Fills and Fees
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Coinbase vs Merrill

Prices, payments, fees and registration, side by side.

Market orders fill at once; marketable limit orders add a price cap.

The short answer

S&P 500 · Market orders · all sizes under $200,000

Per $10,000 of market orders in S&P 500 stocks, Merrill customers pay about $1.05 less than Coinbase customers: $0.51 above the fair price against $1.56 above the fair price. That holds on identical trades too.

Coinbase files no payment report of its own (another firm routes its orders); Merrill pays its trading firm about $0.02 per $10,000 order. Neither charges a stock commission.

Not a verdict on which broker is better overall; for your own habits, use the yearly cost calculator.

Side by side

Tap a name for its report

Coinbase and Merrill side by side
MeasureCoinbaseMerrill
Prices you getSeptember 2026 · S&P 500 · Market orders
Extra cost per $10,000 traded Dollars paid above the fair price (midpoint of the best buy and sell quotes) per $10,000 of market orders, all sizes under $200,000 averaged (largest orders weigh most); lower is better.$1.56better: $0.51
Customer pays, as a share of the spread 0% = you got the fair price, 100% = you paid the full gap between buy and sell quotes; lower is better.56.2%better: 16.2%
Same-trade gap vs other brokers Points of the spread on identical stocks and order sizes; below zero = better than other brokers.+43.9 ptbetter: +6.7 pt
Average execution speed Average time from receiving a market order to completing it; faster is not better here, as brokers whose orders took longer got better prices.11 ms8.6 s
Broker is paid, per $10,000 order What trading firms pay the broker for a $10,000 order (payment for order flow).not reported−$0.02
Orders that beat the quoted price Share of orders filled at least slightly better than quoted; it says little about how much you save, so it is context, not a score.86%84%
Typical order size Average dollars per order; brokers whose customers place bigger orders tend to get better prices.$1,544$12,544
Feeschecked Nov 2, 2026
Commission per stock trade Dollars per online stock or ETF trade; nearly every broker charges $0, so the real cost is in the price you get.$0.00$0.00
Options fee per contract Dollars per options contract to open a trade, on top of any per-trade commission.not confirmed$0.65
Margin interest rate Yearly interest on a $25,000 margin loan.not confirmedvaries
Interest on idle cash Yearly interest (APY) on uninvested cash in a standard account.not confirmed0.01%
Transfer-out fee For moving your whole account to another broker. Lower is better.$75.00better: $49.95
Is it registered?regulator records, not an endorsement
FINRA record BrokerCheck: the broker's licences, history and any disciplinary actions.BrokerCheckBrokerCheck
SIPC member Returns your securities and cash (up to $500,000) if the broker fails; not investment losses.YesYes
Reports what it is paid for orders Rule 606: where a broker sends orders and what it is paid. A broker whose orders go through another firm files none.NoYes
Tick = the better value; unticked rows are context, not a score. Prices: September 2026 (SEC Rule 605), orders under $200,000. Payment: Apr–Jun 2026 (SEC Rule 606). How we measure

Cost by order size

S&P 500 · Market orders

Show as a table
Order sizeCoinbaseMerrill
<$250$1.33$0.41
$250$1.45$0.50
$1k$1.40$0.51
$5k$1.57$0.50
$10k$1.56$0.49
$20k$1.44$0.48
$50k$1.72$0.53
$200k+$2.36$1.29
Every broker gets far worse prices on orders of $200,000 and over.

What does this add up to in a year?

See your yearly cost

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