M1 Finance has gained popularity among investors, particularly for its innovative "pie" feature. This feature allows users to segment their portfolio into different "pies," each representing a specific investment strategy, asset class, or thematic focus. This visual, segmented approach can be incredibly helpful for managing and visualizing investments, making it easier to track performance and maintain diversification. M1 has pioneered this concept, offering an improvement over traditional, less flexible portfolio management methods. It's a great option for those looking for an easy, automated, visual approach to investing.
 

M1's Limitations

However, while M1's pie-based system offers a user-friendly experience, it does come with certain limitations that potential users should be aware of:
 

• Lack of Direct Indexing: You cannot own individual stocks within an index directly, only ETFs that track the index.
• Absence of Automatic Tax-Loss Harvesting: You cannot automatically harvest losses to offset capital gains and reduce your tax burden.
• Limited Weighting Precision: You cannot adjust your portfolio allocations with precision beyond 1% increments.
• Inability to Track Market Cap Weights: You cannot set your portfolio to automatically track the market capitalization weights of an index or sector.
• Limited Security Choices: You cannot invest in securities outside of M1's curated list of stocks and ETFs.
   

Why You Should Choose Double

 
At Double, we've added features to M1’s take on portfolio segmentation, and we let you do everything mentioned above. We offer a wide range of features and capabilities that go beyond what M1 provides, giving you even greater control, flexibility, and potential for optimization.
 
50+ Prebuilt Strategies: While M1 offers a way to create your own investment pies, Double provides over 50 prebuilt strategies, saving you time and effort. These strategies are designed by our team and cover a wide range of investment styles, risk tolerances, and asset classes. This can be a great starting point for building your portfolio, or you can use them as inspiration for creating your own custom strategies.
 
Direct Index into Popular ETFs: Unlike M1, Double allows you to directly index into popular Indexes like our US Top 500. This means you can own the individual stocks that make up the index, giving you greater control over your investments. With Double, you can start direct indexing with as little as $1,000, and we offer fractional shares, making it accessible to a wider range of investors. Direct indexing opens up your portfolio to more tax loss harvesting opportunities, potentially leading to additional tax benefits.
 
Build Your Own Custom Strategies: Double's screener offers robust capabilities. You can filter stocks based on a wide range of criteria, including market capitalization, sector, industry, and various financial ratios. This allows you to create highly customized strategies that align perfectly with your investment goals and risk tolerance. You have complete control over the weighting of each stock within your strategy, down to multiple decimal places, allowing for fine-tuned precision.
 
Automated Tax-Loss Harvesting: This is a major advantage of Double. Our platform automatically performs tax-loss harvesting on your account, using either pairs or factor-based TLH. Pairs based TLH means we will swap your investment for a similar security, maintaining your exposure to the market. Factor based TLH looks at the underlying factors of your investment, like value or growth, and finds a replacement that scores similarly on those factors. This means that we sell investments that have lost value to offset gains elsewhere in your portfolio, potentially reducing your tax liability. M1 doesn't offer this feature, which means you could be leaving money on the table. Read more about our various Strategy Optimization modes, including Tax Loss Harvesting on our help center.
 
Dollar-Cost Average Between Strategies: Double allows you to gradually shift your investments between strategies over time using dollar-cost averaging. This can be a valuable tool for managing risk and adapting to changing market conditions. For example, if you want to gradually transition from a more aggressive strategy to a more conservative one, you can use our DCA feature to do so in a controlled and systematic way.
 
Automate Incoming Deposits: With Double, you can automate your incoming deposits and use the proceeds to rebalance your portfolio. This "set it and forget it" approach ensures that your investments stay aligned with your target allocation, without requiring constant manual intervention.
 
Safe and Trusted: As always, we prioritize the safety and security of your investments. We use Apex Clearing, a leading clearing firm, to custody your assets. You can learn more about our commitment to security in our other blog post about Why You Should Trust Double.
 
Example UI: Comparing Changing Portfolios
 
Here is M1’s UI as of Jan 2025 to edit the weights within your portfolio.
 

 
And here is Double’s. As mentioned above, we the ability to specify down to a 0.1 of a percentage point, compared to whole percentage points only on M1.
 

 

Table of Comparisons
 
In the following table we offer a side by side comparison of Double and M1.
 

In conclusion, while M1 has its merits, here at Double we believe we offer a comprehensive and powerful platform for managing your investments. With advanced features like direct indexing, automated tax-loss harvesting, and a highly customizable screener, Double empowers you to take control of your financial future.