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Oct 4, 2024 · Merrill Lynch and Vanguard are both highly reputable and recommended. However, each firm’s services, platforms and features make it better suited to specific types of investors with varying needs and financial goals.
Jul 4, 2024 · Merrill Lynch and Vanguard are two very different brokerage firms. With distinctive commission schedules and range of offerings, they have unique strong and weak points. Let's take an in-depth look at these two firms and see if one can be considered the better broker.
- Overview
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Usability
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Trade Experience
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Range of Offerings
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Order Types
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Trading Technology
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Costs
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Account and Research Amenities
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Portfolio Analysis
- Merrill Edge vs. Vanguard: Education
Both Merrill Edge and Vanguard are full-service brokers that have been around for some time. Vanguard, founded in 1983, has successfully built a reputation serving buy-and-hold investors with a passive and long-term philosophy. It has since become synonymous with low-cost investment. Vanguard continues to deepen its asset pools by expanding its off...
Merrill Edge and Vanguard are vastly different when it comes to the look, feel, and functionality of their platforms. Getting started with Merrill is quick and simple, especially if you’re a Bank of America customer. On the other hand, the onboarding process with Vanguard is rather lengthy. You will be able to initiate opening an account online, bu...
Desktop Trade Experience
Similar to the platform itself, the Vanguard trading experience has improved but is not aimed at serving the needs of more active traders. All pages that involve trading utilize real-time quotes, as do its security profile and research pages. However, market and security information on the website display delayed quotes. Rather than auto-refreshing, the quotes update as you move through a trade flow, which may take several clicks before placing a trade order. Overall, the trading experience i...
Desktop Trade Experience Verdict: Merrill Edge
Both Vanguard and Merrill have trading experiences that align with new investors' needs, but we think Merrill has an advantage over Vanguard in this category because it has the capabilities to serve a crowd that's more diverse than just buy-and-hold investors.
Mobile Experience
When it comes to mobile trading, there is a similar gap between the types of investors Vanguard and Merrill are looking to serve. As with its website, quotes in the Vanguard app for stocks and ETFs show a delayed price until you get to order entry. The Vanguard app does allow you to customize your feed, which displays account information, news, blogs, transaction history, and performance, among other information. No other data, such as the day's change or volume, is displayed in the mobile vi...
Both Vanguard and Merrill Edge have a similar range of offerings. Most investors will find what they need among the stocks, bonds, and funds, but traders and more sophisticated investors will find the overall selection of both brokers limited, with no futures, cryptocurrencies, and so on.
Vanguard’s ethos centers on a long-term investing philosophy, so the broker’s range of order typesis limited to those best suited for buy-and-hold investors. The only order types you can place are market, limit, and stop-limit orders. Similarly, Merrill Edge supports basic order types, including market, limit, stop limit, and trailing stop orders a...
Vanguard's order routing technology is basic, just like its trading platform. It does not have smart order routing technology, you cannot backtest or automate a trading strategy, and you cannot route your own orders. The broker reports price improvement on stock orders of $1.70 for a 100-share order compared to the National Best Bid and Offer in 20...
Like many brokers, both Merrill Edge and Vanguard charge no commissions on stock and ETF trades. Additionally, there are also no per-leg commission options trades. Per-contract commissions are $0.65 at Merrill and $1 at Vanguard.This means an order for 50 options contracts is $50 at Vanguard, while the same order is $32.50 at Merrill Edge. The abov...
Although Vanguard is a large broker, it has more limited research and account amenities than one would expect from a large broker. This is because Vanguard was built for the buy-and-hold investor. Both brokers offer a dividend-reinvestment plan (DRIP) program, and here Merrill Edge uses fractional shares but not elsewhere. In contrast, Merrill Edge...
Similar to its account and research amenities, Merrill’s portfolio analysis capabilities are exceptional. Merrill’s Portfolio Story is a proprietary tool that shows a complete breakdown of your portfolio, not only by sectors and holdings but also by performance, analyst ratings, and MSCI ESG scores. It's a valuable piece of portfolio analysis techn...
Both Vanguard and Merrill Edge provide educational resources for their customers. The focus of Vanguard's content is on helping you set financial goals and create a plan of action on how to reach them. In addition to blogs, articles, webcasts, and other educational resources, Vanguard also offers life-stage planning tools that are useful for do-it-...
- Samuel Deane
Sep 6, 2024 · Vanguard vs. Merrill Edge: The bottom line. If you want to invest in a wide range of low-cost U.S. and international stock and bond index funds and ETFs, Vanguard might just win your heart.
Learn what mutual funds are, their potential benefits, how they work, and how to choose the right type of mutual fund to align with your financial goals.
- Mutual funds use money from investors to purchase stocks, bonds and other assets. You can think of them as ready-made portfolios, and with their di...
- Mutual funds can offer investorsProfessionally managed assetsPotential portfolio diversificationLow minimum purchase requirements (in general)More...
- Equity FundsMoney Market FundsTarget Date FundsBalanced FundsIndex Funds
- Perhaps the most important distinction between mutual funds and ETFs comes from the way they're managed. While mutual funds can either be actively...
- Mutual funds and ETFs both charge an expense ratio, an annual fee that covers the funds management, administrative costs and marketing expenses. Wi...
- Trading costs indirectly affect shareholders of mutual funds, particularly in actively managed funds that buy and sell holdings frequently to try t...
- For mutual funds, it is the price-pershare. It is calculated by subtracting the fund's liabilities from its assets, and then dividing the result by...
- The minimum initial investment is the smallest amount that may be initially invested in a mutual fund. This amount varies from fund to fund. Note t...
Aug 13, 2021 · Merrill Edge is best for dedicated Bank of America customers with a strong relationship across its investment and banking products, as there are valuable loyalty rewards available through the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program to customers with combined account balances of at least $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000.
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Oct 12, 2018 · Updated October 12, 2018. Whether you’re a seasoned investor, a newbie, or someone retesting the waters after a scary loss, financial-services companies want your business. But aside from potential...
