There’s no shortage of brokers when it comes to investing, which gives investors plenty of options but makes it difficult to choose one.
But if you want an account with a forward-looking broker, these providers offer unique and innovative perks that help them stand out.
What standard features do brokers offer?
No two brokers are the same. Even if they offer the same investment options and account types and charge the same fees, each platform usually has a distinct user interface and trading experience.
Brokers typically offer these standard features:
- Access to stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), though the exact number of available stocks and ETFs varies.
- Individual taxable brokerage accounts, a standard investment account that lets you buy and sell various assets.
Beyond these, other investment options and account types, trading platforms and tools, customer support availability and ancillary services can vary significantly.
3 innovative brokers with interesting perks
I regularly compare brokers, and these are three that offer some unique and innovative features.
1. Robinhood
Robinhood has been exploding in popularity in recent years, largely due to its user-friendly design, industry-low trading fees and frequent release of new products and innovative features.
One such product is its premium subscription, Robinhood Gold, which offers a range of benefits that can significantly enhance your trading and investment experience on the platform:
- 4% APY on uninvested cash
- 3% IRA contribution match
- Bigger instant deposits
- Nasdaq Level 2 data and Morningstar insights
- First $1K of margin interest-free
- Discounted futures and index options commissions
- $250 cap on Robinhood Strategies
I’ve done the math, and at just $5 per month, or $50 with the annual plan, the unique benefits and perks can easily outweigh the cost, making the upgrade to Robinhood Gold worth it.
2. SoFi Invest
SoFi is a financial technology company that offers everything from banking and loans to insurance and investing.
While SoFi Invest is generally geared toward beginners, it’s one of the only mobile-first brokers with alternative investment access.
From SoFi’s user-friendly platform, access funds that include:
- Commodities
- Foreign currencies
- Private credit
- Hedge funds
- Venture capital
- Real estate
These interval funds have minimums as low as $500 and are managed by popular asset managers, including ARK Invest, Carlyle, Franklin Templeton and KKR.
3. Opto
Opto Markets is a subsidiary of CMC Markets, a London-based financial technology company founded over 34 years ago. Initially introduced in 2018 as a media brand focusing on trading and investment content, Opto has since evolved into a thematic investing platform offering commission-free stocks, ETFs and Folios.
Folios is Opto’s newest product, which lets you design your own stock index of 3-50 stocks, weighted according to your chosen strategy and automatically rebalanced once a quarter.
Copy stocks from your preferred theme or mirror a top-performing portfolio from other Opto community members. Opto also offers a back-test feature to simulate how a portfolio might have performed in the past to help you make more informed decisions, improve your strategy and better understand the potential outcomes of your investments.
Choose a broker that’s right for you
The best brokerage accounts continue to innovate and adapt to keep up with the times and stay valuable to investors. So, compare your options and choose a broker offering the products and features to help you make smarter, faster decisions.
