Webull Broker Review - U.S News & World Report Money
This relatively new brokerage offers free trading of all accessible assets, including options. There's a solid screening and trading platform, and it's the only brokerage firm U.S. News has covered that has no per-contract fees on options trades. The platform's options trading service is quite comprehensive, with an array of available strategies.
Still, there are many assets missing here, such as mutual funds, bonds and foreign exchange trading. Investors looking for financial advisors, managed portfolios or robo-advisors will need to look elsewhere, and the company's customer service track record could be better.
In just a few years, Webull has taken the brokerage industry by storm. Founded in 2017, the fintech company launched an investment platform for self-directed investors in stocks, exchange-traded funds, cryptocurrency and options. Free trading for all assets is a game-changer, as most competitors charge to trade options. With research, screening and investing tools, users can trade financial assets quickly, with no commissions. There are no investment minimums, and new investors receive free stock upon funding an account. Recently updated to Webull 8.0, the app is appropriate for both new investors and more experienced traders seeking an advanced trading platform.
- New investors seeking detailed educational resources.
- Those seeking free options trading with no commissions or per-contract fees.
- Stock and ETF investors who want a good screening and trading platform.
- Active day traders with $25,000 or more in their account.
Webull is owned by Fumi Technology, with headquarters in New York City and a tech team in Hunan, China. The company was founded by Wang Anquan, a Chinese executive with stints at Alibaba and Xiaomi on his resume. Anthony Denier has been the Webull CEO since July 2017.
Webull's mission is to make trading easy while providing advanced features such as analyst ratings, customizable charts, screening and technical stock analysis tools. Webull makes money through paid subscriptions for market data, payment-for-order-flow (PFOF), as well as fees on certain trading types, including margin accounts and shorts.
Pros
Zero commissions, sound educational offerings and a competitive trading platform make Webull a contender in the investment app sphere.
Free stock when you open and fund an account.
Zero commissions for stock, options and ETF trading.
No per-contract fee for options trades.
Paper trading feature lets users try trading strategies without using real money.
Extended-hours trading.
Updated Webull 8.0 trading platform for asset research, screening and analysis.
Free real-time streaming quotes.
Cons
As is consistent with smaller investment brokerage apps, the available assets are limited.
No access to bonds, mutual funds, cryptocurrency or foreign exchange.
Only accounts worth $25,000 or more have access to unlimited day trading.
No managed accounts.
Educational offerings are minimal.
Webull doesn't charge trading commissions or fees to open or maintain an account. Users can trade stocks, ETFs, and options and fee-free.
Webull is also the only brokerage firm covered by U.S. News that doesn't charge per-contract fees for options trades.
That doesn't mean customers don't pay any fees. Fees charged by other entities are passed on to customers. These are the common charges levied upon all investment brokerages by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). These fees are typically quite small.
Margin interest rates start at 9.74% for accounts valued at up to $25,000 and bottom out at 5.74% for margin accounts valued at more than $3 million. The rates are tiered between those amounts. These rates are in the mid-to-low range of investment firms, especially considering the recent interest rate increases.
Other Fees
Most exchange-traded funds levy small management fees that go directly to the fund management company. Wherever you invest, you'll pay these fees.
There's a $75 fee for transferring either the full or partial account value to another brokerage firm. The additional fees relate to services such as wire transfers and other infrequent activities.
| Commission Cost (standard stock/ETF trades, online only) | Broker-Assisted or Phone Trade cost | Account Minimum (to open) | Annual Account Fee | Account Transfer Fee (partial) | Full Account Transfer/Closure fee | Cash Reserve Yield | Insufficient Funds/Return Check Fee |
| $0 | N/A | $0 | $0 | $75 | $75 | N/A | $5 |
Webull, similar to other small investment brokerage apps, offers a limited set of available assets, but most beginning or intermediate investors will find what they need. Investors seeking mutual funds and bonds should look elsewhere. Paper trading is useful for those just starting their investing journey.
Available assets include:
- U.S.-listed and over-the-counter stocks.
- ETFs.
- Options.
- Futures.
Investment Assets
Stocks
- Stocks available from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and NYSE American.
- Free stock for opening and funding an account and for referring friends.
