SoFi Invest Review: Invest In Stocks, ETFs, Crypto, And IPOs (2024)

In the world of stock trading, low-cost brokerages have really become a thing of the past. No-cost brokerages. like SoFi Invest, have become the new standard.

With zero fees on stock and ETF trades, you can’t get a trading platform that’s much cheaper than SoFi Active Investing. But should you use it?

We’ll explain the pros and cons of using the SoFi Active Investing platform. See how it compares to the best online stock brokers.

SoFi Active Investing allows users to buy and sell stocks, options, and ETFs commission-free. As its name implies, it's targeted at active investors who want to pick and choose individual securities. If you prefer a passive investing approach using a portfolio of index funds, you may want to check out our SoFi Automated Investing review instead.

SoFi Investing offers both taxable accounts and IRAs (Roth, Traditional, and SEP). You can contribution to an IRA up to the IRA contribution limits.

In addition to providing comission-free brokerage services, SoFi offers some limited investing features. For example, you can read explainers on how stocks work, and you can start a watch list of your favorite stocks.

SoFi has created a network where membership has a lot of value. Members can attend local meetups (usually in major metro areas across the U.S.) or get advice from career coaches.

You can also receive a 0.125% rate discount on a SoFi personal or student loan or $500 off the Home Loan Processing Fee on your first SoFi mortgage.

One of SoFi's most compelling offer is the ability to buy fractional shares. This is great when you are starting out and don't have a lot of money.

SoFi supports fractional share investing for over 4,000 stocks and ETFs. You can invest as little as $5 in any of these securities.

Options Trading

SoFi currently supports level 2 options trading execution - which means that you can buy calls and puts, and sell to close positions.

Level 1 capabilities, such as selling covered calls and cash secured puts, should be available in the near future.

Related:See our Options Trading 101 Guide

A big reason to consider active trading is to buy options to hedge against losses in your main portfolio. But SoFi doesn’t allow account holders to trade options.

If trading options is important to you, check out our list of the best places to trade options. They also don't allow you to invest in mutual funds. You have to stick to stocks, ETFs, of cryptocurrency.

Member can visit the "IPO Investing" page to see an up-to-date list of IPO offerings. Note that SoFi will only allow you to invest in one IPO at a time. To invest in one, you'll need to enter your indication of interest, which tells SoFi how many shares/units you’re interested in purchasing.

When it’s time to confirm your buy order, you'll receive an alert from SoFi to let you know. SoFi says that you'll only have a short period of time to confirm.

Note that IPO investing is more risky than investing in companies that have a track record on the stock market. Share prices for IPOs are notorious for being extremely volatile during their first year after going public. To limit your risk, consider only investing a small percentage of your total assets in IPOs.

As previously mentioned, SoFi doesn't charge any fees on stock and ETF trades. And since it doesn't offer mutual funds or options, you won't have to worry about paying fund transaction fees or option per-contract fees.

There are fees, however, for crypto trades. Currently, SoFi charges a markup of up to 1.25% on both buy and sell orders.

There aren't any monthly account fees or inactivity fees either. But if you decide to transfer your account to another broker, SoFi will charge you a $75 ACAT fee.

It only takes a couple of minutes to open an Active Investing account with SoFi Invest. You'll begin by visiting the SoFi Invest page and clicking the "Invest Now" button.

You'll be asked a few questions about your risk tolerance and investing experience. Should you later decide to participate in Automated Investing as well, your answers to these questions will help SoFi to choose the appropriate robo-advisor portfolio for your needs.

Finally, you'll need to link a bank so that you can add funds to your brokerage account. Once your first transfer arrives, you can begin trading stocks and ETFs commission-free!

Right now, Fidelity, Vanguard, and TD Ameritrade are still the leaders of the pack when it comes to free brokerage accounts. Each platform supports a wide variety of investment types and offer robo-advisor portfolios as well.

However, none of those top platforms support crypto trading or IPO investing. And of those three brokers, only Fidelity supports fractional shares.

If you’re interested in any of those features, SoFi may be the route to choose. Just be careful when you start an active trading journey. It's easy to lose money by allowing your emotions to dictate what you’ll buy and sell.

Try SoFi Active Investing here >>