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by Roya Wolverson and Neil Parmar
This is the most detailed review we found, and the thorough research methods lend it a high degree of credibility. The review names the best and worst online broker in each of six categories: commissions… and fees, research, trading tools, mutual funds and investment products, banking services and customer service. This makes the review ideal for those who want to evaluate brokers based on specific criteria. At the end of the article a chart shows the overall rankings as well as the category ratings for each broker; the top five are, in order: E*Trade, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TradeKing and TD Ameritrade. Commissions and fees reported here are for an investor who has at least $50,000 in a brokerage account and trades up to 20 times per year.
by Theresa W. Carey
The annual Barron's ranking of online brokers is a much-relied-upon source of information for investors of all types, this year perhaps more than ever. During the bear market, author Theresa W. Carey says,… increasing numbers of investors began doing all or most of their investing online. For the 2009 rankings, Barron's rates the top 25 online brokers, and summarizes the results in a table. Short tables also break the data down to show the best brokers for buy-and-hold investors, options traders, frequent traders and international traders. Another table ranks the least-expensive online brokers for occasional traders and frequent traders. Finally, the review discusses each broker in detail, listing its pros and cons. Overall, this is a thorough, well-researched review with useful information for every type of investor.
by Editors of ConsumerReports.org
by Editors of J.D. Power and Associates
More than 5,000 investors who make all of their investment decisions without an investment adviser responded to J.D. Power and Associates annual self-directed investor satisfaction survey in June and July,… 2009. Out of 13 brokers, Charles Schwab is the highest rated for overall customer satisfaction and is the top award recipient. Vanguard comes in second, and Scottrade and TD Ameritrade follow, with each having about the same ratings. A chart shows how each broker was rated in different categories.
by Thomas M. Anderson
Kiplinger.com assesses 12 online brokerages based on outside research as well as staffers personal experience in opening and using accounts at those houses surveyed. Opinions are rendered in five areas:… customer service, online research and trading tools, website design and ease of use, commission and fee structures, and number and variety of investment choices. Fidelity takes first place overall followed by Charles Schwab and Muriel Siebert.
by Editors of Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities
Subscribers to this magazine are frequent traders who want electronic access to the best real-time data, technical analysis tools and trade execution tools. The Readers' Choice Awards are presented based on… subscribers' votes for the best online brokers and trading services. For 2009, Interactive Brokers is voted best stock brokerage, best futures brokerage and best forex brokerage. TradeStation's software platform is voted best trading system for stocks, futures and options, and TradeStation is voted best at providing access to real-time data.
by Editors of Forbes
by Jean Henrich and Maria Crawford Scott
The AAII website offers information and resources for the individual investor, including an annual discount broker guide -- available to members only -- that includes a summary of the feedback received… during the previous year in the Members Surveys area of the site. A table shows which brokers were used most often by those providing feedback and which were rated highest in terms of overall satisfaction, among other categories. In the 2009 guide, the highest percentages of members report using Fidelity, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade or Charles Schwab, and members report the highest rates of satisfaction with ThinkOrSwim, Fidelity and Scottrade.
by Editors of Online Stock Trading Review
by Robert Stammers, Chartered Financial Analyst
by Blain Reinkensmeyer
Site owner Blain Reinkensmeyer picks the top five online brokers based on trading fees only. Reviews of these and a few other online brokers appear on the site also, but much of the information is taken… directly from the brokers' websites. This year, Reinkensmeyer has added a chart comparing 10 online brokers in terms of their fee and commission structures as well as their ratings for customer service, research and a few other categories. It's not clear why these brokers were chosen or how the category ratings were determined. The chart is useful as a quick way to compare the costs of various transactions across brokerages.
by Readers of FiveCentNickle.com
This website is maintained by an anonymous "30-something year old" who is a self-taught financial guru. In this article, he reports the results of his request for readers to list their favorite online… discount brokers. It is unclear how many readers responded or what number of votes each broker received. Very short write-ups provide a few details about the online brokers with the most votes. A number of readers' comments follow the article.
by Editors of Keynote Systems, Inc.
by Contributors to Epinions.com
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