Big traders have a built-in edge. So we engineered one for everyone.

Big traders have a built-in edge. So we engineered one for everyone. Jun 9, 2026 12:33:56 PM Individual investors have long faced structural disadvantages. Here's how Betterment's trading team and custom-built platform help close that gap. Key takeaways The trading system has long been tilted in favor of large institutional investors. Betterment's custom-built trading platform was designed to change that, harnessing the collective power of our customers. We pool your orders with other customers' to unlock the kind of bulk-order pricing big trading desks take for granted. The result: Betterment customers, whether you self-direct or automate your investing, get a fairer shake in the market. For everyday investors, the mechanics of trading haven’t always resulted in a fair fight. That’s because markets tend to reward size and speed. Large institutional investors—think hedge funds, pension funds, endowments—trade in enormous volume. And when you routinely show up with big trading orders, you tend to get preferential treatment. Those privileges get even bigger during bouts of volatility, or when trading activity is thin and buyers and sellers are harder to find. If you're a solo investor wading into those waters, you're swimming upstream. Betterment’s trading platform, however, was designed to harness the collective power of our customers. Here's how. We set price guardrails on your trade, so market chaos doesn’t cost you One of the key aspects of our trading execution methodology is the type of order we use to execute your trades. In many cases, Betterment uses marketable limit orders, which set a price ceiling (or floor) for every trade. They're designed to execute or “fill” quickly, but won't do it at a price worse than the limit. It's a guardrail that keeps the market's momentary chaos from working against you. Limit orders are one of the tools we use in pursuing "best execution," a regulatory standard that requires us to seek the most favorable terms reasonably available for your trade. Your trade packs a bigger punch—because it's not alone It’s a familiar concept for anyone who’s stepped foot in a Costco. When a seller knows you're ordering at volume, they're more motivated to give you their best price. The same logic applies in trading. Betterment aggregates customers' orders, combining similar buys (or sells) of the same security before sending them to market as a single, larger order. The crucial cutoff is generally 100 shares or more of any given stock or fund. These orders are known as “round” lots, the standard unit of trading that exchanges and market makers prioritize. Any order smaller than 100 shares, on the flip side, is generally considered an “odd” lot. The problem is solo investors struggle to come up with nice “round” lots on their own, and they end up paying more as a result. How much more? A 2021 analysis of more than 3 billion U.S. equity trades found that odd lot orders, even those falling just one share short of 100, experienced roughly 10% less price improvement than round lots. For a popular, heavily-traded fund like VTI, that can amount to thousands of dollars in lost gains over decades.1 1Example for illustrative purposes only, based on internally-derived simulations that reflect market behavior consistent with the cited peer-reviewed research. It does not represent actual performance. By banding your order together with the similar orders of other Betterment customers, we cross the round-lot threshold more often, which generally leads to better pricing. It’s important to note, however, that we don't delay your trade to chase a round lot. We aggregate when client orders naturally line up, and execute when they don't. Less predictable trading windows help you stay one step ahead High-frequency traders have made an industry of being first. By watching for signals in the market, like a sudden uptick in buy orders for a particular stock, they can race in ahead of you, buy what you were about to buy, and attempt to flip it for a profit before your trade even clears. It's exactly the sort of systemic disadvantage our custom-built trading technology works to help minimize. When orders are sent to market the instant they're placed, they can signal intent to anyone watching. Betterment, by contrast, batches orders into scheduled trade windows throughout the day, and we vary those windows across most of our trading activity. No predictable pattern means no easy target. This also works hand-in-hand with our bundling strategy above: the windows give us time to aggregate orders before sending them to market, making round-lot thresholds more attainable. There are always exceptions, of course. When timing is critical, like with day-end orders, we execute whatever lots are ready, odd or round, rather than wait for the next day. Prices can and do move while the market is closed, which is why we strive to process certain orders before the bell.2 Trade with confidence at Betterment Showing up to market as a solo investor can be rough. You’re a small fish in a very big pond. That’s where Betterment comes in. Whether you self-direct your investing or enlist our automated tech for help, you benefit from our custom-built trading platform. It pools your trades whenever possible, sets price guardrails, and chooses the moment deliberately. All so your trade gets a fairer shake, and you get more freedom to invest as you see fit.