30] APY, and a 3.5% master IRA, which is
[6:33] pretty insane. That's like an extra $300
[6:36] if you max that out. So, I'll go ahead
[6:37] and show you Webull. If you go down, you
[6:39] can see all your different positions,
[6:41] your watchlist. Then there's like a tab
[6:42] with all their different accounts, and
[6:44] then like a robo-advisor. But, all you
[6:46] really need is that first tab. If you go
[6:48] to the search button, you can see uh
[6:51] what's going on with the market, some of
[6:53] the movers, some different sectors. But,
[6:55] I'll just go ahead, search Uber, and I
[6:57] will go ahead and buy that. I'll toggle
[6:59] between shares and dollars, and I will
[7:00] just buy $110 of Uber. And then, just
[7:04] like that, the order's submitted. So,
[7:05] yeah, as you can see, super simple app.
[7:07] The only downsides that I've seen is
[7:09] that a lot of the level two data and
[7:12] things that you'll need is behind that
[7:13] paywall, so you will have to pay that
[7:15] $3.99. And also, customer support can be
[7:17] a little bit slow. But, overall, I like
[7:19] Webull, great for traders, clean design,
[7:21] and I'm going to go ahead and throw it
[7:22] in the B tier. All righty, next up we
[7:23] got Charles Schwab. And this is most
[7:26] likely the brokerage that your dad is
[7:28] using right now. It has a great
[7:30] reputation. It's one of the biggest
[7:31] brokerages in the country. They have
[7:33] every account type that you'll ever
[7:34] need, and from what I've seen, the
[7:35] customer service is very good. It's
[7:37] funny, I actually drive by a physical
[7:39] Schwab and then Fidelity location every
[7:41] single day at work. Haven't needed to
[7:43] stop by, but maybe I will one day. You
[7:45] can buy fractional shares with them, and
[7:47] I believe traders actually really like
[7:49] them, too, because a couple years ago
[7:51] they acquired TD Ameritrade, which gave
[7:53] them thinkorswim, which apparently gives
[7:55] you like the best charts and all that
[7:56] for trading. They also have a paper
[7:58] trading account, so you can practice on
[7:59] there if you're a trader. And just like
[8:01] Fidelity, they have a really good cash
[8:02] management account. You can get a debit
[8:04] card, and you can pull money out
[8:07] anywhere in the world, and you're not
[8:08] going to have to pay fees at ATMs. They
[8:11] will reimburse you for that. So, if
[8:12] you're in a different country, it's
[8:13] really good for getting different
[8:14] currencies. All right, so I'll go ahead
[8:15] and show you the app. You have your
[8:17] total value first, and then your
[8:19] dashboard will show you all the
[8:20] different holdings that you have.
[8:22] Down a little bit more is the news going
[8:25] around. I can then go over to watchlist,
[8:27] and that will show me my holdings, and
[8:29] then the markets will show me, again,
[8:30] what is going on with the market, all
[8:32] the breaking news. If I want to buy
[8:33] something, I'll just go over to the
[8:35] trade thing in the middle. I'll go ahead
[8:36] and buy Rivian. First, I'll click buy,
[8:39] and then I will go with a market order,
[8:41] and I will buy two shares of Rivian. And
[8:45] just like that, I'll go ahead and place
[8:46] an order. Bam, we're good. So, as you
[8:48] can see, it's way more overwhelming than
[8:50] something like Robinhood, and a little
[8:51] bit more complex than something like
[8:53] Fidelity, but still pretty good. I feel
[8:54] like Schwab is like a the Toyota Camry
[8:57] of brokerages. So, I'm going to go ahead
[8:59] and throw it in the A tier. All right,
[9:01] next up we have Public. Public is a new
[9:03] player, and I found that online it's
[9:05] kind of hard to find unbiased reviews on
[9:07] them, because they're all sponsored,
[9:09] which is what newer brokerages tend to
[9:11] do. But, when they launched, they tried
[9:13] to be like the social investing, like
[9:15] you could see what other people were
[9:17] invested in. That didn't really catch,
[9:18] so so for a while, they tried to
[9:20] basically just be Robinhood. That didn't
[9:22] work, so now they're trying to be the
[9:23] place where you can buy every single
[9:25] different asset. The biggest thing that
[9:27] seems to be going for them is they don't
[9:29] use payment for order flow for stock
[9:31] trades, meaning they don't get paid to
[9:32] send your orders to certain companies.
