One thing I've noticed is that during certain periods of time such as March 2020 when the market was tanking, the Gamestop pumping time and sometimes during the start of the market session eTrade has been slow or sluggish where the interface loads very slow. I've checked with Vanguards website and noticed something simlilar as well. I've been pretty happy with eTrade except for this issue and the pay for order flow. It has lots of features and information that some others don't. Fidelity and Vanguard brokerages don't pay for order flow. Vanguard is fine for buying ETFs but is a bit skimpy on features. I guess I'm leaning towards Fidelity now and am wondering if anyone has had any experience using them regularly and whether it gets slow like some of the others. I'm not looking for a day trading platform but when the market tanks I sometimes like to place some orders for buy and hold and would like the interface to work. Has anyone had good experiences with Fidelity in this regard?
There has never been a broker with 100% uptime. For 99% of you there is no difference in what broker you choose unless you are scalping 1c moves and need absolute speed and direct access to the order book. Fidelity, Etrade, TOS are all fine.
Agreed. However, the better brokers have telephones that are staffed with real people that can "broker assist" in those panic times. If a broker has only a email for customer service that could be a issue. There is not a broker in the business that can guarantee 100% uptime.
I trade at IBKR and there were no issues during the GameStop debacle. I was locked out of my investing account at Vanguard for a few hours on one of those days. And as gtrudeau88 said, TD was dog slow.
