Bank of America owns the financial platform Merrill Edge. It provides access to a wide range of services, including internet trading, brokerage, and banking. Customers have the option of managing their own portfolios, worki ng with financial advisors, or using Merrill Edge Guided Investing.

A total of 2,800 Merrill Edge investment centres have been opened by Bank of America in recent years, with an additional 600 Merrill Edge investment centres recently opened.

After launching in 2010, Merrill Edge has provided investors with an easy way to handle their banking and brokerage needs under one roof. As a part of Bank of America's Preferred Rewards programme for customers, the bank offers discounts like preferred pricing on Merrill Guided Investing accounts, as well as discounts on ATM transaction fees and interest rates on vehicle loans and mortgages.

A Merrill Edge account can be opened by Bank of America clients who have a high average daily balance in their Bank of America and Merrill investment accounts, which provides an incentive for those customers to open a Merrill Edge account.

If you're looking for a long-term, low-cost investment option, Merrill Edge is a great option. If you're looking for varied levels of financial advice, this is an excellent option for you. There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether or not Merrill Edge is a good fit for your investment style. We've also analysed Merrill Edge's robo-advisor service, Merrill Edge Guided Investing.

Who Merrill Edge Is For?

Merrill Edge's technology and variety of offerings are ideal for novice and intermediate DIY investors. If you're looking to invest for the long term, Merrill Edge provides a comprehensive platform with the necessary technical and basic capabilities. In addition to the Preferred Rewards programme, Merrill Edge provides a smooth banking/investing experience, a wide selection of educational courses, and great in-person support as part of the Bank of America financial services universe.

Pros Explained

• Merrill Edge's tight integration with Bank of America means that customers can manage their banking and investment accounts under one roof—and reap additional benefits for doing so.
• To deliver the best reports on individual stocks, news, and market commentary, Merrill Edge combines information from Morningstar and Lipper with its own team of analysts.
• Online stock and ETF trading with Merrill Edge are free and have no account minimums. The Preferred Rewards programme offers additional benefits to customers with a combined deposit and investment account balance of at least $20,000 each.

Cons Explained

• There are a few products that Merrill Edge doesn't support, including as futures and futures options, forex, and crypto, which many active traders would like to trade. An advanced trading platform isn't available to investors looking for it.
• The Merrill Edge platform is ideal for those who are new to investing and trading on their own dime. Slow order entry and a lack of advanced order types and direct market routing make it less ideal for active traders.
• There are just two legs to options strategies on Merrill Edge (many brokers offer at least four). An official announcement made by the corporation in 2021 says it will support four-leg plans.

Usability

For those who already use Bank of America, Merrill Edge is easy to get up and running. A variety of account information is available once you've logged into Merrill Edge's website. You can quickly locate what you're looking for thanks to the five tabs at the top of the screen, including Accounts, Trade, Research, Guidance & Retirement, Help & Settings.

The MarketPro platform, which is accessible to all customers regardless of account size or activity, can be launched through the Trade tab. Despite the fact that the website is not changeable, MarketPro allows you to customise the layout and establish trade defaults.

It's possible to simultaneously read real-time quotations and news from MarketPro and the Merrill Edge mobile app (available on Android and iOS). MarketPro's order types and asset classes are supported, with the exception of fixed income. The app lets you keep track of, manage, and create new watchlists, which you can then sync between your online browser and your mobile device as needed.

You can, however, save your MarketPro watchlists on your computer rather than in the cloud. Both MarketPro and the app have charting and research features, and you can use a range of technical indicators and drawing tools to customise your charts.

Trade Experience

All of Merrill Edge's platforms are user-friendly and easy to use. Color schemes, font sizes, layouts, notifications, trade defaults, and hotkeys are just some of the customization choices that MarketPro provides. Users of MarketPro can right-click on the chart and select "buy" or "sell" at the current market price, respectively.

The "Trade" icon in the chart header can be clicked by both web and mobile users, and the order ticket is pre-populated with the symbol information that is required. Overall, our evaluation found the MarketPro chart trading interface to be less appealing than on some other trading platforms. Even so, it does the job well enough for most retail dealers, especially those with less complicated needs.

Streaming real-time quotes can be viewed on numerous platforms at the same time with MarketPro and mobile. Multiple orders can be entered at the same time or staged for later entry.