[9:34] So, it just makes people feel like
[9:35] they're more on the investor's side.
[9:37] They have everything that you'd want
[9:38] from a modern brokerage, but I just feel
[9:40] like they don't have a clear identity,
[9:41] and there's really no reason to use them
[9:43] over something like Robinhood. But, I'll
[9:44] go ahead and show you the app. So, as
[9:46] you can see, you have your total
[9:47] returns, like pretty much every app
[9:49] shows you. You have your holdings, and
[9:51] then all the different things that you
[9:53] can buy, which I talked about, that's
[9:55] like their main thing. You can see
[9:56] what's going on the market, stocks,
[9:58] cryptos, options, bonds, all that stuff.
[10:00] And then they have Agent, which is like
[10:01] their completely trash AI
[10:04] thing. I feel like every
[10:06] company that's that's falling off right
[10:08] now is trying to introduce AI. From what
[10:09] I've heard, it's pretty horrible. But
[10:10] anyways, to buy a stock, just hit the
[10:12] trade button, go ahead, hit stocks. I
[10:15] will go and search for Ford. You can
[10:18] then toggle to dollars if you want to
[10:19] buy fractional shares. I'll buy $100 of
[10:21] Ford cuz why not? And then just like
[10:23] that, I bought my Ford. So, Public is
[10:26] fine. They just try to do too much to
[10:28] stand out like using AI and then having
[10:30] all those different assets that you can
[10:32] buy. I don't know, they're okay. I've
[10:33] never actually met anyone that uses
[10:35] Public. I don't know. I'm just going to
[10:36] go ahead and throw it in the C tier. I
[10:38] feel like that's fair for them. Okay,
[10:39] next up we have your favorite YouTuber's
[10:41] favorite brokerage, allegedly, and that
[10:43] is Moomoo. Now, I'll do a Gemini
[10:45] sponsorship, a Max Rewards sponsorship,
[10:47] maybe I'll even stoop low enough to do a
[10:49] Rocket Money sponsorship one day, but I
[10:51] will never touch Moomoo. Now, I'm mostly
[10:53] kidding. Moomoo actually does have some
[10:55] good stuff, but
[10:57] to be honest, it feels like Alibaba or
[10:59] Temu was shoved into a brokerage and
[11:02] probably the reason for that is because
[11:03] it's a Chinese company. Now, despite
[11:05] what Caleb Hammer tells you, this is a
[11:07] brokerage for traders and traders only.
[11:09] You do get a lot of cool things like
[11:10] level two data, you get some community
[11:12] chat rooms, powerful trading, pretty
[11:15] much everything that a short-term trader
[11:16] would want. And they also don't take
[11:18] money from payment for order flow. And
[11:19] one good thing that I'll say is they
[11:21] usually have a really, really good
[11:22] sign-up bonus. Right now, they have
[11:24] 8.18% for like 3 months, and then
[11:27] they'll give you up to $1,000 of Nvidia
[11:29] stock. So, maybe it's worth opening up
[11:31] just for that, but I'll show you the
[11:32] app. When I first open it up, it gives
[11:33] me like a Temu style badge, which is
[11:35] kind of annoying. You always get those
[11:37] things. But you can see your watchlist
[11:39] there on more.
[11:40] If you go over to more, you can see like
[11:42] the chat rooms and the news and stuff.
[11:44] I'll go ahead and search up SoFi, and
[11:46] then there's a lot of different
[11:48] information about the company, like I
[11:49] said, like there is some good stuff here
[11:50] if I was a trader, which I'm not. But
[11:53] anyways, I'll just go ahead and do a
[11:55] market order for SoFi. I will buy two
[11:58] and a half shares. Just like that, I
[12:00] bought SoFi. So, pretty easy. Now, I
[12:01] could be wrong about this because I'm
[12:03] not a trader, but I'd rather just use
[12:05] WeBull or I believe Robinhood legend is
[12:07] pretty good, their new trading program.
