“Updated 2025.2” We’ve updated the asset transfer bonus, as well as the intro to several other M1 products (up to 10% cash back credit card, 4% savings, and crypto investing). If you use this investing platform often, it may be worth a look.

Thanks to reader Tony for this submission. The link here includes his referral link. If you also have something good to share, feel free to contact us to contribute a post~ Other authors of this article include ymlulu and KUKU

About M1 Finance

Stock trading involves risk. Please invest carefully.

Stock trading involves risk. Please invest carefully.

Stock trading involves risk. Please invest carefully.

M1 Finance was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The company is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a broker-dealer, and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). As of May 2020, the company had more than $1 billion in assets under management. In 2020, Left Lane Capital led M1 Finance’s $33 million Series B funding round.

M1 Finance offers zero-commission trading and zero management fees. However, unlike brokers such as Fidelity and Robinhood, M1 Finance focuses on automated investing. Investors do not need to monitor or trade frequently; they only need to build their own portfolio.

M1 Finance offers a very unique investing service: you choose several stocks and ETFs and build a portfolio called a “Pie” based on your chosen allocation percentages, then select one or more “Pies” as your portfolio. You can think of it as creating your own ETF in a customized way. During fixed trading windows each day, M1 Finance will automatically buy and sell based on the allocation you set. M1 Finance is especially suitable for long-term and recurring investors who do not like watching the market or trading frequently.

Sign-up Link

Right now, if you open an account through our referral link and deposit $10,000, you can earn a $75 bonus.

If you are transferring investments from another platform, there is now another sign-up bonus that may fit better. Transferred assets can earn a 0.5% bonus, up to $25,000. If you are transferring more than $15,000 in assets, this offer is better. In addition, you can open a cash account and lock in a higher 4.5% interest rate for 1 year.

M1 Finance’s terms say that only residents are eligible to open an account.

The M1 Platform is for U.S. residents only. You must be a legal resident of the United States in order to use the M1 Platform.

If you falsely claim your status, the company probably will not check, but you are responsible for any unknown risks involved.

Fees

  • No monthly fee and no minimum deposit requirement. Stock and ETF trades are $0.
  • A no-fee Spend account and metal debit card are available (provided by Lincoln Savings Bank), both by application.

How It Works in Practice

The following examples are for illustration only and do not represent any investment advice!

“By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investor can actually outperform most investment professionals.” — Warren Buffett

Example 1

I want to invest $100 every week into SPY and QQQ, with $70 buying QQQ and $30 buying SPY.

First, create a Pie, add the stocks/ETFs you want to invest in, and set the allocation for each: 70% of the money goes to QQQ and 30% goes to SPY.

Then set up recurring transfers from your bank. The frequency can be weekly, biweekly, or monthly.

Once the funds arrive, if there is any balance in the investment account, M1 Finance will automatically buy according to the allocation you set earlier. It’s very simple. Trading times are fixed each day: 9:30 a.m. Eastern (6:30 a.m. Pacific), right at market open. If you become a member, you can also trade one more time at 3:00 p.m. Eastern (12:00 p.m. Pacific). You cannot trade during other time periods. The advantage is that it helps avoid emotional overtrading; the downside is that short-term traders cannot day trade.

Example 2

Suppose you want to invest regularly in SPY and QQQ (or any other ETF), but only want to buy some of the holdings rather than investing in all of them at once.

The benefit of investing in ETFs is that a professional fund manager or an index selects a basket of stocks for you, but that also means you may end up buying stocks you do not like or are not bullish on. M1 Finance addresses this issue to some extent, which is one of its highlights.

When building a Pie, you can include not only ETFs but also individual stocks. That means you can completely “replicate” the published ETF allocation, set the percentage for each stock in the Pie, and remove the stocks you do not want.

For example, if you only want to invest in the top 20 holdings in QQQ by weight, you can include just those 20 stocks and assign each a similar percentage based on QQQ’s allocation. However, M1 Finance only supports allocation precision down to 1%, so you cannot exactly match the ETF’s actual weighting. Even so, the return of this self-built “QQQ” is generally very close to the real QQQ, and may even be better in some cases (partly because index performance is driven mainly by the stocks with the largest weightings, such as AAPL and MSFT).

Another major benefit of doing this is avoiding ETF management fees, since the portfolio is fully self-built and self-managed. On the other hand, you need to manually rebalance the percentage of each stock regularly, changing from passive ETF investing to “semi-active management.” But index ETFs usually do not change much, so unless the market moves dramatically, rebalancing once a month is generally enough.

Of course, you can also “copy” actively managed ETFs with high returns but high fees, aiming for similar returns while saving on management fees. But with these ETFs, you need to follow the fund manager more closely and manually adjust the percentage of each stock in your Pie more often.