- Extended-hours trading is available. Premarket, 4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.; regular, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; post-market, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST.
- Customizable screener for stock selection.
- Most penny stocks are unavailable. For those accessible on the platform, there are minimum trading quantities.
- Unlimited day trading available for accounts with $25,000 or more. Lower-value accounts incur limits on the number of daily trades.
ETFs
- Publicly traded ETFs are available from a variety of providers, giving investors access to bonds, stocks and other assets.
- Extended-hours trading is available, similar to stocks.
- ETF screener available.
Options
A standout Webull feature is fee-free options trading with zero per-contract charges. Webull 8.0 recently added options features including a "top options" list. Educational courses in options trading are also available for new options investors and those looking to level up their skills.
- Single and multi-leg options available.
- Options screeners.
- Zero commissions, contract fees or assignment/exercise fees.
- Complimentary Options Price Reporting Authority real-time quotes for options traders who trade at least once every 30 days.
- Most options strategies are available, including covered stock, butterfly, collar, vertical, strangle, condor, iron butterfly and iron condor.
Services
Webull offers a few add-ons, comparable with competing investment apps. Unlike larger brokerage firms, the company doesn't provide financial advisors or managed portfolios, but does have Smart Advisor, its robo-advisor service.
Level 2: Advance
Webull offers a free one-month subscription to Level 2 Advance, a premium data feed offered by Nasdaq TotalView. The data reveals the best 30 levels of bid and ask quotes for Nasdaq and NYSE stocks on the Nasdaq Market Center.
Stock Lending Income Program
The Stock Lending Income Program enables users to earn income on owned stocks by allowing Webull to borrow stocks. While shares are on loan, users receive interest payments, which vary with market rates.
OPRA Real Time Market Quotes
After completing a questionnaire, free OPRA real-time market quotes are available to those with a funded account who are approved for options trading. The Options Price Reporting Authority LLC (OPRA) provides last-sale reports, quotes and other information for U.S. options.
Webull shines with its collection of resources and videos that address potential user questions. But on occasion, you'll need help that's not available on the website. Webull provides a phone number for customer service.
The company encourages customers to access website information and tutorials for help, or they can email or seek 24/7 in-app assistance from the Help Center.
The first email response might be from a bot with links to related help topics. If you need more help, the message encourages you to resend your question to receive an actual reply from the customer service team.
As one would expect, mobile app reviews include complaints about customer service, but in aggregate, Webull receives above-average reviews and does a decent job of responding to customer queries, and the extensive online resources are helpful.
For Webull Financial, the federal regulator FINRA's BrokerCheck lists no regulatory events resulting in fines related to trading and orders.
Webull Financial is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which is common among investment brokers of this size, but it does have an "F" rating from the bureau with 143 complaints filed against it in the past three years. According to the BBB site, Webull's response rate to complaints filed with the BBB is 63%.
Is Webull Safe and Insured?
Like most investment firms, Webull Financial is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corp. The SIPC protects member accounts up to a $500,000 loss, which includes a $250,000 limit for cash. This protection is insurance against a failing SIPC member firm.
Webull's clearing firm, Apex Clearing Corp., has an additional insurance policy to provide protection for securities and cash up to $150 million in total. The maximum coverage for one customer is $37.5 million for securities and $900,000 for cash. The insurance does not protect users against a decline in account value.
Webull offers an impressive slate of trading, analysis and screening tools. Additionally, users have access to in-depth resources that explain how to use the platform's features. Directly from the Markets tab, users can customize their favorite tools, look up ticker symbols, and place orders manually and with voice activation. Users will find more complex asset-screening and analysis tools on Webull than on the Robinhood Markets Inc. (ticker: HOOD) platform.
Webull Desktop 7.0
The Webull platform benefits from recent upgrades to Webull 8.0 with enhanced features for traders. The Webull downloadable desktop trading platform is available for Mac, Windows and Linux users. The platform includes robust, customizable research and trading features for stocks, ETFs and options.
Trading platform features include:
- Screeners with filters for 40-plus indicators, including technical signals, in addition to financial and quote indicators.
- 45 widgets for charts, active trading, trend analysis, options, filters, options working orders and positions.