[12:09] But I'm going to go ahead and throw
[12:10] Moomoo in the D tier. It's just too
[12:12] cluttered and overwhelming. It feels
[12:13] like a cheap Chinese product. All
[12:15] righty, next up we have Unk. We have the
[12:18] We have the grandpa of brokerages, and
[12:19] that is Vanguard. They've been around
[12:21] since the '70s, and they pretty much
[12:23] invented the index fund. Index funds
[12:26] like VTI, VOO, and VT are all actually
[12:28] Vanguard ETFs. And while Vanguard is
[12:31] probably one of the most powerful
[12:33] companies in the world, their brokerage
[12:35] is very, very outdated. Basically, their
[12:37] whole stick is just buying an index fund
[12:39] and then leaving it alone, and that's
[12:41] fine, but they do lack a lot of
[12:44] features. Like you can't buy fractional
[12:45] shares, which means if I wanted to buy
[12:47] something like Berkshire Hathaway, I'd
[12:49] need the full $500. I couldn't buy like
[12:51] half a share or one and a half shares.
[12:53] Definitely not a brokerage that you're
[12:54] going to do any trading on. Everything
[12:56] just feels a little bit slow and
[12:57] delayed. Even when you deposit money
[12:59] into it, it's going to take like 5 to 7
[13:01] days to be able to actually use that
[13:03] money and trade with it. So, let's say
[13:05] the market crashes and you want to
[13:06] capitalize that, it's going to be like a
[13:07] week before you can even get money in
[13:09] there. But I'll go ahead and show you
[13:11] the user interface. I believe it has had
[13:12] a couple facelifts. You have your
[13:14] portfolio, and then there is the
[13:17] research tab. It'll teach you like
[13:19] things about, you know, different I
[13:21] don't know, stock market stuff, ETFs. Uh
[13:24] you can like different different
[13:25] articles, pretty much. If you want to
[13:26] trade, just go to the thing in the
[13:27] middle. I'm going to go ahead and buy
[13:29] some
[13:31] Mary Jane, some Zaza. Um I'm just going
[13:34] to go ahead and buy three shares of it.
[13:36] You guys remember when when all the like
[13:37] the weed stocks were popping off popping
[13:39] off a couple years ago? That was pretty
[13:40] funny. But just like that, orders orders
[13:42] submitted. But yeah, this brokerage is
[13:44] very boring, which might be a good
[13:45] thing, but I don't know. It feels like
[13:47] it feels like Aaron Rodgers right now.
[13:49] Like it used to be legendary a while
[13:51] ago, so it feels bad like disrespecting
[13:53] him, but I don't know. It doesn't have
[13:54] any fractional shares, and
[13:56] I just feel like Fidelity is way better,
[13:58] even Schwab. So, I'm going to go ahead
[14:00] and throw Vanguard in the C tier. All
[14:01] right, next up we have something that is
[14:03] a stark contrast to Vanguard, and that
[14:05] is SoFi Invest. Now, before we get into
[14:07] it, I'll say that I am a bit of a SoFi
[14:09] glazer. I use them for pretty much
[14:11] everything. I think they have the best
[14:12] checking and high-yield savings account
[14:14] on the market. And this might be a wild
[14:16] take, but I actually think SoFi's UI is
[14:18] the best out of any of the brokerages.
[14:20] Some might not trust SoFi. They have
[14:22] been blowing up a little bit recently,
[14:23] like their stock has been very popular,
[14:25] but because they're a publicly traded
[14:27] company, you can look at all their
[14:28] financials, and they look pretty good.
[14:30] And a lot of people don't know this, but
[14:31] they are SIPC insured, which means that
[14:34] your money's safe up to half a million
[14:35] dollars. SoFi has one of the smoothest
[14:37] automatic invest features, and they will
[14:39] give you an extra 1% on everything that
[14:41] you automatically invest, which, you
[14:43] know, adds up. All right, so I'll go
[14:44] ahead and show you SoFi's user
[14:45] interface. I already have some money in
[14:47] here already, mostly Amazon stock
[14:50] because I thought it was a good buy. But
[14:51] anyways, if you scroll down, you can see
[14:53] your watchlist, um and then a couple of
[14:56] the different things that you can do,
[14:58] reoccurring transfers. SoFi also has
[15:00] like the social aspect, so you can see
[15:02] what different people are watching and
[15:04] investing in.
