Fennel: Platform Profile

Overview

Fennel uses a less common brokerage business model.

Rather than charging stock commissions or relying on payment for order flow, the current fee schedule charges:

• Subscription: $4.99 per month per account

The product focuses on:

• stocks;
• ETFs;
• fractional shares;
• portfolio analytics;
• company operating/performance data;
• shareholder voting;
• Traditional and Roth IRAs;
• a trading API;
• custom order-routing tools.

It is a securities brokerage and analytics platform rather than a broad full-line financial supermarket.

May fit better for

• investors who value portfolio analytics;
• users who want company data inside the brokerage;
• investors who want shareholder-voting tools;
• developers or advanced users who want a trading API;
• investors who prefer a broker that states it does not monetize payment for order flow;
• users comfortable paying a fixed subscription.

May fit less well for

• investors with very small balances who are sensitive to a fixed monthly fee;
• day traders;
• options traders;
• futures traders;
• direct crypto traders;
• investors who want mutual-fund or bond depth;
• users who only need basic free stock execution.

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Regulatory identity

Current BrokerCheck:

• Legal name: Fennel Financials LLC
• Dba: Fennel
• FINRA CRD: 316281
• SEC number: 8-70779
• SEC registered broker dealer: Yes
• FINRA member: Yes
• SIPC member: Yes
• Formed: Delaware, 2021

Fennel is a self-directed broker-dealer.

The platform's analytics do not turn it into discretionary portfolio management.

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Current subscription price

The February 17, 2026 fee schedule controls:

• Subscription fee: $4.99 per month per account
• Trial: 30 days under current Form CRS

This is a mandatory stale-page guard.

An older Fennel product page still contains a $4/month statement.

Do not use $4 as the current fee.

Use:

• Current subscription: $4.99/month/account

from the current 2026 fee schedule and Form CRS.

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Annualized subscription cost

At $4.99 per month:

$4.99 × 12 = $59.88

per account per year before other applicable fees.

Relative to a $2,000 account:

$59.88 ÷ $2,000 = 2.994%

Relative to a $50,000 account:

$59.88 ÷ $50,000 = 0.11976%

These percentages only compare the subscription with account value.

They are not portfolio expense ratios.

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Trading commissions and revenue model

Current fee schedule states:

• Stock commission: $0
• ETF commission: $0
• Payment for order flow revenue: No
• Securities lending for revenue: No

Fennel states that it does not charge commissions for trade execution and does not participate in payment for order flow or securities lending for revenue.

Regulatory and service fees can still apply.

"Fennel has no conflicts or no other fees."

A subscription model can create different incentives, but it does not eliminate every conflict or operating cost.

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Securities lending wording

Fennel's shareholder-voting materials state that Fennel does not lend out customer shares.

The current fee schedule also states that Fennel does not participate in securities lending for revenue.

Keep the claim narrow.

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Stocks, ETFs, and fractional shares

Current product scope:

• Stocks: Yes
• ETFs: Yes
• Fractional shares: Yes
• Fractional eligible securities: eligible U.S.-listed common stocks and ETFs

Fractional availability is controlled by Fennel's eligible-security list.

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IRAs

Current product and terms support:

• Traditional IRA: Yes
• Roth IRA: Yes

The current fee schedule states:

• IRA termination fee: $80

These are conventional securities IRAs.

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Day trading is intentionally blocked in the app

Current Fennel Day Trading Disclosure states:

• Day trading in app: No
• Same day close of new position blocked: Yes

The app prevents a customer from closing a position opened the same day.

This is not merely an educational warning.

It is a platform rule.

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API

Fennel offers a current trading API.

The 2026 fee schedule:

• Basic API:
• Additional fee: $0
• Trades per user per month: 100
• Premium API:
• Additional fee: $19.99 per user
• Trades per user per month: 300
• Historical market data: up to 5 years

The Premium fee is in addition to the monthly Fennel subscription.

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API cost example

One Fennel account using Premium API:

Annual base subscription:

$4.99 × 12 = $59.88

Annual Premium API add-on:

$19.99 × 12 = $239.88

Combined simple annual subscription disclosures show:

$299.76

before other fees.

This is not a trading commission.

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Custom routing

Current API documentation supports routing options including:

• exchange;
• exchange + ATS;
• exchange + ATS + single-dealer/market-maker paths;
• default/other platform-supported routes.

The current product offers user control over routing logic in supported contexts.

from older Fennel articles as current 2026 counts.

Describe the routing choices conceptually unless a current source supplies exact venue counts.

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Analytics and portfolio tools

Current Fennel product materials emphasize:

• advanced portfolio analytics;
• company operational/performance information;
• portfolio breakdowns;
• watchlists;
• shareholder voting;
• market data;
• API access.

The API also provides portfolio-performance and backtesting endpoints.

Backtesting remains hypothetical historical analysis.

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Shareholder voting

Fennel provides in-app access to eligible shareholder voting.

Voting rights can still depend on:

• security class;
• record date;
• share ownership;
• fractional-share treatment;
• corporate-action rules.

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Other current Fennel fees

The February 2026 fee schedule includes:

• Failed subscription payment: $9.99
• Reverse stock split: $0.30 per conversion
• IRA termination: $80
• Outgoing domestic wire: $25
• Outgoing international wire: $45
• Apex account termination: $60

These charges matter even though stock and ETF commissions are $0.

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SIPC / excess protection

Fennel and Apex operate in the securities brokerage framework.

Current disclosures show:

• Standard SIPC:
• Limit: $500,000
• Cash sublimit: $250,000
• Apex excess:
• Aggregate: $150 million
• Customer securities: $37.5 million
• Customer cash: $900,000
• Market loss protection: No

SIPC and excess SIPC do not protect against:

• stock-price decline;
• ETF losses;
• poor investment selection.

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FDIC sweep disclosure

Fennel's disclosure library includes Apex cash-sweep documentation.

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Current unsupported products

Current product package does not establish:

• Options current verified: No
• Futures current verified: No
• Direct crypto current verified: No
• Mutual funds current verified: No
• Bonds current verified: No

A clearing agreement can reference products the consumer platform does not currently offer.

Assessment

Fennel's business model is its most distinctive feature.

The customer pays a fixed subscription.

In exchange, the current model states:

• $0 stock/ETF commissions;
• no payment-for-order-flow revenue;
• no securities-lending revenue;
• analytics and governance tools;
• API access.

For a small account, $59.88 per year can be expensive relative to assets.

For a larger account, the percentage burden becomes small.

The platform is also intentionally unsuitable for day trading because same-day closing of a newly opened position is blocked in the app.

The best fit is an investor who values the research, routing, voting, portfolio, or API features enough to justify the subscription.