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Ally Invest Review

Sam Levine, CFA, CMT

Written by Sam Levine, CFA, CMT
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Fact-checked by Steven Hatzakis
Reviewed by Blain Reinkensmeyer

October 17, 2024

Easy to use and convenient, Ally Invest is fine for beginners and casual investors who are already Ally customers. Like many of Ally’s services, Invest caters to those beginning to accumulate savings and wealth. Its margin rates and commissions are low, but one-time fees (such as those for outgoing transfers or closing retirement accounts, are higher than many competitors. My testing found that Invest is missing many features that I rely on when I trade, such as streaming quotes, adjusting trades on charts, and ladder trading.

Ally Invest
4/5 Stars Overall
  • Minimum Deposit: $0.00
  • Stock Trades: $0.00
  • Options (Per Contract): $0.50

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Pros & Cons

thumb_up_off_alt Pros

  • As far as banking and brokerage combinations go, Ally delivers universal account access and instant money transfers between accounts. The broker ranked among our Best in Class for banking services for 2024.
  • Ally offers $0 no-load mutual fund trades.
  • Bond buyers will find plenty of choices and useful muni bond research. Adding a bond ladder tool would be icing on the cake.
  • Personal wealth management services are available to clients with only $100,000 in investable assets, for a reasonable 0.85% annual fee.
  • Customer support is better than what I experience at most other brokers. My calls and chats with Ally’s 24/7 support (give or take holidays) had relatively low wait times and well-informed reps.
  • Ally has supportive educational content directed at those beginning to save toward financial goals and building wealth.

thumb_down_off_alt Cons

  • Ally Invest's web charts are better than many other brokers, but its trading tools aren’t in the same league as Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, and .
  • Ally doesn’t offer crypto, futures, or forex.
  • Stocks under $2.00 have a commission of $4.95, plus $0.01 per share, with a commission cap of “the principal value of the trade,” which can be hit with very low priced securities.

Overall summary

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Overall 4/5 Stars
Investment Options 4.5/5 Stars
Commissions & Fees 4.5/5 Stars
Mobile Trading Apps 4/5 Stars
Platforms & Tools 3.5/5 Stars
Research 4/5 Stars
Customer Service 4/5 Stars
Education 4/5 Stars
Ease Of Use 4.5/5 Stars

feed Recent news

January 2024: Crypto ETFs. Ally Invest now allows trading of spot bitcoin ETFs in brokerage accounts.

Ally Invest Trading Platform Screenshots

Website:

Mobile app:

Customer service

To score Customer Service, StockBrokers.com partners with customer experience research firm Confero to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the United States. For this year's testing, 135 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks, with wait times logged for each call.

Customer service representatives were asked for assistance or details for prospective customers in several areas of broker services, including account opening, trading tools, apps, rollovers, active trading, and more. Here are the results for Ally Invest.

  • Average Connection Time: <1 minute
  • Average Net Promoter Score: 8.7 / 10
  • Average Professionalism Score: 8.3 / 10
  • Overall Score: 8.69 / 10
  • Ranking: 4th of 13 brokers

What is Ally Invest?

Ally Invest is the brokerage arm of Ally Financial, which offers traditional banking services such as checking and savings accounts, mortgages, and consumer credit cards and loans.

Is Ally Invest a good broker?

Current Ally customers who are willing to accept a limited roster of features to manage most of their finances at the same firm will find Ally Invest to be, well, convenient. We were pleasantly surprised by the research available on the website.

Ally brokerage also has excellent fixed-income market access and research and offers a very wide choice of mutual funds. Short-term traders, mobile-only, and tool-hungry investors should consider other brokers.

Is Ally Invest good for beginners?

Yes, for beginners looking to bank and invest under one roof, Ally Invest could be a good place to start, especially if you already have ties to Ally. The platform is easy to use, there's supportive education content directed towards beginners just starting to save, and I found the customer support to be better than what I find at many other brokers.

Does Ally charge brokerage fees?

