If you wonder whether Ally Invest got everything you need to meet your financial goals, you’ve come to the right place. In my Ally Invest review, I will share all my findings to evaluate it suits me or not, you can also make a decision once you read to the end.
First of all, I am not promoting you to try Ally Invest through my affiliate link to earn commissions. What I like to do on my website is to examine as many opportunities as possible to find the perfect one for myself. I am sure my readers can also find the one they like to achieve their financial goals. What a win-win situation for all of us!
Secondly, I can see you are doing your researches well, so you came across my website. Please give yourself a big run of applause on this. This is the first step to filter out the negative platforms and keep our hard-earned money safe, so you are at the right place and on the right track.
Let’s explore Ally Invest for both of us, shall we?
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is Ally Invest?
-Summary of Ally Invest-
Product Name: Ally Invest
Founders: Founded by Donato Montanaro, Richard Hagen Jr, and Thomas Desmond in 2005
Product Type: Smart Online banking and investing platform
Price: Most are zero commission and no minimum requirements
Rating: 9 / 10
Recommend: Yes and No! I will tell you the reasons in detail further down.
Ally Invest is an online platform from Ally Financial, which has grown rapidly recently and become one of the leading banks on the internet. Ally Financial acquired TradeKing online trading business in 2016 and transformed the platform into Ally Invest one year later, which is a wealth management and brokerage platform.
With no minimum requirement and zero commission, a powerful trading platform, and great customer service, Ally Invest becomes one of the popular Fintech platforms and stands out from the crowd.