- More than 60 technical indicators and 12 charting tools, useful for analyzing trends and economic and market news.
- Ability to add, remove and overlay widgets or use default layout.
- Active-trader widget for one-click trading.
- Supports multichannel trading terminals.
- Nasdaq TotalView advanced quotes and data provide a deep dive into the market, including NOII (net order imbalance indicator), with a free one-month trial.
Additional tools and features available on the Webull platform and mobile app include:
Big buttons. Place an order with one tap.
Price ladder. View the order book and place an order by tapping on bids and asks.
Community menu tab. Learn from and interact with other traders.
Drawing tools. Draw up to 12 trend lines when analyzing securities.
There are features on the Webull app and desktop trading platform for all types of investors, from newbies to competent traders. Beginners might prefer the quick trade and order settings. Options traders can analyze quotes, and review the straddle and list views. And stock and ETF traders can take advantage of the many charts, indicators and screeners.
Order Types
Webull offers a range of parent orders and suborders, which kick in after the parent order is filled. Most users will find all the order types they need along with detailed explanations of how to execute them. Good-til-canceled (GTC) orders are available for both stock and options trades. If you click on "yes" for extended hours, you can place trades from 4 a.m. through 8 p.m. EST.
Stock and ETF Orders
Webull now offers 11 stock orders from simple to advanced group orders.
Simple order types include:
- Limit order.
- Market order.
- Stop order.
- Stop-limit order.
- Trailing stop order.
Advanced/group order types include:
- Bracket orders - Stop-loss/take-profit.
- One-Triggers-the-Other order (OTO).
- One-Cancels-the-Other order (OCO).
- One-Triggers-a-One-Cancels-the-Other order (OTOCO).
Options Order Types
- Single leg.
- Covered stock.
- Vertical.
- Butterfly.
- Condor.
- Collar.
- Straddle.
- Strangle.
- Iron butterfly.
- Iron condor.
Webull App Review: Mobile Experience
Nearly all of the features on the desktop and downloadable trading platform are available on the mobile app. The mobile app features are designed well for the small screen. The mobile app for iOS receives high marks from Apple users, whose rating of the app recently averaged 4.7. Android user ratings averaged 4.3.
The app's Smart Trading Tools go beyond the basics. Users can customize screens to uncover suitable investment candidates, and analytical tools and charting enable more than 60 technical indicators and 12 charting tools. Even paper trading is accessible on the mobile app.
Account Types
Webull offers individual cash or margin brokerage accounts. The lack of joint brokerage accounts is a disadvantage at Webull.
Webull also offers the following retirement accounts:
- Traditional IRA.
- Roth IRA.
- Rollover IRA.
Before opening a retirement account, users must first open an individual brokerage account.
Webull users may opt for a cash or margin account. In a cash account, you can invest the amount within the account. Margin enables borrowing.
The chart below shows the distinctions between the cash and margin accounts:
| Account type | Account value | Day trade | Margin trade | Short selling |
| Cash | Unlimited | No | No | No |
| Margin | $0 - $2,000 | Three day trades in five business days | No | No |
| Margin | $2,000 - $25,000 | Three day trades in five business days | Day trade up to four times. Overnight up to two times. | Yes |
| Margin | $25,000 or more | Unlimited | Day trade up to four times. Overnight up to two times. | Yes |
Research
The research offerings are enhanced with the Webull 8.0 update. New features include:
- More than 20 new technical indicators, along with classical patterns and candlesticks.
- New technical and fundamental research tools.
- Advanced charting customization with updated drawing tools, tracking patterns in ticker symbols, and time interval views down to the second, for day traders.
The basic screener is suitable for most beginning and intermediate investors. It is easy to navigate, and users can also save their own customized screens. The quote homepage provides a handy slate of information for investors of all types, including technical and fundamental data.
Webull is becoming quite competitive for active investors and traders.
Education
The Webull Learn portal is slim, at best. The educational features include brief courses, tutorials, videos, and investing and platform topics. For a complete investment education, users will need to seek additional educational resources.
Webull tutorials include:
- "Webull App Functions."
- "Introduction to Stock Screeners."
- "Introducing Drawing Tools."
- "Paper Trading."
- "Margin Trading and Short Selling."
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