Ally doesn’t charge commissions or fees on no-load mutual funds and stock and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), except for stocks priced under $2, which have a minimum of $4.95 a trade and a maximum of 20% of the principal value. Options trades are 50 cents per contract, with no exercise or early assignment fees. Bond trades are $1 per bond. There are also incidental fees.

What is the minimum balance for Ally Invest?

Like many online U.S. brokers, Ally Invest doesn’t have a minimum balance and there’s no minimum deposit required to open an account, making it a good choice for investors who want to regularly invest in mutual funds.

How do I get my money out of Ally Invest?

Select “Transfers” at the top of the Ally Invest website to move money. Ally allows you to withdraw available cash or margin via ACH, a check, an instant transfer to your Ally account, or a wire.

Is Ally Invest good for day trading?

Ally Invest doesn’t charge stock commissions (like almost all brokers today) but is missing features many traders rely upon, such as Level 2 quotes, adjusting trades on charts, low margin rates, and detailed option data, among many others. See our five top picks in our 2024 Best Day Trading Platforms guide.

Is Ally Invest trustworthy?

Ally Invest is a member of both FINRA and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, or SIPC, which carries protection for customer accounts in the event of a broker’s bankruptcy. It’s important to understand that, as with any broker, SIPC insurance does not protect against market losses — investing is a risky endeavor.

Is Ally Invest’s robo advisor any good?

Ally’s robo portfolios, also known as automated investing services, make it easy for investors to invest in portfolios aligned with their goals. Ally uses low-cost exchange-traded funds and rebalances them as market conditions change. The investment minimum is just $100 and Ally doesn’t charge for robo portfolios with cash allocations of 30%. Otherwise, the annual fee is 0.30% of assets under robo management.

How does Ally Invest make its money?

Ally Invest makes money in the same way that other banks and brokers do. On brokerage accounts, Ally makes money from the practice of payment for order flow, or PFOF, as do nearly all other brokers in this age of $0 trades. Read more about PFOF.

About Ally Invest

Ally Invest is the online brokerage arm of Ally Financial (publicly traded, "ALLY"), which also operates Ally Bank. Ally Financial is best known for its FDIC insured banking services through Ally Bank, which includes online banking, auto financing, and home loans.

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StockBrokers.com Review Methodology

Our mission at StockBrokers.com is simple: provide thorough and unbiased reviews of online brokers, based on an extraordinary level of hands-on testing and data collection. Our ratings and awards are based on this data and our in-house experts’ deep authority in the field; brokers cannot pay for preferential treatment. Here’s more about trustworthiness at StockBrokers.com.

Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools for U.S. investors, collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process; this makes StockBrokers.com home to the largest independent database on the web covering the online broker industry. We test all available trading platforms for each broker and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables. All research, writing, and data collection at StockBrokers.com is done by humans, for humans. Read our generative AI policy here.

As part of our process, all brokers had the annual opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy. Brokers also were offered the opportunity to provide executive time for an annual update meeting.

Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.

Ally Invest 2024 Results

For the StockBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards, announced on Jan. 23, 2024, all U.S. equity brokers we reviewed were assessed on over 200 different variables across eight areas: Commissions & Fees, Investment Options, Platforms & Tools, Research, Mobile Trading, Education, Ease of Use, and Overall.

StockBrokers.com also presented “Best in Class” awards to brokers for additional categories Beginners, Options Trading, Futures Trading, Active Trading, IRA Accounts, Investor Community, Penny Stock Trading, Banking Services and Customer Service. A “Best in Class” designation means finishing in the top five brokers for that category.

For more information, see how we test. New to investing? Check out our beginner's guide on how to invest.

Category awards

Ally Invest logoAlly Invest Bank Brokerage Customer Service
Rank #1
Streak #1
Best in Class check check
Best in Class Streak 7 2

Ally Invest fees and features data

The data collection efforts at StockBrokers.com are unmatched in the industry. The following tables show a deeper dive into the offerings available at this broker. You can also compare its offerings side-by-side with those of other brokers using our Comparison Tool.

