Fidelity vs tastytrade

What each platform is

Fidelity is a full-service U.S. brokerage. Its canonical record describes $0 online U.S. stock and ETF commissions, a $0.65 options contract fee, Fidelity and zero-expense-ratio mutual funds, a broad new-issue and secondary bond and CD inventory, direct crypto through Fidelity Digital Assets, the Fidelity Go robo-advisory program, a retail HSA and a wide retirement, education, custodial and estate account range.

tastytrade is a derivatives-first platform. Its canonical record describes $1.00 per contract to open and $0 to close on options with a $10 per-leg cap, futures at $1.00 and micro futures at $0.75 per contract per side, futures options, event contracts, direct crypto through Zero Hash, options backtesting, a strategy builder, trade journaling and TradingView integration.

Cost structure

Stocks and ETFs are $0 in both records, though tastytrade adds an explicit $0.0008 per share equity clearing fee plus regulatory fees, and Fidelity applies a $0.001 per share schedule only to accounts designated Professional Equity Trader.

Options are where the two pricing philosophies separate. Fidelity charges $0.65 per contract on both sides of the trade, waiving the contract fee on qualifying online buy-to-close orders priced at $0.65 or less. tastytrade charges $1.00 per contract to open with a $10 cap per leg, then nothing to close, plus a $0.10 per contract clearing fee. A single one-lot round trip is cheaper at Fidelity; a large multi-contract position hitting the $10 per-leg cap can be cheaper at tastytrade. The direction of the answer depends on contract count, not on preference.

Assignment and exercise run the other way. Fidelity charges $0 standard commission on both. tastytrade charges $5 per exercise or assignment, which matters for a reader who regularly carries positions into expiration.

Futures and event contracts

Futures are a clean asymmetry. Fidelity does not offer futures or futures options. tastytrade offers equity index, interest rate, commodity, currency, volatility and crypto futures, plus micro futures and micro futures options, at $1.00 and $0.75 per contract per side with a $0.30 clearing fee and exchange and NFA fees additional; futures options run $1.25 standard and $0.75 micro.

Event contracts are the same story. tastytrade prices them at $0 commission with a $0.01 clearing fee and a $0.01 regulatory and exchange fee per contract. Event or prediction contracts are not established in the current Fidelity record.

Funds, fixed income and long-term structures

The asymmetry reverses on the conventional side. tastytrade does not offer mutual funds and does not offer managed portfolios or a robo-advisor. Fidelity offers both, with Fidelity funds at $0, zero-expense-ratio funds available, non-Fidelity no-transaction-fee funds at $0 and a $49.95 fee on other non-Fidelity fund purchases, alongside Fidelity Go at $0 below $25,000 and 0.35% at $25,000 and above.

Fixed income exists on both sides at very different depth. Fidelity carries a broad new-issue and secondary inventory with $0 Treasury auction and secondary trades and $1 per secondary bond or CD. tastytrade supports bonds and Treasuries with Treasury bills at $0 and Treasury notes and bonds at $25 to open or close.

Crypto

Both offer direct spot crypto through a separate provider structure. Fidelity Crypto is provided by Fidelity Digital Assets, National Association, a national trust bank, covering five assets at 1% on buys and sells with $0 custody and IRA support. tastytrade routes to Zero Hash Liquidity Services LLC with Zero Hash LLC as custodian, covering 20 or more assets at 0.75% on Bitcoin and Ethereum and 1.00% on others, applied on both opening and closing transactions, with a $1 minimum order. tastytrade does not support crypto margin, crypto-to-crypto trading or staking. Neither offering is FDIC insured or SIPC protected.

Accounts

Fidelity covers Traditional, Roth, rollover, inherited, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, solo 401(k), small-business retirement, 529, custodial UGMA/UTMA, youth, trust, estate, managed and cash management accounts, plus a retail HSA at $0 minimum and $0 individual account fee.

tastytrade covers individual, joint, cash, margin, portfolio margin, trust, business entity and institutional accounts, with Traditional, Roth, SEP and rollover IRAs and beneficiary Traditional and Roth IRAs. Its record states that custodial accounts are not offered. IRA maintenance is $0, IRA closing is $60 and outgoing ACATs are $75, against $0 IRA closeout and $0 transfer of assets at Fidelity.

Which fits which reader

The Fidelity record fits a reader building around funds, bonds, retirement, education and health savings, custodial or youth accounts, crypto held inside an IRA, and an automated portfolio option that is free below $25,000.

The tastytrade record fits a reader whose activity is concentrated in derivatives: multi-leg options where the $10 per-leg opening cap and $0 closing commission compound, futures and micro futures, futures options, event contracts, options backtesting and 24/5 stock and ETF trading.

Because tastytrade margin interest is tiered and fact-checked to 2026-09-02, Fidelity margin rates are variable and tiered by debit balance, and crypto provider terms can change on both sides, verify current published schedules before funding either account.