Do you use automatic investing (purchases) in your brokerage?
What sorts of features/tools exist at your brokerage to support automation?
Are they very basic, or can you craft interesting "rules" for when to buy?
Background:
I have always "paid myself first" by having some portion of my paycheck get directed to my brokerage. I recently took this to the next level by sending my entire paycheck to my brokerage, and then scheduling an automatic transfer to my checking account to cover monthly expenses. This is nice b/c (1) bonuses, raises, etc. will automatically accrue in the brokerage rather rather than somewhere else where they're easier to spend, and (2) I can do variable deductions like 401k, ESPP, social-security, etc. from my paycheck while keeping a constant rate of deposits into my checking account.
What I would like to do is to keep an emergency-fund level of cash (money-market) in my brokerage. Let's say $20k.
As deposits are made into the brokerage, I would like to be able to say "If there is > $22k in the account, then buy $2k of fund XYZ." This would keep me at my $20k emergency-level, and automatically invest my savings without any manual intervention.
What I've found from my broker (Fidelity) is that I can set up recurring purchases, but they don't work the way I would like them to work. They are always for a fixed amount, they always happen at a fixed interval, and (worst!) if you run out of money then they'll just keep purchasing on margin. Yuck!
I'm wondering if the grass is greener elsewhere?
Thanks!