Tastytrade vs Fidelity – More Trading Assets or Lower Commissions?

What assets do you want to trade? That makes a big difference in which trading platform you choose. Most brokers offer your standard choices – stocks, bonds, and ETFs, but what if you want to go beyond the norm? What if you want to trade options or futures? Whatever your trade of choice, you need a platform that can support your needs. Sure, most platforms trade ‘most’ assets but do they specialize in it? Do they offer the support, research, and education you need? What about the costs? Today we’ll explore tastytrade vs Fidelity to help you see how each stack up to what you need.

Which Broker is Better – tastytrade or Fidelity?

If you’re looking for a broker with history, it’s Fidelity. Starting in 1965, Fidelity has been through every technological and market change, even becoming the first mutual fund company to navigate the waters online. Today, Fidelity offers a large number of asset options and plenty of educational material for beginning investors.

tastytrade thrives on innovation. Created by the founders of TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim, they have technology and creativity on their side. tastytrade was created by options traders that wanted something better that wasn’t out there yet – not even with Fidelity. Even though they just went public in the last few years, they offer variety, ingenuity, and a stable platform to trade options among other assets.

So what’s better? When you compare tastytrade vs Fidelity, it really comes down to personal preference. In this review, we help breakdown what each company offers to give you a thorough understanding.

Available Investments

Knowing what a platform offers is the key to your success. Why sign up for an account that won’t trade the assets you have in mind? Both Fidelity and tastytrade offer a decent selection, but they each have offerings that the other doesn’t.

As we mentioned above, tastytrade is all about options. If you’re looking for a way to actively trade options, you won’t find a better resource. Not only will you have the educational materials you need to make it happen, but the costs are also lower than any other broker out there thus far.

If you want a company with a history and a larger selection of investment choices, Fidelity may be a better option. While Fidelity also offers options trading, it’s not their main focus, which is where tastytrade saw the void and filled it. Fidelity offers a broader selection across the board, which if you have an interest in investment tastytrade doesn’t offer, it may be a better option.

Keep in mind, even though tastytrade’ list of available investments is considerably shorter, they are continually working on adding new investments. Only time will tell what else this innovative company is capable of providing.

tastytrade also operates the Smalls Exchange. This change, which is exclusive to tastytrade, makes futures trading affordable for anyone. Any investor can trade partial futures, making it a more affordable transaction. The contracts settle on the third Tuesday of each month.

Which Broker is Better for Options Trading? 

As we mentioned, tastytrade specializes in options trading, but Fidelity offers it as well. We’ll compare tastytrade and Fidelity’s option trading choices below.

Fidelity offers a variety of tools for options traders including educational materials, support, and tools that help with idea generation. It offers free options trading webinars, educational materials you can use at your own pace, and consultations with the Trading Strategy Desk. Fidelity offers a variety of tools including profit-loss diagrams and spread tools that help you put together the most lucrative options trades.

tastytrade’ dashboard was created for options trading. You can trade options quickly and seamlessly by setting up personalized notifications, including price notifications and report options that help you create the perfect options strategies. You can set up multi-leg options trades and get extensive research to help you in your strategies.

tastytrade also has the leg up when it comes to pricing. Fidelity is a fierce competitor when it comes to pricing, but we tend to think no one can beat the offer tastytrade provides.

tastytrade Commissions and Fees Compared with Fidelity

As we discussed above, when it comes to options commissions, tastytrade has the lead on the competition, but how does tastytrade compare with Fidelity in all other aspects?

tastytrade also has an option trade maximum per leg. The max commission is $10. If you trade more than $10 options in one leg, you don’t pay more than $10. For example, you can trade 100 options in one leg and pay $10 versus $100.

Which Platform has Better Features?

A platform’s features can make or break your experience. For example, if you are an active trader, you need speed both in the trading process and in gathering the necessary information to create strategic trades. Your platform should be user-friendly and available in the way you need, whether that’s desktop, mobile, or online.

Fidelity and tastytrade are both available on desktop, mobile, and online. Both Fidelity and tastytrade’ desktop platforms have the most robust features and are the preferred method for active traders. Fidelity’s desktop platform is a bit harder to use than its mobile and online versions, but still a quality option for investors.

tastytrade’ platform is built for options traders, but is simple enough to understand and is user-friendly. A unique aspect of tastytrade is the social aspect of it.

On tastytrade, you can:

You can use the strategies you see/hear to either copy or create your own strategies. Sometimes it’s just better to see transactions taking place to give you a better idea of what you can do too.

Does tastytrade have Better Customer Service than Fidelity?

Fidelity offers 24/7 customer service as well as extended trading hours. Investors can trade for 3 hours after the market closes. Fidelity offers an automated phone service that provides information including:

tastytrade offers customer service Monday – Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM; however, you can also send an email 24/7.

Margin Trading – Is it Easier to get a Margin Account with tastytrade?

Fidelity and tastytrade both have 2:1 leverage. tastytrade requires a 30% maintenance and the stock price must be at least $5. tastytrade requires a 20% maintenance on long positions. Fidelity has a 30% maintenance on long positions and 35% on short positions. The stock must be at least $3 per share for a margin account at Fidelity.

Education and Research

Research goes hand-in-hand with stock and options trading. Active traders need to be able to get their hands-on research and news immediately. Most investors want educational material that is engaging and fun to read, as this keeps them going.

tastytrade takes the cake on research as it provides access to its sister site, Tastytrade which provides educational materials that include articles and videos, both live and on-demand. tastytrade keeps their educational material fun and it even has a social aspect that encourages engagement with one another.

Fidelity thrives on educational material on individual equities. You’ll find plenty of stock profiles with more than adequate data for each asset. They also offer reading material, videos, and courses you can take to further explore investment topics. The material isn’t as engaging as the tastytrade material, but it’s there for your use when you need it.

Which Broker Should you Choose?

Choosing your broker is a personal decision. Using the factors above, you can decide between tastytrade vs Fidelity. Look closely at the features, the investments you want to trade, and what level of support/education you need.

As we said above, both tastytrade and Fidelity are great options. They have great platforms with a large selection of assets, but Fidelity has more. tastytrade offers specialization in options and lower commissions than Fidelity, especially in trading options. Both platforms offer margin accounts and well-rounded platforms that are easy to use whether on your desktop, online, or mobile (on the go). Deciding which one is right for you means figuring out which features you need, what you can afford, and what you want to focus on in your research/education.

In case you need more knowledge on tastytrade, check out our tastytrade Review. If you also need help on how to sign-up via referral, check out this tastytrade referral article to get our tastytrade referral code and sign-up successfully.