Top Broker With Strong In-Person Support

No brokerage is perfect for everyone, but every brokerage tailors its offerings to a certain type of customer. Merrill Edge® Self-Directed stands out from the pack with several main features:

$0 trades

Merrill Edge® Self-Directed, like all of the best stock brokers, now offers commission-free trading for online stock, ETF, and options trades. Note, an options contract fee of $0.65 per contract does apply.

Fee-free debit card and bill pay

Being able to access your account balance at any Bank of America ATM without paying a debit or ATM fee is a major advantage for those who live near a Bank of America branch. Likewise, free bill pay makes it easy to pay bills straight from your account balance.

Account types

Merrill Edge® Self-Directed offers a wide array of taxable brokerage, retirement, small business, and children’s investment accounts.

Investment vehicles

The best stock brokers give investors access to a deep bench of investment vehicles. Merrill Edge® Self-Directed is no different, and offers investment vehicles, including stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, CDs, and bonds.

National branch access

Many Bank of America financial centers (i.e., branches) have Merrill Edge® Self-Directed advisors available during normal banking hours to help you with your account. If being able to speak to someone in person is valuable to you, this can be a major selling point on its own.

Preferred Rewards program

Merrill Edge® Self-Directed is owned by Bank of America, which has the gold standard for banking loyalty programs. Bank of America Preferred Rewards members can secure rate and fee discounts for most of the bank’s products, plus bonus credit card rewards. We review further below the Preferred Rewards program in more detail.