Capital One Investing Broker Review 2018

Capital One Investing is part of Capital One, a Fortune 500 company that offers a plethora of financial products and services. The Capital One Investing side of it is directed towards servicing clients looking to invest in the markets via an online platform that offers stocks, options, mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs).

They have very reasonable commission and fees and offer an automatic investment plan that is catered to each individual based on their investment goals and financial needs. They have knowledgeable staff that was courteous and professional and reasonable wait times, if any. You can reach customer service through chat, email or phone and after testing all of them I can say that it was a pleasant experience.

One thing that stood out to me when first visiting their website is how easy it was to navigate and the overall simplicity of it. Everything is right there in front of you and they did a good job of making sure to keep the financial jargon is to a minimum so it’s easy to understand for everyone. They have three main ways of investing based on your abilities.

You can either choose to manage your own portfolio, invest with some help or have an advisor guide you. With the “invest with some help” selection  you can use their PortfolioBuilder that will guide you into choosing 6-8 ETF’s that best suit your financial needs and goals and then you can purchase them all at once for just $18.95. This is also a great way learn about portfolio structure and how you should allocate your assets in a meaningful way.

Commission & Fees

Capital One Investing has a great commission schedule with a flat rate of $6.95 for stocks. For options you will pay the base rate of $6.95 plus $0.75 per contract and broker assisted trades are only $19.95.

They offer a plethora of Mutual Funds from Vanguard, Fidelity and many more with most transactions free of charge and the others costing $19.95. You can get more info on their pricing model here.  These commission prices are on the cheaper side compared to how big the company is and what they have to offer.

Their is also no account minimum so you can open an account and check out their services without contributing any capital.

Trading Platform & Tools

This where Capital One Investing lacks. They don’t have a trading platform like most brokers offer but instead have just a web-based trading page that allows you to enter orders and view order statuses.

With a lack of a powerful trading platform I can’t recommend this for active traders as this broker is more suited for the casual investor looking to grow a portfolio and learn the markets with a longer-term view in mind. Most of their tools are also focused on long term financial goals with their Portfolio Builder, ShareBuilder Investment Plan and Retire MyWay.

With the ShareBuilder Investment Plan you select a stock you want to hold and set a time and amount of money you want to invest into the stock each month for a $3.95 reduced commission rate.

The purpose of doing this is to reduce your cost basis over the long run as you add to your position whether its going up or going down so that by the time you are ready to cash out you will have a larger position at hopefully a better price. The Retire MyWay tool is a simple tool that calculates how much money you will need to pay yourself each month when you retire. This can be helpful in planning your retirement so you know where you need to be when do decide to retire.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Capital One Investing is a solid broker with competitive commission rates but I don’t see this being an active traders home. They don’t have the advanced trading platform or charting software that is vital for an active trader’s success. You need the direct market access and preferably hotkey capabilities which are both not available at Capital One Investing.

However, if you are a casual investor or someone looking to learn the markets then this could be a great broker to check out. They have great commission rates, professional customer service and an easy to use website that is clean and user friendly.

As always, if you have any questions or comments regarding Capital One Investments, please leave us a message below!