Thanks to the pandemic many people made fortunes using financial instruments and investment apps thanks to the historic ever-low interest rates. As you know that lower interest rates push the stock market higher and higher interest rates push the market downwards.
It is a complex game of understanding the supply and demand in the market to make any significant profits from those bets. However, there are investment apps that will allow you to enter the market and expand your portfolio with minimal investment experience and limited resources.
You no longer need a stockbroker these days to trade in the market. Big Brokerage firms like TD Ameritrade and Vanguard have already entered the app space in iPhone and Android OS. From college grads to seasoned investors all harness the powerful investment apps and software that make investing seamless and very comfortable from their own phone devices.
To make you decide which investment app you should go for I have basically listed some of the best investment apps to use for different groups of investors.
So let’s get started.
What Are the Best Investment Apps?
Here is the list of my best investment apps you can use this year.
1. M1 Finance
One of the Best Investment App offering Commission free trade
Mi Finance is one of the very few investment apps that expertly combine online brokerage functionalities and Robo-advisor. It is known for providing low operation costs and a user-friendly interface for its users. Moreover, it allows you to choose a wide range of portfolio options and is absolutely free.
When you want to invest the app will ask you to create a pie. The pie usually combines your unique investment goals and preferred investment options. This helps the app to distribute your invested capital across your preferred investment options.
Best For
Investors who are willing to delegate their portfolio management without having to pay for expert advisory services.
Key Features
- Free consultation – You can schedule a demo from their product expert to get a quick brief about how the app benefits you in your investment journey.
- M1 Borrow – M1 finance offers a line of credit for your investment journey at an APR of 3.5%. However, to qualify for the line of credit you need to have at least $10,000 in your margin brokerage account.
- Trading Window – All trades will happen at 9 AM Central Time each day which is when the New York Stock Exchange is open.
- Automatic Deposits and Dividends – This allows you to set deposits on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Plus, all your dividend income will be reinvested in your portfolio once it reaches at least $10.
Pros
- Charges no trading commissions on buying or selling any securities within each pie.
- No major cash investment is required i.e if you have at least $10 in the account it will be invested automatically.
- There is no cap on the initial deposit amount to be invested in your margin brokerage account.
- No brokerage fees or commissions on your stocks.
- M1 finance implements fractional shares that allow it to fully invest your amount and maintain your pie allocation.
Cons
- Lacks a robust customer support
- Not designed for active traders such as day traders etc.
Pricing
M1 Finance is absolutely free for use.
2. Acorns
Best Investment App for automating your savings
Acorns is one of the best investment apps to make some extra cash from your existing savings. It is a Robo-advisor that acts on behalf of you to invest your saved money and earn you extra income.
Acorns is a money-making app that is easy to use and intuitive use that you can set up by just providing your age and other details such as risk tolerance etc. What Acorns do is rounds ups the purchases you have made on your linked credit or debit card to the nearest dollar and transfer the remaining change to your Acorns account.
Best For
Investors who are seeking to be non-active traders simultaneously want low-risk investments on their saved money.
Key Features
- Acorns Early Account – This feature allows you to create a free account for babies born in 2020. It allows you to set up a custodial account just by providing your child’s name and social security number. This account will be a UTMA/UGMA that benefits your kids.
- Acorns Found Money – This feature contributes an extra amount to your Acorns account whenever you purchase using Acorns linked credit or debit card on a partner site. These partners include but are not limited to Warby Parker, Blue Apron, and Airbnb among others.
- Acorns Later – This feature allows users to invest in a specially designed individual retirement account (IRA). You can find this in the Personal and Family account type.
- Acorns Spend – This feature allows you to do real-time round-ups easily along with automatic retirement savings and extra savings via Found Money. Plus, it offers 55000+ fee-free ATMs nationwide in the US and around the world.
Pros
- Does not require any minimum deposit to start using the service.
- You do not need to understand the modern methods of investing for portfolio building
- Allows you to set up a custodial account for your children to start their investment early on.
- Automatically perform round-ups for retirement savings and other finances.
Cons
- It is designed only for boosting your savings and nothing more
- there are chances that you can lose principal on your conservative investment.
Pricing
Acorns have three pricing plans to offer.
- Lite – $1 per month (includes only Acorns Invest Feature)
- Personal – $3 per month (includes Acorns Spend and Acorns Later Feature)
- Family – $5 per month (Includes all in personal plan plus Acorns Early Feature)
3. Robinhood
Best Free Stock Trading App for Investment
Robinhood founded in 2013 is a hugely popular app for freely trading cryptocurrencies and stocks. Plus, it allows free ETFs and options and boasts around 4 million traders on its platform.
You require zero minimum balance to use its service and its user interface is pretty easy to understand. Moreover, they do not charge any commission over trades but do take a little fee if you opt for a traditional full-service broker.
These brokers provide you access to more than 2,000 ETFs with no fee rather than just a handful of accounts usually suggested by the brokers. You can use the Robinhood Gold service to borrow money for acquiring securities.
Key Features
- Crypto Exchange – Robinhood allows you to trade crypto using its platform. Like other crypto platforms like Uphold and Coinbase, you can trade crypto like Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin, and others.
- Day Trade Tracking – Robinhood allows you to track up to three trades in a rolling five-day period. Although I advise you to stay away from this option unless you are an experienced guy in the trading field.
- Robinhood Gold Service – This allows you to borrow money for acquiring securities that are similar to a rival broker Motif’s BLUE service. This service is better for active traders and requires a minimum $2000 balance to open a margin account. This is as per federal regulations.
- Options Trading – This feature includes advanced trade strategies and helpful filters. Options give you access to no-fee contracts that consist of no exercise fee, no assignment fees, no per-contract fee, and no commissions.
Pros
- Provides free trade no matter what you buy or sell.
- Allows you to trade into the gaming crypto space with ease and no limitations
- Robinhood doesn’t charge any fees on any ACH transfers to or from your account.
- There is no cap on the minimum deposit to start using their service
- Provides notification about current market trends and news of the portfolio you are invested in or those under your watch list.
Cons
- Does not support mutual funds or bond investing
- You can open only a taxable brokerage account.
- Offers limited functionalities compared to other big players in the market.
Pricing
Robinhood is also absolutely free.
Best Investment Apps – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best investment apps you can use for trading this year. I will keep updating the list with more good investment apps available in the market.
These few listed investment apps will surely help you build your investment portfolio. For instance, if you are looking for the best app for free stock trades, I would recommend Robinhood.
If you are requiring a little more advanced featured app then M1 finance is the way to go. Or if you are just looking to automate your bank savings then you can get started by using Acorns.
What do you think about these apps? Are there any other investment apps you would like to suggest? Let me know in the comment section below.
More from Smashitbuck: To check out my other articles on the partner relationship management system, RMM software, and EDI software to read this year.
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