[15:05] If you want to buy, you just click that
[15:07] and then hit the buy and sell, and then
[15:09] that will bring you over to the search.
[15:10] You can see popular stocks, the major
[15:12] markets, and then if you want to search
[15:14] for something, I'll just go VOO, which
[15:15] is what you should all be investing in.
[15:18] Uh you can see news on them, and if you
[15:19] want to buy, you can just hit that buy.
[15:21] I will buy $50, and just like that, you
[15:23] have bought. So, pretty much as easy as
[15:25] Robinhood to buy a stock, whether that's
[15:26] a good or bad thing, but I don't know. I
[15:28] like SoFi. I'm going to use them cuz I
[15:30] really, really like having all my
[15:31] finances in one place, and I trust SoFi.
[15:34] But this isn't going to be the best
[15:35] option for everyone. I probably wouldn't
[15:37] recommend it if you don't already bank
[15:38] with SoFi. And there is a bit of the
[15:40] gamification Robinhood type thing going
[15:43] on, like they make it too easy to trade
[15:45] options, and there's like the confetti
[15:47] when you open up the account, you get a
[15:49] free stock, and there's like an arm that
[15:51] goes down. So, there is a bit of that
[15:53] into it, too. To be honest, this is
[15:55] probably like a B tier brokerage, but I
[15:56] like it, and I use it, and this is my
[15:58] video, so I'm going to go ahead and
[15:59] throw it in A tier. All right, next up
[16:01] we have Merrill Edge. And Merrill Edge
[16:03] is the brokerage that you go with if
[16:04] you're already a Bank of America
[16:05] customer. Like no one really wakes up
[16:07] and says, "Hey, I want to open up a
[16:08] Merrill brokerage today." But that's
[16:10] what it's made for. You get transfers
[16:12] instantly between your Bank of America
[16:14] checking account and the brokerage. It
[16:16] intertwines very well. And also, Bank of
[16:18] America has a rewards program where if
[16:20] you have more money with them, you get
[16:21] better loan rates, and you get higher
[16:23] percentage on your credit cards. I make
[16:25] a lot of videos on credit cards. I know
[16:26] a lot of people have like move over
[16:28] their Roth IRA to Bank of America just
[16:30] so they can get like 5 or 6% cash back.
[16:32] But I would say Merrill's kind of like
[16:34] Vanguard, where it's mostly just the buy
[16:36] and hold ETF. There's no fractional
[16:38] shares. You're not going to be doing any
[16:39] trading on here. And overall, it's just
[16:42] kind of like a little bit of a slow app.
[16:43] I'll show you the app. Full
[16:45] transparency, this is the one that I
[16:46] used by far the least. I had trouble
[16:49] even like transferring money into it.
[16:50] But you have your accounts, your
[16:51] dashboard. As you can see, it pretty
[16:53] much just looks like Bank of America. If
[16:55] you want to trade, you can go over,
[16:56] search something up. I'll get some SCHD,
[16:59] another good ETF if you guys are looking
[17:01] for one. And then you just put in the
[17:02] number of shares, and then you'll be
[17:03] able to buy. So, you know, it's all
[17:05] right, not super fancy, um but not
[17:07] something you're going to go out of the
[17:08] way to open up. I'll just go ahead and
[17:10] throw it in the C tier. All right, next
[17:12] up we have another relatively new
[17:14] player, and that is Acorns. Acorns is
[17:16] pretty much the training wheels of
[17:18] investing. It's what you open up when
[17:19] you have absolutely no idea what you are
[17:21] doing, and you don't even want to think
[17:23] about it. Acorns is pretty much for
[17:25] people that have a hard time investing
[17:27] and saving. It does things like rounds
[17:30] up your change and automatically invest
[17:31] it for you, and then every week will
[17:33] take a certain amount from your bank
[17:35] account, whatever you set. I just had it
[17:36] at $5 a week. I like that it does pick
[17:38] some good ETFs for you. I know that a
[17:41] lot of beginners will go and get a
[17:43] Robinhood account and then just invest
[17:44] in like Archer or like, I don't know,
[17:47] Lucid a couple years ago or some of
[17:48] those marijuana stocks and just lose all
[17:50] their money. So, I like that it does
[17:52] force you to invest in some good ETFs.
