Ally Invest Review 2023: Pros, Cons & Features

Ally Invest offers a myriad of investing options, from more active trading to handing your cash off to their robo-advisor. It prides itself on offering low to no fees, commission-free ETFs, and robust trading tools. 

With their Robo Portfolios offering (that’s Ally Invest’s robo-advisor product), it’s a great overall company to invest with.

What Is Ally Invest and How Does it Work?

Ally Invest is the brokerage arm of Ally Bank and stands out in its offerings due to its low investing minimum amounts, low fees, and a decent trading platform. This brokerage offers something for most investors, whether you’re looking to DIY your investment strategy or use Ally’s robo-advisor offering.

Most stocks and ETFs have no commission fees, and options trades are $0.50 per contract. When opening an account, you’ll find that even if there is a minimum opening balance, it’s much lower compared to other brokerages — their robo-advisor, for instance, only requires $100 to get started.

More advanced traders will be able to log into their accounts and use tools many other brokerages offer, but you’ll find there are specialized options analysis tools.

Ally Invest

Best for Engaged Traders

3.5 out of 5 Overall

Key Features

• No commissions for self-directed trading
• Robo Portfolio option with no advisory fees
• Transfer cash between Ally Bank and Ally Invest

GET DETAILS

Ally Invest offers a DIY option where you select your own securities for your portfolio, including ETFs, mutual funds, Forex, stocks, bonds, and options. Their robo-advisor option manages your portfolio based on your investment goals, such as your risk tolerance. The brokerage also offers other features such as commission-free ETFs, and a robust platform for traders.

Ally Invest

Minimum opening deposit

$0

Fees

None (though some securities charge commissions)

Accounts offered

Four taxable options, and six IRAs

Prime perk

Variety of research tools

Features of Ally Invest

Ally Invest has a number of features that make it attractive to those who want to tackle DIY strategies but also for customers looking for hands-off robo-advisors. The following information about the features provides more details.

Types of Accounts

Ally Invest offers a slew of accounts. For taxable accounts, options include individual and joint, as well as custodial and trust taxable accounts. Ally Invest also offers six different types of IRAs, including traditional and Roth accounts.

Research Tools

There are plenty of tools for traders who are looking for more advanced research tools. Ally Invest offers some that are pretty robust, especially for a discount brokerage. 

If you’re a technical trader, you can use tools such as a profit and loss calculator and probability calculator. There’s also the Maxit Tax Manager, where you can look at what the potential tax implications are if you make a certain trading decision. Plus it helps you create tax forms on demand.

Even if you’re not that far yet into your investing journey, Ally Invest has an ETF screener which can make it easier for you to find one that’ll fit your investing goals. 

As for real-time live streaming quotes, all Ally Iinvest customers get it for free with the Ally Invest LIVE feature, but Level II advanced quotes from Quotestream are only available to those who conducted more than 10 monthly trades. 

Live Trading Platform

Investors can take advantage of Ally Invest’s browser-based live trading platform. Features include broker tools, customizable dashboard, quick trading capabilities, and real-time streaming quotes. For those who trade at home or on the go can use this platform without needing to download any programs. 

Traders can also use Ally Invest’s mobile apps — Ally Forex which is only for Forex trading or Ally Mobile, for all other types of available trades.

Ally Invest App

Investors won’t have a dedicated app unlike many of its competitors. However, customers have access to the Ally Mobile app in which they can access all of their accounts in one place, including your checking, savings, and credit card accounts.

That means in addition to managing investment accounts, customers can pay bills, deposit checks and conduct other types of banking activities.

As far as investing goes, users can manage their portfolio by performing technical analysis with charting tools, trade stocks, and access market news. Keep in mind though, that the app isn’t as robust as the desktop trading platform.

For those who trade currency, there is Ally Forex, a dedicated app that lets you access weekly reports, chart market trends, enter multiple order types and more. One unique feature of Ally Forex is the option to open a practice account for those who want a bit of experience before venturing into forex by themselves.