In addition to meticulous annual data collection by our in-house analyst, every broker that participates in our review is afforded the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile. We then audit each data point to ensure its accuracy.

Trading fees

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Minimum Deposit $0.00
Stock Trades $0.00
Mutual Fund Trade Fee $0.00
Options (Base Fee) $0.00
Options (Per Contract) $0.50
Futures (Per Contract) (Not offered)
Broker Assisted Trade Fee $20

Account fees

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
IRA Annual Fee $0.00
IRA Closure Fee $25.00
Account Transfer Out (Partial) info $50.00
Account Transfer Out (Full) info $50.00
Options Exercise Fee $0.00
Options Assignment Fee $0.00

Margin rates

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Margin Rate Under $25,000 13%
Margin Rate $25,000 to $49,999.99 12.75%
Margin Rate $50,000 to $99,999.99 12%
Margin Rate $100,000 to $249,999.99 10.75%
Margin Rate $250,000 to $499,999.99 9.75%
Margin Rate $500,000 to $999,999.99 9.25%
Margin Rate Above $1,000,000 8.5%

Investment options

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Stock Trading info Yes
Margin Trading Yes
Fractional Shares info No
OTC Stocks info Yes
Options Trading info Yes
Complex Options Max Legs info 4
Futures Trading info No
Forex Trading info No
Crypto Trading info No
Crypto Trading - Total Coins info 0
Mutual Funds (No Load) info 13000
Mutual Funds (Total) info 14000
Bonds (US Treasury) info Yes
Bonds (Corporate) info Yes
Bonds (Municipal) info Yes
Advisor Services info Yes
International Countries (Stocks) info 0
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Order types

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Order Type - Market info Yes
Order Type - Limit info Yes
Order Type - After Hours info Yes
Order Type - Stop info Yes
Order Type - Trailing Stop info No
Order Type - OCO info No
Order Type - OTO info No
Order Type - Broker Assisted info Yes

Beginners

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Education (Stocks) info Yes
Education (ETFs) info Yes
Education (Options) info Yes
Education (Mutual Funds) info Yes
Education (Bonds) info Yes
Education (Retirement) info Yes
Retirement Calculator info No
Investor Dictionary info Yes
Paper Trading info No
Videos info No
Webinars info No
Webinars (Archived) info Yes
Progress Tracking info No
Interactive Learning - Quizzes info No
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Stock trading apps

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
iPhone App info Yes
Android App info Yes
Apple Watch App info No
Trading - Stocks info Yes
Trading - After-Hours info Yes
Trading - Simple Options info Yes
Trading - Complex Options info Yes
Order Ticket RT Quotes info Yes
Order Ticket SRT Quotes info No

Stock app features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Market Movers (Top Gainers) info Yes
Stream Live TV info No
Videos on Demand info No
Stock Alerts info No
Option Chains Viewable info Yes
Watch List (Real-time) info Yes
Watch List (Streaming) info No
Watch Lists - Create & Manage info Yes
Watch Lists - Column Customization info No
Watch Lists - Total Fields info 10

Stock app charting

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Charting - After-Hours info No
Charting - Can Turn Horizontally info No
Charting - Multiple Time Frames info Yes
Charting - Technical Studies info 0
Charting - Study Customizations info No
Charting - Stock Comparisons info No

Trading platforms overview

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Active Trading Platform info N/A
Desktop Trading Platform info No
Desktop Platform (Mac) info No
Web Trading Platform info Yes
Paper Trading info No
Trade Journal info No
Watch Lists - Total Fields info 10

Trading platform stock chart features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Charting - Adjust Trades on Chart info No
Charting - Indicators / Studies info 120
Charting - Drawing Tools info 36
Charting - Notes info Yes
Charting - Index Overlays info Yes
Charting - Historical Trades info No
Charting - Corporate Events info No
Charting - Custom Date Range info No
Charting - Custom Time Bars info No
Charting - Automated Analysis info Yes
Charting - Save Profiles info Yes
Trade Ideas - Technical Analysis info Yes
Charting - Study Customizations info 8
Charting - Custom Studies info No
View More