M1 Plus

M1 Finance’s basic service is free, but it also offers a paid M1 Plus service. The annual fee is a flat $125 (or just $45 for the first year during promotions), regardless of asset size. The added benefits are as follows:

  • Checking Account with 1% APY: This pairs nicely with the investment account, ensuring that money you are not investing right away does not sit idle and can at least earn 1%.
  • 1% cash back debit card (metal card): Eligible debit purchases can earn 1% cash back. Of course, there are also exclusions listed below. It is unclear whether they enforce these exactly as written, but if not, there are still many things a debit card can be used for. Sometimes there are also extra cash back promotions, though the caps are generally fairly modest.
Qualifying purchases are purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits. Qualifying purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, ATM transactions, cash over portions of point-of-sale transactions, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) payments (such as Apple Pay Cash) , and loan payments or account funding made with your debit card are not eligible for cash back rewards. In addition, purchases made using third-party payment accounts (services such as Venmo® and PayPal™, who also provide P2P payments) may not be eligible for cash back rewards.
  • 2% LOANS THROUGH M1 BORROW: Borrowing through M1 comes with a 1.5% interest rate discount
  • Extended trading hours: AN AFTERNOON TRADE WINDOW Get more control over how you invest: Invest in the morning or the afternoon, or both when you have more than $25,000 in your investment portfolio.

One interesting feature is the 1% cash back on the debit card, though it’s unclear how tolerant they are on the risk-control side.

Other Products

Credit Card

M1 recently launched a credit card. It earns a flat 1.5% cash back, up to 10% cash back at select merchants, has a $95 annual fee (not waived the first year), and no FTF. You need to have an M1 account before applying.

That 10% rate depends on the merchant. One notable highlight is that Apple earns 2.5% cash back, while categories above 5% are mostly restaurants, entertainment, software, and similar merchants.

Cryptocurrency

They also offer a way to invest in cryptocurrency.

Saving Account

Their saving account is also pretty solid, offering rates up to 4.5%.

Summary

M1 Finance is a very unique brokerage: automatic recurring transfers, automatic allocation-based investing, and no support for frequent trading. It is especially well suited for investors who do not have time to watch the market in real time, want a fully automated dollar-cost averaging setup, and prefer long-term investing. You simply set your portfolio, and one-click rebalancing handles the rest automatically. If your investing style requires freely buying and selling stocks, then this platform is probably not a good fit.

Also, M1 Finance’s interface and interaction design are not particularly well done, especially on mobile. But once you get used to it, it is still fairly easy to use.

If you’re interested in other US stock investing platforms, check out the following:

Stock Investing Basics

Below are introductions to several commonly used U.S. stock brokerages and their signup bonuses.

Overview Signup Bonus Quick Take
Moomoo Futu Get a $350 stock card + $1,000 NVDA + 8.1% APY Comprehensive features and a strong Chinese-language experience. Quotes, Level 2 data, options, and cash management are all practical, making it suitable for everyone from beginners to active traders.
TradeUp Tiger Brokers Get 50 NVDA shares + draw for 5 shares + 4% for three months Good for active trading. For U.S. tax residents, trading fees and margin are relatively competitive. It supports Web Trading, Level 2 data, and Chinese-language customer service.
Webull 12 fractional shares + 1 month of Premium membership Strong market-watching and active-trading features. Charts, technical indicators, options, and pre-market/after-hours trading are fairly complete, making it suitable for frequent traders.
BBAE Up to $650 in rewards Convenient account opening for users in China, with no SSN/ITIN required to apply. Chinese-language support is strong, but it currently has a Platform Fee, so it is not ideal for small-balance, high-frequency trading.
Robinhood Draw 1 stock The interface is simple and easy to use, making it suitable for beginners buying U.S. stocks for the first time. Gold users also get a high yield on idle cash and a lower Margin Rate.
Interactive Brokers Up to $1,000 Highly professional, with support for global markets and multiple currencies. Margin costs are competitive, and it also supports account opening for China residents, making it suitable for advanced investors and global investors.
TradeStation $250 More geared toward professional and active trading. Advanced charting, strategy backtesting, and automated trading features are relatively strong, but ordinary long-term investors may not need them.
Schwab Get up to $1,000 Good for long-term investing and larger asset balances. Buying ETFs and CDs is convenient. Checking and global ATM access are also advantages, but the default interest rate on idle cash is relatively low.
Fidelity Brokerage Account Signup link A long-established full-service brokerage, suitable for long-term investing, ETFs, and retirement accounts. Cash management is also good, making it a strong choice as a long-term primary brokerage.
BIT (formerly Matrixport) Get $210 for deposits and trading Suitable for users in China and digital-asset users. It can be used to allocate USDT/USDC and other funds into U.S. stocks. It is not a traditional U.S. brokerage, so you should review fees and the asset custody structure separately.
SoFi Invest Get $75 for opening an account Simple to use and supports Stock Bits, making it suitable for small-balance and long-term investing. Professional market data and trading tools are limited, so it is not suitable for frequent trading.
M1 Finance Investing Get $10 for depositing money Focused on Pies and automated investing. It is suitable for long-term dollar-cost averaging after setting your stock and ETF allocations, but not for users mainly focused on active trading.

If you do not have an SSN/ITIN but still want to trade U.S. stocks, you can consider the following brokerages/platforms. They can be opened entirely with China-based documents, and you can register with an ID card or passport. They do not participate in China CRS.

  • BBAE: Chinese-user friendly, and you can open an account without an SSN/ITIN
  • BIT (formerly Matrixport): You can open an account with an ID card, and approval can be completed within a few hours.
  • Bitget platform: Identity verification can be completed with an ID card/Chinese passport

If you are in mainland China and want to invest in U.S. stocks, you can read this overview:

Sign-up Links

Other products are listed below: