How To Set Up Automatic Investments on Fidelity (Updated 2023) (2024)

Short answer: Yes, you can auto invest with Fidelity. Follow the tutorial below to learn how to set up automatic investments in your Fidelity account.

How does Fidelity’s automatic investing work?

Instead of calling it auto invest, Fidelity coined the term “scheduled transfers,” allowing customers to set up and manage their automatic investments and recurring transactions.

The automatic investments feature on Fidelity will let you use your cash to regularly purchase more of the existing mutual funds in your brokerage account. It also works on your retirement account (IRA, 401k, etc.) and even for Health savings accounts (HSA).

How To Set Up Automatic Investments With Fidelity

1. Click here to visit Fidelity’s Scheduled Transfers page.

2. Click on Set up an automatic investment.

3. Choose from your list of Fidelity accounts (if you have more than one).

4. Choose where you want to get your funding from. You can pick from your current core position or from an external bank account.

5. Select Continue.

Follow the on-screen instructions to pick your preferred amount, frequency of the automatic investments, stop date, and submit it.

You can only auto-invest in mutual funds. Fidelity’s automatic transactions do not work with stocks or ETFs. If your brokerage account doesn’t hold any mutual funds at the moment, be sure to make a purchase before you enroll in the auto investment program.

💬 Community Discussion

Tim R:

You won’t be able to auto invest in stocks or ETFs because of the intraday trading. Mutual funds trade once a day so it makes more sense.

Brian E:

I changed the day of my automatic investment on Fidelity from Friday to Monday since Mondays tend to be the red days.

Nitin S:

I called Fidelity and asked them to set up an auto invest option for my ETFs, such as SPY and got a “NO’. So to make my investing automated, I will have to switch to equivalent mutual funds, which might be less tax efficient.

We are creatures of habits and inherently lazy, so I want to automate my decisions as much as possible but still want to keep ETF options open. I prefer ETFs over mutual funds.

Mike S:

Another option is to set up “baskets,” which function similarly to an ETF. You can select the stocks you want and their weighted percentages and then invest a lump sum of money. The basket will then take care of buying shares in accordance with your chosen percentages.