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I have an account with TD Ameritrade and think for MF investors it is not a good choice.
1. For NTF funds it requires holding for 6 months to avoid fee. 2. For transaction fee funds you pay $50 twice when you buy and when you sell the fund. 3. Research information for MF is much worse comparing with Fidelity and Schwab. 4. You never know whether a load is waived for MF until you enter transaction. 5. Portfolio analysis is really bad. 6. The choice of NTF ETF is very limited.
I am thinking about moving to another brokerage but have not decided yet which one.
I agree that TDA is not the best for MF investors, but it doesn't seemall that bad, and has gotten much better in recent years. Further, different types of accounts have different rules.
1. 90 days to avoid brokerage short term redemption fee - not quite as short as the 60 days some others offer, but close enough.
2. $25/trade on TF (thus $50 round trip or exchange) - in line with other brokerages
3. Since the information on most sites comes from M*, I'm not sure how the info varies from one broker to another. Finding that information (attributes/quality of screener) may be something else. Any specific deficiency?
5. I agree that portfolio analysis is a nice feature; I just use M*. Fidelity's does not seem to allow you to enter any holdings outside of the brokerage (unless you use their Yodlee software; but even giving it external passwords it cannot access all accounts). Don't know about TDA's portfolio analyzer.
The number of NTF ETFs at TDA is in the same ballpark as E*Trade and Fidelity (right in the middle), and TDA offers more families than either. Notably, Vanguard. A gotcha w/TDA that I fortunately found out about before trading is that you have to register for the NTF ETF feature.
@msf In case of OSMAX the fund can be bought without load at TDA, but the summary page does not say it is no load fund or the load is waived, that is confusing. Your HCA account has much better fee schedule than regular accounts at TDA. But it is not for everyone and probably has some limitations on what you can buy.
Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund Class A OSMAX OppenheimerFunds | Foreign Small/Mid Growth
The HSA account is a full TDA brokerage account. The only restriction is that money only moves in and out through the associated bank's or CU's HSA account (one cannot fund it directly).
I agree that the TDA vanilla account's $50 fee make TF funds unattractive. A $50 fee works at Fidelity because there selling is free and one can add to positions for $5 (unlike Schwab where selling is also free but there's no cheap way to add to a position).
That's why I prefer Fidelity for TF funds (unless they're available NTF elsewhere).
I recently switched part of my portfolio (ira) back to Fidelity from ML. All of my funds can transfer except for one, and I can keep the "I" or "A" shares I own, just cannot add to them Will have to buy the load waived A shares if I want to add. I have OSMYX, and if I want to add, I just have to buy the load waived A shares OSMAX. Not bad. Keeping the original shares keeps my expense ratio down with no 12b1 fees. All of the funds that I had the A shares or I shares of are load waived and ntf. I did not pay loads at ML, but choices were more limited in funds. I switched mainly because I have access to more funds and better research on stocks. Still have a good chunk at ML, but will see how this works out.
One thing that Fido has that I like very much is fairly extensive research and analyst opinions on etfs, as I have ventured more into etfs in recent years. Nice bonus.
I had not looked closely at Fidelity's (or anyone else's) ETF research for a couple of admittedly biased reasons: I don't invest too much in ETFs (though I do on occasion), and I feel most research (especially on ETFs and index funds) just throws out data which I could look up on my own.
Given that, I have to say I'm impressed with what Fidelity offers (with login, i.e. account). It provides the full M* report, which I especially like because it discusses the index construction and how that affects the nature of the portfolio. The ETF.com report (also requiring login) takes a similar approach. However, the ETF.com analysis is already available for free on their site (and is a day more current). I'm less impressed with the other research.
FWIW (keep in mind that I don't look too much at ETFs), one benchmark I use is how well these reports differentiate VIG from VYM. (The answer, IMHO, is given by M* and ETF.com - the former by focusing on dividend growth is drawn to high quality stocks; the latter by focusing on dividend quantity is drawn to high yielding value stocks. Two different pools, though they often have a lot of overlap.)
Comments
1. For NTF funds it requires holding for 6 months to avoid fee.
2. For transaction fee funds you pay $50 twice when you buy and when you sell the fund.
3. Research information for MF is much worse comparing with Fidelity and Schwab.
4. You never know whether a load is waived for MF until you enter transaction.
5. Portfolio analysis is really bad.
6. The choice of NTF ETF is very limited.
I am thinking about moving to another brokerage but have not decided yet which one.
I have a TDA account for my HSA. Note that different banks/CUs have different account agreements with TDA, so YMMV, but here's mine:
http://www.tdameritraderetirement.com/forms/ACS1009.pdf
For my TDA account:
1. 90 days to avoid brokerage short term redemption fee - not quite as short as the 60 days some others offer, but close enough.
2. $25/trade on TF (thus $50 round trip or exchange) - in line with other brokerages
3. Since the information on most sites comes from M*, I'm not sure how the info varies from one broker to another. Finding that information (attributes/quality of screener) may be something else. Any specific deficiency?
4. Not sure what the problem is. For example, I look up OSMAX, and right on its summary page it says NTF (for normally front end loaded A shares):
https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/public/mutualfunds/profile/profile.asp?symbol=OSMAX
In contrast, American Funds EuroPacific Growth A shows a load
https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/public/mutualfunds/profile/feesandmanagementBuffer.asp?symbol=AEPGX
5. I agree that portfolio analysis is a nice feature; I just use M*. Fidelity's does not seem to allow you to enter any holdings outside of the brokerage (unless you use their Yodlee software; but even giving it external passwords it cannot access all accounts). Don't know about TDA's portfolio analyzer.
6. Here's Schwab's page summarizing some competitors:
http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/investment/etfs/schwab_etf_onesource
The number of NTF ETFs at TDA is in the same ballpark as E*Trade and Fidelity (right in the middle), and TDA offers more families than either. Notably, Vanguard. A gotcha w/TDA that I fortunately found out about before trading is that you have to register for the NTF ETF feature.
Your HCA account has much better fee schedule than regular accounts at TDA. But it is not for everyone and probably has some limitations on what you can buy.
Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund
Class A OSMAX
OppenheimerFunds | Foreign Small/Mid Growth
The HSA account is a full TDA brokerage account. The only restriction is that money only moves in and out through the associated bank's or CU's HSA account (one cannot fund it directly).
I agree that the TDA vanilla account's $50 fee make TF funds unattractive. A $50 fee works at Fidelity because there selling is free and one can add to positions for $5 (unlike Schwab where selling is also free but there's no cheap way to add to a position).
That's why I prefer Fidelity for TF funds (unless they're available NTF elsewhere).
One thing that Fido has that I like very much is fairly extensive research and analyst opinions on etfs, as I have ventured more into etfs in recent years. Nice bonus.
Given that, I have to say I'm impressed with what Fidelity offers (with login, i.e. account). It provides the full M* report, which I especially like because it discusses the index construction and how that affects the nature of the portfolio. The ETF.com report (also requiring login) takes a similar approach. However, the ETF.com analysis is already available for free on their site (and is a day more current). I'm less impressed with the other research.
FWIW (keep in mind that I don't look too much at ETFs), one benchmark I use is how well these reports differentiate VIG from VYM. (The answer, IMHO, is given by M* and ETF.com - the former by focusing on dividend growth is drawn to high quality stocks; the latter by focusing on dividend quantity is drawn to high yielding value stocks. Two different pools, though they often have a lot of overlap.)