Day trading features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Streaming Time & Sales info No
Streaming TV info No
Direct Market Routing - Stocks info No
Ladder Trading info No
Trade Hotkeys info No
Level 2 Quotes - Stocks info No
Trade Ideas - Backtesting info No
Trade Ideas - Backtesting Adv info No
Short Locator info No
Order Liquidity Rebates info No

Investment research overview

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Research - Stocks info Yes
Research - ETFs info Yes
Research - Mutual Funds info Yes
Research - Pink Sheets / OTCBB info Yes
Research - Bonds info Yes
Screener - Stocks info Yes
Screener - ETFs info Yes
Screener - Mutual Funds info No
Screener - Bonds info Yes
Misc - Portfolio Allocation info Yes

Stock research features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Stock Research - PDF Reports info 0
Stock Research - Earnings info No
Stock Research - Insiders info Yes
Stock Research - Social info Yes
Stock Research - News info Yes
Stock Research - ESG info No
Stock Research - SEC Filings info No

ETF research features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
ETFs - Strategy Overview info Yes
ETF Fund Facts - Inception Date info No
ETF Fund Facts - Expense Ratio info Yes
ETF Fund Facts - Net Assets info Yes
ETF Fund Facts - Total Holdings info No
ETFs - Top 10 Holdings info Yes
ETFs - Sector Exposure info No
ETFs - Risk Analysis info No
ETFs - Ratings info Yes
ETFs - Morningstar StyleMap info No
ETFs - PDF Reports info No
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Mutual fund research features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Mutual Funds - Strategy Overview info Yes
Mutual Funds - Performance Chart info Yes
Mutual Funds - Performance Analysis info No
Mutual Funds - Prospectus info No
Mutual Funds - 3rd Party Ratings info Yes
Mutual Funds - Fees Breakdown info No
Mutual Funds - Top 10 Holdings info Yes
Mutual Funds - Asset Allocation info No
Mutual Funds - Sector Allocation info Yes
Mutual Funds - Country Allocation info No
Mutual Funds - StyleMap info No
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Options trading overview

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Option Chains - Basic View info Yes
Option Chains - Strategy View info Yes
Option Chains - Streaming info Yes
Option Chains - Total Columns info 8
Option Chains - Greeks info 5
Option Chains - Quick Analysis info Yes
Option Analysis - P&L Charts info No
Option Probability Analysis info Yes
Option Probability Analysis Adv info No
Option Positions - Greeks info Yes
Option Positions - Greeks Streaming info No
Option Positions - Adv Analysis info No
Option Positions - Rolling info No
Option Positions - Grouping info Yes
View More

Banking features

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Bank (Member FDIC) info Yes
Checking Accounts info Yes
Savings Accounts info Yes
Credit Cards info Yes
Debit Cards info Yes
Mortgage Loans info Yes

Customer service options

Feature Ally Invest logoAlly Invest
Phone Support (Prospect Customers) info Yes
Phone Support (Current Customers) info Yes
Email Support info Yes
Live Chat (Prospect Customers) info No
Live Chat (Current Customers) info Yes
24/7 Support info Yes

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About the Editorial Team

Sam Levine, CFA, CMT

Sam Levine has over 30 years of experience in the investing field as a portfolio manager, financial consultant, investment strategist and writer. He also taught investing as an adjunct professor of finance at Wayne State University. Sam holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and the Chartered Market Technician designations and is pursuing a master's in personal financial planning at the College for Financial Planning. Previously, he was a contributing editor at BetterInvesting Magazine and a contributor to The Penny Hoarder and other media outlets.

Carolyn Kimball

Carolyn Kimball is a former managing editor for StockBrokers.com and investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.

Steven Hatzakis

Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.

Blain Reinkensmeyer

Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.

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