What’s Inside Ally Invest?
Self-Directed Trading
Self-Directed trading allows you to search for investments, place trades, or analyze your handpicked portfolio. It includes the below features:
- Streaming charts: View eight chart types with 117 chart studies and drawing tools that analyze your performance.
- Watchlists: Create your list to view the market data.
- Profit/loss graph: Use this tool to understand more of a trade’s potential before placing it.
- Probability calculator: Help you to determine the probability to reach your target.
- Research and market data: You could find out every stats of the company you like to purchase.
- ETF screener: Research and compare performance & price data for thousands of ETFs.
- Option chains: A unique display to show what’s available and place trades.
- Mobile trading: Use Ally Mobile to do all the above.
Managed Portfolios
You could also try Ally Invest’s managed portfolio for your investments. It is required a minimum of $100 to start and there are also no advisory fees, annual charges, or rebalancing fees. It’s a better way for people that want a hands-off investing experience, so Ally Invest and the experts behind this feature have done it for you.
You can open an account for individual, joint, Roth, Rollover, or Custodial. If you are a foreigner who likes to invest in Ally, YES, it’s possible! If you legally live in the USA full-time, you may use the valid Social Security number to open an account on Ally Invest.
Four Portfolios:
- Core: Highly diversified across domestic, international, and fixed-income assets. Let Ally invest know your risk preference from conservative to aggressive and choose the one that suits your personality the best.
- Income: This offers higher dividend yields while your risk preference is still conservative. Pick this one if you mainly focus on income and yield. Ideal if you are currently near or in retirement.
- Tax Optimized: If you’re looking to invest using a diverse mix of tax-advantaged, low-cost ETFs, consider this portfolio type. Great for investors in higher tax brackets.
- Socially Responsible: Ally Invest chose the companies that are socially responsible with ethical track records, so you can invest the businesses that are sustainable, energy-efficient, or environment-friendly.
Forex Trading
With an average daily turnover of $3.2 trillion, Forex is the most traded market across the globe. Ally Invest offers over 50 currency pairs including gold and silver in real-time to meet your needs.
To open an Ally Forex account, the minimum deposit to start trading is $250 while Ally Invest suggests a $2,500 to take full advantage of this platform, which delivers a more flexibility and better risk management.
You could fund your Forex account in four ways: the easiest debit card, wire transfer, ACH from other U.S. checking accounts, or the traditional check.
Other Minor Features
Account protection: Ally Invest is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), so funds are available for the claims up to a ceiling of $500,000, including a maximum of $250,000 cash claims.
How Much To Open An Ally Account?
There are three types of accounts on Ally Invest, each one has a different requirement.
- Self-Directed Trading: no minimum requirement to open a self-directed brokerage cash account.
- Managed Portfolio: $100 to open a Managed portfolio to start investing.
- Forex Trading: $250 to start Forex trading.
How Can I Withdraw Money From Ally Invest?
You can withdraw your money by logging in & selecting Transfers, but there are fees depending on your requests.
- Ally Invest charges $5 if you request for a check.
- Ally Invest charges $30 if you wire funds to another account.
- Ally Invest charges $50 if you request a check be overnighted by phone
Who Is Ally Invest For?
- People who like a low-cost investing platform with powerful tools.
- People who like hands-off experience to manage investments.
- People who like to manage money for retirement.
If you are one of the above, you are more than welcome to try Ally Invest to manage your money. If you ask me whether I will try Ally Invest, my answer is no. My goal at the moment is to find out ways to generates passive income streams online, then use the money I earn for investments later. I will share my way to make money online in ONE minute!
Ugly Truth About Ally Invest
TOP#1 Still Some Fees
Although there are no commission for stock, ETFs, and options, there are still some fees when it comes to bonds, mutual funds, and low priced securities. So, it’s not 100% FREE of charges on Ally Invest.
Compared to the traditional services from any banks, I understand it’s a HUGE improvement. I cannot stop thinking about what if there are ZERO fees on this platform? It must be very appealing to all investors.
TOP#2 No Local Branches
For the generations of my parents, they get used to going to bank branches in my home town for either banking or trading services.
In 2020, people tend to do things on the internet. But, it’s difficult to say that you won’t have an urgency that you need someone to help you face-to-face, right?
TOP#3 Fund Transfer Could Be Slow
To transfer funds into your checking account by ACH takes 5 working days(one week) for the whole process. Funding your account by check can take up to 10 working days (two weeks).
What I Liked About Ally Invest
TOP#1 Commission-FREE/Low Cost
There is no minimum requirement to open an account with Ally Invest, and it only takes about 5 mins to open an Ally Invest account. You don’t need to transfer the money right before creating accounts, and you could wire the money to place trades once all is ready.
Compared to traditional trading, there are zero or low-cost fees when you trade on Ally Invest.
- For stock, ETFs, and options, there is ZERO commission.
- For Bonds, it’s $1 per bond.
- For Mutual Funds, you need to pay $9.95 per trade.
- For Low Priced Securities, a $4.95 fee is needed plus $0.01 per share.

TOP#2 Managed Portfolio Options
For a lazy person like me, I LOVE this option because I don’t have enough knowledge to invest in Self-Directed Trading. I believe tons of people are just like me, and we all face the same situation.
To lower down the risk and people’s internal anxiety of investing, people could choose from four options of managed portfolios to do investments. For example, I am a bit conservative, so I can choose core or income. For my parents, they could choose Tax optimized. For people who care lots about the environment, they can pick socially responsible.
TOP#3 Many Positive Comments Online
People praise Ally for many aspects of service. Most of the time, Ally Invest’s excellent customer service, higher interest rates, no transfer fee from Ally to your checking accounts, ATM refunds are loved by many users.



Is Ally Invest A Scam?
No, Ally Invest is not a scam at all. It’s a platform that people can do investments without worrying too much. The experienced investors can choose self-directed trading while the beginners can go for managed portfolio plans. For people who prefer Forex trading, you can do that on Ally Invest too. Therefore, Ally Invest is a platform for everyone.
Just like what I mentioned in the previous paragraphs, I am looking for ways to generate passive income streams online at the moment. If you are interested, here is my way to make money online:
My Way to Make Money Online
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I hope you enjoy this review and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.