[17:55] But that's where the good stops. They
[17:57] make you pay a monthly fee, which is
[17:59] either 3, 6, or 12 dollars, depending on
[18:02] what features you get. And you can
[18:04] pretty much do
[18:05] everything that Acorns does by yourself.
[18:08] All Acorns really invest in is VOO, VTI,
[18:11] some bonds, and then total market ETFs.
[18:13] You could literally copy the same
[18:15] portfolio in Robinhood, SoFi, WeBull,
[18:17] any of the brokers I've talked about.
[18:19] Also, they have like a whole bank thing
[18:21] that I know some people use, but it has
[18:23] a lot of problems. I'll go ahead and
[18:24] show you the app. So, first it'll show
[18:26] you your portfolio, and then like
[18:28] the potential of what it could be in
[18:30] like 40 years. They have the earning
[18:32] where they have like brand deals. They
[18:33] have a learning thing where they have
[18:34] like mini courses and stuff. And then
[18:36] the investing tab,
[18:38] you'll go and see it's just like a
[18:39] couple different ETFs. If you want to
[18:41] choose individual ones, you have to pay
[18:43] extra for that. I'm only paying $3 a
[18:45] month. If I do want to put some extra in
[18:46] investments, I'll just hit transfer in,
[18:48] and then I will load up $100, and then
[18:51] it will automatically invest that for
[18:53] me. Now, I actually think Acorns is
[18:55] really cool. Like I like the concept. I
[18:57] like the app. I think it's good for
[18:58] beginners. Like I had some coworkers
[19:00] talking about it the other day, and they
[19:02] actually really like it, but if I'm
[19:04] being honest, the banking's mid. You can
[19:06] do it yourself in like 5 minutes, but I
[19:08] don't know. I I think I have to throw
[19:10] this in D tier just to be fair. But let
[19:12] me know if you guys like it or you think
[19:13] it belongs in a higher tier. All right,
[19:15] next up we have E*TRADE. It's now owned
[19:17] by Morgan Stanley, and I know people
[19:19] that have been using it for like 10, 20
[19:20] years, and they've had no problem with
[19:22] it. They have paper trading, some decent
[19:23] analogy tools. It's good for someone
[19:25] that wants to trade options, maybe, but
[19:27] doesn't want to go full DJ day trading
[19:29] mode. It does have a decent UI and an
[19:31] okay cash management account, but it
[19:34] doesn't have fractional shares, which
[19:35] means that, you know, if you want to buy
[19:36] Tesla, you're going to have to shell out
[19:38] a whole $400. I'll go ahead and show you
[19:40] guys the app. As you can see, it's like
[19:42] it's okay, maybe a little bit clunky,
[19:44] not really my thing. You have your
[19:46] watchlist. The market tab will show you
[19:48] like what's going on. Got some TV there.
[19:51] Um but if I want to trade, I'll go ahead
[19:53] to the stock, enter in the ticker
[19:55] symbol. I'll go ahead and buy some
[19:56] Lucid. That's Do you guys remember
[19:58] Lucid? I don't even know. They're
[19:59] probably going to go out of business.
