Is Vanguard or Fidelity better for ETFs?
While Vanguard stands out with its suite of funds, the brokerage is more limited when it comes to other offerings. However, it does allow investors to trade individual stocks and bonds. Conversely, Fidelity allows clients to invest in individual stocks, bonds, ETFs, options, mutual funds and more.
While Fidelity wins out overall, Vanguard is the best option for retirement savers. Its platform offers tools and education focused specifically on retirement planning.
Fidelity's actively managed ETFs seek better investing outcomes* and offer trading flexibility along with potential tax efficiency. *While active ETFs offer the potential to outperform an index, these products may more significantly trail an index as compared with passive ETFs.
While it depends on your financial situation and existing portfolio, Vanguard ETFs could make sound investments for most individuals, especially if you plan to invest over a long period. You can use our investment calculator to determine how much your investment could grow.
Which Brokerages Sell Vanguard Funds? Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, E-Trade, and Interactive Brokers are among the financial services firms that sell Vanguard Funds.
Performance and Cost. As the innovator of index funds, Vanguard offers an impressive range of index funds today with low expense ratios. Fidelity has a comparable selection of funds, but its fees generally aren't as competitive as Vanguard's. That said, Fidelity does offer some zero-cost funds for its customers.
(Although Vanguard offers some actively managed funds, too.) Fidelity has a wider range of investment funds if you want active management, and a more robust array of services if you want to buy and sell individual stocks.
The largest Fidelity ETF is the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund FBTC with $10.09B in assets. In the last trailing year, the best-performing Fidelity ETF was FDIG at 72.66%. The most recent ETF launched in the Fidelity space was the Fidelity Low Duration Bond ETF FLDB on 02/26/24.
Otherwise, some managers may wind up passing on a new fee on to investors - a $100 servicing charge when placing buy orders for a group of ETFs on Fidelity's surcharge-eligible list. That's a hefty disincentive for investors, worries Jason Hsu, founder of Rayliant.
thumb_down_off_alt Cons
Though Fidelity largely avoids nuisance fees such as charges for transferring an account out, its margin rates and options fees are higher than brokers that cater to active traders. Its desktop trading platform, Fidelity Active Trader Pro, could use an overhaul.
Why are Vanguard ETFs so cheap?
Vanguard's unique cost structure, the economies of scale it has achieved, and the total number of assets under management (AUM) allow it to offer its ETFs at the lowest cost available in the market. We've listed 10 of the firm's cheapest ETFs by their expense ratio.
"Benefits unique to ETFs include lower investment minimums, real-time pricing and tax efficiencies due to the creation process and the ability to defer capital gains," says Lauren Wybar, senior wealth advisor at Vanguard.
For instance, some ETFs may come with fees, others might stray from the value of the underlying asset, ETFs are not always optimized for taxes, and of course — like any investment — ETFs also come with risk.
We do not charge commissions for online domestic stock or Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) trades, including Vanguard ETFs. We also don't charge any fees just for holding non-Fidelity securities in your account.
In addition to a Fidelity 401k, you can transfer other retirement accounts to Vanguard through rollovers or direct transfers, expanding your investment options and consolidating accounts. One popular way to transfer retirement funds to Vanguard is through a direct rollover.
Free commission offer applies to online purchases of Fidelity ETFs in a Fidelity brokerage account with a minimum opening balance of $2,500. The sale of ETFs is subject to an activity assessment fee (of between $0.01 to $0.03 per $1000 of principal).
- Options commissions.
- Only offers fractional share investing on Vanguard ETFs.
- Active trading platform isn't as robust as competitors.
The answer depends on you and your investment goals. There's no reason you can't have accounts with both Fidelity and Vanguard (among others). You'll have two (or more) sets of statements to review, multiple phone numbers to remember, several websites to navigate and hundreds of funds to understand and monitor.
Vanguard is the king of low-cost investing, making it ideal for buy-and-hold investors and retirement savers. But beginner investors and active traders will find the broker falls short despite its $0 stock trading commission, due to the lack of a strong trading platform and accessible educational resources.
Fidelity has excellent investment platforms for active traders and investors of all types, including mobile, desktop, and the downloadable Active Trader Pro. In contrast with competitors, fees are negligible and many services and products are fee-free.
Is Charles Schwab or Fidelity better?
Overall Appeal. Fidelity and Schwab are both excellent choices. These investment firms offer thousands of funds. There are some nuances, such as Fidelity being better for crypto traders and Schwab being more optimal for futures traders.
Is Charles Schwab better than Vanguard? After testing 18 of the best online brokers, our analysis finds that Charles Schwab (96.6%) is better than Vanguard (80.3%).
- Renaissance IPO ETF IPO.
- Invesco S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth ETF RFG.
- ARK Innovation ETF ARKK.
- Invesco S&P MidCap Quality ETF XMHQ.
- Invesco S&P MidCap 400 GARP ETF GRPM.
- Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF SPMO.
- Alpha Architect US Quantitative Momentum ETF QMOM.
ETF | Assets Under Management | Expense Ratio |
---|---|---|
Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) | $70 billion | 0.10% |
VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) | $16.3 billion | 0.35% |
Invesco S&P MidCap Momentum ETF (XMMO) | $1.6 billion | 0.34% |
SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) | $1.8 billion | 0.35% |
Our recommendation for the best overall S&P 500 index fund is the Fidelity 500 Index Fund. With a 0.015% expense ratio, it's the cheapest on our list. And it doesn't have a minimum initial investment requirement, sales loads or trading fees. Over the last 10 years, FXAIX has returned an annualized 12.02%.
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