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Barron's 2011 online brokerage comparison: stock brokerage firms survey, ratings and rankings
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Barron's magazine released its annual online broker comparison/rankings survey results for 2011. US stock brokerage firms were rated in the following
categories: Trade Experience, Trading Technology, Usability, Ranges of Offerings, Research,
Portfolio Analysis, Customer Service and Costs. Data regarding costs and fees is based on accounts with $100,000+ in assets.
Like in previous years, Trading Costs has the same weight on overall score as other categories.
We believe that majority of investors would put much more emphasis on this category and, as a result, that will change ratings significantly.
Tradestation Securities (Tradestation review) and
MB Trading (MB Trading review)
are top brokerages according to Barron's magazine online broker survey. We also gave them a very high 4-star rating in our 2011 review.
Our favorites from Best Online Stock Brokers list
- OptionsHouse (OptionsHouse review)
OptionsXpress (OptionsXpress review) and
TradeKing (TradeKing review)
- got very high rankings at Barron's magazine too (all in top 8 firms). We rated them #1 for OptionsHouse, #3 for TradeKing and #4 for
OptionsXpress.
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| Broker |
Trade
Experience |
Trading
Technology |
Usability |
Ranges of
Offerings |
Research
Amenities |
Portfolio Analysis
and Reports |
Customer Service
and Education |
Costs |
Total |
Stars |
|
Tradestation
|
4.5 |
4.8 |
4.2
|
3.9
|
4.6
|
4.3
|
4.6
|
3.0 |
33.9
|
4.5
|
|
MB Trading
|
4.5
|
4.5 |
4.2
|
3.9
|
4.4
|
4.5
|
4.5
|
3.3
|
33.8
|
4.5
|
|
Interactive Brokers
|
4.3
|
4.7
|
3.9
|
4.4 |
4.0
|
4.0
|
3.8
|
4.5 |
33.6
|
4.5
|
|
TD Ameritrade
|
4.7 |
4.5
|
4.1 |
4.4
|
4.8
|
4.9
|
4.5
|
1.3 |
33.2
|
4.5
|
|
OptionsHouse
|
4.6
|
3.9
|
4.4 |
3.1
|
4.4
|
4.5 |
4.4
|
3.8
|
33.1
|
4.0
|
|
TradeMonster
|
4.7 |
4.0
|
4.4 |
3.6 |
4.5
|
4.7
|
4.5
|
2.6 |
33.0
|
4.0
|
|
OptionsXpress
|
4.6 |
4.2 |
4.4
|
4.2 |
4.6
|
4.8
|
4.1
|
1.8
|
32.7
|
4.0
|
|
TradeKing
|
4.4
|
3.4
|
4.5
|
3.2 |
4.4
|
4.8
|
4.4
|
3.3
|
32.4
|
4.0
|
|
Fidelity Investments
|
4.4 |
3.9 |
4.2 |
3.9
|
4.6
|
4.4
|
4.3
|
1.8 |
31.5 |
4.0
|
|
Lightspeed Trading |
4.1 |
4.3
|
4.1
|
2.3
|
4.0
|
3.4 |
3.8
|
4.0
|
30.0
|
4.0
|
|
ChoiceTrade
|
4.3 |
4.2
|
4.1
|
3.6
|
3.2 |
3.0
|
3.8
|
3.0
|
29.2
|
4.0
|
|
Charles Schwab |
3.9 |
3.2 |
3.7
|
3.9
|
4.6
|
3.9
|
4.5 |
1.2
|
28.9
|
3.5
|
|
Etrade Securities |
3.8 |
3.8
|
3.1 |
3.8 |
4.5
|
4.3 |
4.2 |
0.8
|
28.3
|
3.5
|
|
Scottrade
|
4.1
|
2.1 |
3.7 |
3.2 |
4.2 |
3.2
|
4.3 |
1.8
|
26.6
|
3.5
|
|
eOption
|
3.4 |
3.0 |
3.7 |
3.2
|
3.0
|
2.4 |
3.0
|
3.5
|
26.2
|
3.5
|
|
Cobra Trading
|
3.7
|
3.2 |
4.0 |
3.1
|
3.2 |
1.5
|
3.5 |
3.2
|
25.4
|
3.0
|
|
SogoTrade |
4.2
|
2.0 |
4.4
|
2.4
|
3.6
|
1.3
|
3.0
|
3.8
|
24.7
|
3.0
|
|
Zecco |
3.5 |
1.8 |
3.5
|
2.8 |
3.9
|
2.8 |
3.4 |
3.0
|
24.7
|
3.0
|
|
Just2Trade
|
3.1 |
1.2 |
3.1 |
2.2
|
3.6 |
3.7
|
2.7
|
4.4
|
24.0
|
3.0
|
|
Speedtrader
|
3.9 |
2.7 |
4.0 |
3.2
|
2.3 |
1.8
|
3.2
|
2.3
|
23.4
|
3.0
|
|
Merrill Edge
|
3.1 |
0.8 |
2.8 |
2.2
|
3.9
|
2.1 |
3.4
|
2.9
|
21.2
|
3.0
|
|
Firstrade
|
3.0 |
1.8 |
3.0
|
2.6 |
3.0 |
2.0
|
3.4
|
2.0
|
20.8
|
2.5
|
|
Trading Block
|
3.4
|
1.1
|
4.0
|
2.2
|
3.4
|
1.8
|
3.0
|
1.9
|
20.8
|
2.5
|
|
AB Watley
|
3.7
|
2.6
|
3.7
|
1.2
|
2.2
|
2.1
|
2.4
|
0.2
|
18.1
|
2.5
|
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