[20:00] But I'll just hit buy. I will go three
[20:02] shares, and then preview, and then just
[20:05] like that you have bought it. In my
[20:06] opinion, E*TRADE is like a player that
[20:08] used to be good like 10 years ago, but
[20:10] now is like still pretty decent, but has
[20:13] kind of tapered off. Sort of like I
[20:15] guess Kirk [snorts] Cousins, but I'm
[20:16] going to go ahead and throw E*TRADE in
[20:18] the C tier. All right, next up we have
[20:20] Chase Self-Directed Investing, and it
[20:22] kind of has like the Merrill thing going
[20:23] on where a lot of people already bank
[20:26] with Chase, and they just end up doing
[20:28] their investments with them as well
[20:29] because of convenience. It's good if
[20:31] you're chasing, no pun intended, the
[20:34] Chase Private Client status, but
[20:36] other than that, a lot of people seem to
[20:38] hate it. Now, I actually didn't mind
[20:41] Chase Self-Directed at all. I thought it
[20:42] was fairly simple and good. You can buy
[20:44] fractional shares. Maybe it's because
[20:46] I've had so many credit cards with
[20:48] Chase, I'm just used to the user
[20:49] interface. But I actually didn't mind
[20:50] Chase Investing at all. Now, I did see a
[20:52] lot of people complaining about Chase
[20:54] just overall being a little bit slow in
[20:56] their user interface laggy, and that if
[20:58] you cancel a trade, that money is locked
[21:01] up, and you won't get it till the next
[21:02] day, which is valid, but I don't know.
[21:04] I'll show you the UI. So, at the top you
[21:05] have your portfolio value, your profit
[21:07] and losses, and then you're it'll just
[21:10] show you like your asset allocation.
[21:12] It'll show you your different positions,
[21:14] watch list. And then, if you want to go
[21:16] trade, just hit the trade button. Search
[21:18] up I will invest in some Pepsi today
[21:20] just cuz I feel like it. Buy, market
[21:22] order.
[21:23] Uh, I will switch to dollars, and buy $5
[21:27] of Pepsi. So, as you can see, it is
[21:29] pretty simple. It's not like
[21:30] overwhelming like some of the big ones.
[21:32] So, I don't really know why people hate
[21:33] it as much. Maybe I'm missing something
[21:35] here, but I'm going to throw it in the B
[21:36] tier. All righty, last up we have M1
[21:39] Finance. And this is a hot take, but I
[21:41] actually don't really like M1 Finance. I
[21:43] think the whole pie thing is annoying,
[21:45] and I don't I wouldn't want to say
[21:46] confusing, but just unnecessary. M1 used
[21:49] to have a lot of fans a couple years
[21:51] ago, but I feel like it's kind of dying
[21:52] off. Basically, it's made for the
[21:55] investor that just wants to set
[21:56] something up and then never have to
[21:58] think about it again. I'll show you in
[21:59] the app, but what you basically do is
[22:01] build a pie with a bunch of different
[22:03] stocks and then ETFs, and then when your
[22:06] money goes in automatically, it will be
[22:08] dispersed between those different ones,
[22:09] and then I believe it will buy up the
[22:11] ones that have dipped. Now, a couple
[22:13] years ago, this was kind of new, and a
[22:14] lot of people liked it, but now Fidelity
[22:16] has the basket portfolios, there's
[22:19] Schwab stock slices, and I feel like now
[22:21] there's just a lot of other brokerages
[22:23] with fractional shares, recurring
[22:25] investments, and just better support and
[22:27] then research. Here's the app here. You
[22:28] can see the M1 net worth, all the
[22:30] different sort of things they have. They
[22:32] have a page advertising for loans and
[22:34] then a cash account, but here's the pie
[22:35] thing. Now, mine is mostly spy, and then
[22:38] a couple other ones, but if you want to
[22:39] add something to your pie, you go ahead
[22:42] and click stocks, and then I will search
[22:45] up SoFi again, and I will add that to my
[22:48] portfolio. That is the main one, and I
[22:51] will go ahead and do 5%.
[22:54] Now, I have to make it equal 100, so I'm
[22:57] going to reduce spy from 96 to 91. And
[23:00] then if I go ahead and save that and
[23:02] confirm, and go back to my main pie,
[23:04] SoFi will now have a slice in that.
[23:05] Overall, I think M1 is pretty niche. If
[23:08] you're a kind of person that wants to
[23:09] make a pie and then just auto invest in
[23:11] it, I guess this could be S tier, but I
[23:12] think for the average investor, I'm
[23:14] going to go ahead and throw this into C
[23:15] tier. Like I mentioned, if you use the
[23:17] links below, you'll get free stock, and
[23:18] it also really helps support the
[23:20] channel. I don't think I've ever seen
[23:21] anyone go to this lengths to make a
[23:23] video on brokerages before.