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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Graham Stephan's top five investing apps, in his own opinion (not financial advice), are Robinhood, M1 Finance, Acorns, Webull, and Fidelity, with the best pick depending on whether you want to trade stocks, invest long term, automate small investments, or minimize fees. He favors low-cost apps and says anyone who wants to buy and sell individual stocks should avoid Fidelity and use a commission-free app instead.
Key Points
- The promised list of 5 apps: (1) Robinhood, (2) M1 Finance, (3) Acorns, (4) Webull (spelled "Weeble" in the transcript), (5) Fidelity.
- Robinhood: Commission-free stock, ETF, and crypto trading; best for beginners and short-term trading, though Stephan notes weak customer service and no fractional shares, dividend reinvestment, or retirement accounts.
- M1 Finance: Free, with fractional shares, dividend reinvesting, M1 Retire, and the "Investment Pie" for diversified portfolios; weaker for day trading because same-day buy and sell isn't allowed.
- Acorns: Automates investing via Roundup (rounding purchases up to the nearest dollar, with an optional 10x multiplier) and recurring investments; diversified across 7,000+ stocks and bonds through broad index funds.
- Webull: Commission-free trading with more advanced charts, screeners, and analytics than Robinhood, but with a steeper learning curve.
- Fidelity: Zero minimums and zero fees on many of its free index funds, making it the cheapest option for disciplined automatic investing; it charges a $4.95 commission per stock trade.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Don't trade hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on Robinhood because of customer service concerns; at that level, paying a small fee for live phone support may be worth it.
- Buy stocks you want on M1 Finance in small fractional amounts (e.g., $20 of Amazon instead of the full share price) to build a diversified portfolio with limited money.
- Hold investments for over a year to qualify for long-term capital gains tax treatment instead of ordinary income.
- Don't buy and sell individual stocks at Fidelity; use Robinhood, M1 Finance, or Webull for free trading instead.
- For Acorns, the $1/month basic fee is costly on a few hundred dollars; it becomes roughly on par with Vanguard above $5,000 invested.
- Set up automatic monthly investments into free index funds at Fidelity, or a Roth IRA, if you have the discipline to do so.
- Acorns pricing: $1/month for automated investing, $2/month adds an IRA, $3/month adds checking and a debit card.
- Robinhood Gold costs $5/month for margin trading; Robinhood earns revenue from cash-deposit interest and, per Stephan, from selling user data.
- Stephan frames his views as opinion for entertainment only, not financial advice.
Bottom Line
The best app depends on your goal: Robinhood or Webull for free trading, M1 Finance for fractional and long-term portfolios, Acorns for automated small investments, and Fidelity for the lowest-cost index fund investing if you're disciplined.
