Exploring the Features of Motif Investing

Choosing an online brokerage can be tough because there are so many options out there. If you’re looking for more control over your investments with moderate costs, Motif Investing might be a good fit for you. I’m recommending this after some thorough research, even though I don’t have an account there myself.

**Understanding Motif Investing**

Motif Investing lets you create a personalized portfolio, known as a ‘motif’, which can include up to 30 stocks or ETFs. For a fixed fee of $9.95, you can put together your own motif from a wide variety of funds. If you’re interested in trends, socially responsible companies, or specific industries, Motif has a lot of options to explore.

Alternatively, for the same fee, you can pick from over 100 pre-made motifs, which cover various industry sectors. Even with these ready-made choices, you can still tweak your portfolio as you like. Motif also offers single and joint brokerage accounts and fee-free Traditional, Roth, and Rollover IRAs. The minimum investment for a motif is $250, so you might end up with fractional shares depending on the amount you invest. If you’re considering margin trading, there’s a $2,000 minimum to keep in mind.

**Advantages of Motif Investing**

Motif lets you explore before committing any money. Once you sign up, you can check out their catalog of motifs and create a watchlist to track performance before opening a trading account. One appealing feature of Motif is its clear fee structure. Besides the initial $9.95 motif purchase fee, extra trades within your motif cost $4.95 each. There are no extra management or expense ratio fees, as these are already included in any fixed-income motifs that have ETFs.

Motif also offers rebalancing of catalog motifs once or twice a year, and you’ll get notified of any changes so you can make the same adjustments for $9.95. There’s also a unique feature where you can share investment ideas with other Motif users on a platform similar to a niche social network. You can control how much personal information you want to share with adjustable privacy settings.

**Drawbacks of Motif Investing**

The biggest downside is that Motif doesn’t offer dividend reinvestment. You can either take dividends as cash or choose stocks in your motif that pay dividends in stocks. The selection might feel limited since Motif currently offers only stocks and ETFs, with no clear plans to include options or mutual funds.

While the commission fees are low, they can add up and cut into your profits. Each trade within a motif costs $4.95, and to buy, sell, or rebalance a motif costs $9.95, with a minimum $250 investment required. Overall, Motif Investing could be a worthwhile choice, especially if you’re looking for unique investment opportunities aside from your other investment accounts.