Alpaca review

Alpaca runs a commission free model, so a stock trade fee of $0 applies on equities, and options are priced at $0. The site median for stock trade fees across the brokers listed is €0, which places Alpaca in the cheapest tier of the comparison.

Crypto orders sit on a cex, with makers paying 0% to 0.15% and takers paying 0.1% to 0.25%. The cheaper side therefore comes from adding liquidity rather than removing it, and the site median taker fee of 0.25% puts Alpaca at the pricier end for frequent traders.

Held investments sit under SIPC up to USD 500,000, and the broker appears in the US member list as SIPC member 69928. The only regulator named in the licences is SIPC, and that figure is a limit under the scheme rather than a cover for market losses.

The same account covers stocks, etfs and options. Fractional shares let you hold a slice of a share rather than a whole unit, and a demo account lets you rehearse before risking money. The demo account, fractional shares and crypto list covers trading tools only, so positions are yours to run rather than managed for you.

Orders can go through Trading API, TradingView and Mobile app. The API suits anyone running their own strategy, the mobile app handles manual orders, and TradingView adds charting alongside execution. Because the API is a main route, the account leans towards traders comfortable setting orders up themselves.

Support runs on chat, help centre and community, meaning chat, email, a help centre and a community forum, with no phone line among the options. For a broker aimed at experienced and day traders, questions are likely to be answered in the forum rather than by a named adviser.

The stated audience is experienced and day traders. That points to people who already know what they want to trade and want commission-free execution through an API, rather than beginners or investors who want a fund selected for them. Fractional shares make small tickets easier to hold alongside that.

The site median for retail accounts that lose money is 72.03%, and commission-free dealing at $0 does not reduce it. That figure is a reminder that a commission free model changes the cost side only, while losses on this account still come from market moves.