Commissions and Fees

Ally Invest doesn’t charge any advisory fees for their cash-enhanced Robo Portfolios, and plenty of commission-free ETF, options, and US stocks.

Ally Invest does charge an advisory fee, however, for their market-focused Robo Portfolio, which holds much less cash as a buffer — 2% of your account value as opposed to 30%. The other fees are competitive, at $0.50 per options contract and $9.95 per transaction for no-load mutual funds. There is also a $1 fee per bond, and a $4.95 fee for stocks priced less than $2.00, plus $0.01 per share bought.

Lastly, Even though it’s lower compared to competitors, you’ll be charged a $50 fee for a full or partial transfer, and a $25 closing fee for closing any IRA, such as by fully transferring it to another firm.

Account Minimum

There is a $0 minimum to open an Ally Invest account and a $100 minimum for Ally’s Robo Portfolios. If you choose to open an Ally Invest Margin account, the minimum is $2,000.

Securities Offerings

Ally Invest offers many securities, including:

• Stocks
• Bonds
• Options
• ETFs
• Mutual funds
• Forex
• Penny stocks

All types of investors will find something that suits their trading goals, whether it’s investing in more passive ETFs, hands-off with a robo-advisor, or more active reading with penny stocks.

Robo Portfolios

Robo Portfolios (formerly called Managed Portfolios) is Ally Invest’s robo-advisor offering. While the portfolio management process is automated, the brokers use human investing experts to create their managed portfolios. Like other robo-advisors, you won’t be able to access a human advisor.

Unlike their self-directed trading where you decide how to allocate your portfolio among various securities offerings, Ally Invest’s Robo Portfolios helps you invest based on goals. As in, they’re specifically designed to be geared towards the reasons you want to invest.

Investors can choose from four types of portfolios:

• Core: This option divides your money across a diversified mix of US, international, and fixed-income assets. Those who have the Core portfolio are probably those who want to be hands-off. Managed Portfolios will tailor your portfolio based on your risk tolerance.
• Income: These portfolios are for those who want to receive higher dividend yield and a lower risk profile at the same time.
• Tax optimized: You’ll be able to be as tax efficient as possible with this portfolio option. Ally Invest invests in low-cost ETFs.
• Socially Responsible: Those interested in putting their money towards that do good will be happy to know these types of portfolios focus on companies that are ESG-friendly. In other words, these companies encompass values that promote environmentally friendliness, sustainability, and energy efficiency.

Customer Support

Ally Invest offers some of the best customer service, with 24/7 access via phone, email, and live chat.

Is Ally Invest Right for You?

Ally Invest offers low pricing, a useful trading platform and tools for novice and advanced traders alike. It’s a great fit for those who don’t have a lot of money to invest — $100 for their Robo Portfolios is one of the lowest minimum requirements we’ve seen. More active investors will love the commission-free trades and low options contract fee.

One big downside is you won’t find tax loss harvesting with Ally Invest’s Robo Portfolios, a major downside if you want to ensure your investments are tax-optimized automatically, However, Ally Invest offers a tax optimized option, which invests in asset classes such as municipal bonds and low-cost ETFs which offer tax advantages. So if you’re investing in other types of managed portfolios, you’re out of luck.

Still, Ally Invest has something for almost everyone. Those looking to invest with a robo-advisor will find the brokerage’s no-frills features appealing, and active traders will appreciate the various research tools. However, if you want futures and fractional shares, you won’t find that here.

Pros and Cons of Ally Invest

Ally Invest may be a good fit depending on what features are important to you. These pros and cons should help you decide.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Ally Invest

We’ve rounded up the answers to several common questions about Ally Invest.

Contributor Sarah Li-Cain is a personal finance writer based in Jacksonville, Florida, specializing in real estate, insurance, banking, loans and credit. She is the host of the Buzzsprout and Beyond the Dollar podcasts. Contributor Dennis Lynch contributed to this report.