INVESTING IDEAS ADVISOR CENTER MARKET DATA PENTA … · 2019-02-12 · and our integration planning...
Transcript of INVESTING IDEAS ADVISOR CENTER MARKET DATA PENTA … · 2019-02-12 · and our integration planning...
WSJ WSJ LIVE MARKETWATCH BARRON'S DJX MORE
ASIA EDITION
U.S. EDITIONWelcome, BARRONS Customer Center Logout
BEST ONLINE BROKERS
Barron’s 2017 Best Online Broker RankingFidelity takes the top spot, with Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade right on its heels
March 18, 2017
The bull market is on sale for online brokerage customers.
In the runup to our 22nd annual ranking of Barron’s Best Online Brokers, twodevelopments topped all others: The three major indexes—the Dow Jones IndustrialAverage, the Standard & Poor’s 500, and the Nasdaq Composite—all set record highs,and six brokers slashed commissions and other fees. At the 16 brokers we reviewedthis year, the average monthly cost of trading for an occasional investor had fallen 25%since early 2016, to $47.51 from $63.45. That means more of the market’s gains areending up in the pockets of selfdirected online traders.
Table: How Online Brokers Stack Up
How We Ranked the Brokers
Charles Schwab kicked off the price wars by cutting its base commission from $8.95 to$6.95, and after a flurry of activity, six brokers settled into reducedfee structures.Following a second cut, Schwab now charges $4.95 per equity trade, as does Firstrade.TD Ameritrade and E*Trade dropped to $6.95 from $9.99. E*Trade charges activetraders—those who trade more than 30 times per quarter—$4.95 per transaction.TradeStation announced that it is waiving its $99 monthly platform fee for its
William Waitzman for Barron's
Most Popular
5 Ways to Invest in Water1.Kill the Border Adjustment Tax2.
Barron’s 2017 Best Online BrokerRanking
3.
The Bull Market: 6 Things to WorryAbout, 3 to Ignore
4.
By THERESA W. CAREY
Email Print 4 Comments Order Reprints
HOME MAGAZINE DAILY INVESTING IDEAS ADVISOR CENTER MARKET DATA PENTA BARRON'S NEXT
News, Quotes, Companies, Videos SEARCH
sophisticated analysis and trading engine, and also added a flat $5pertrade charge toits elaborate fee schedule. And our 2017 winner of Best Online Brokers, FidelityInvestments, also joined in: The firm dropped its commission rate in two steps to $4.95from $7.95.
“We know that costs matter to investors,” says Barry Metzger, a senior vice president inSchwab’s Trading Services unit. When Schwab surveyed its clients recently, more than70% said that cost is a critical component in investing and financialadvice decisions.Barron’s own reader survey shows that the majority of respondents want to keep theircosts at a bare minimum.
“But cost is just one piece of the puzzle,” as Metzger says. Barron’s encouragesinvestors to look at the entire set of services a broker provides, including research andeducation offerings, and then decide whether the commissions assessed provideadequate value.
Cost is an element in our rankings, and the six brokers who changed their pricing allearned more points in that category this year. The points awarded there are based onthe range from cheapest to most expensive, with the leastexpensive brokers earningmore points.
We also take margin rates and other charges into account, and they can affect abroker’s score. Schwab achieved the biggest bump in its Cost rating from 2016 to 2017,going to 2.2 points from 0.9 points. Fidelity and TD Ameritrade both edged up a fraction.Margin rates rose this year for almost every broker.
The rise in interest rates—demonstrated by the Federal Reserve once more last week—can help bolster the bottom lines of the brokers that have cut their commissions. The
Click table to view larger version
Apple Could Rise 10% In 6 Months
5.
SEE FULL LIST
Latest Market Videos
How to GuaranteeFinancial Freedom
1
Barron's Buzz: KillThe Border Tax
2
Travelers: Get theAmEx PlatinumCard
3
increase leads to higher margininterest rates and higher rates of return on cash held incustomer accounts.
As we’ve written about pricecutting, we’ve received emails from fans of tastyworks, anew online brokerage launched in January by the founder of thinkorswim, Tom Sosnoff.His acolytes believe that the launch of tastyworks, with its innovative fee structure, wasthe first salvo in the price war. Tastyworks charges a commission only for opening aposition—$5 for equities and $1 per contract for options. Closing a position is free.
As much as we admire tastyworks, it seems unlikely that a small newcomer couldcause such an upheaval. Schwab, one of the largest online brokers, both by assetsunder management and by number of clients, isn’t a nimble little sailboat that reacts toevery passing breeze. It is, rather, a large ship—and it can take time to changeheadings. The firm appears to have started the process of lowering its fees monthsbefore the launch of tastyworks.
Not everyone was eager to join in. TD Ameritrade said as recently as midFebruary thatit had no plans to cut fees. But when its biggest competitors slashed fees to $4.95, TDhad to respond. “While we have made a point not to get involved in past price wars, inthis case, the time was right,” says Steven Quirk, the firm’s executive vice president oftrading. “We had the benefits of a risingrate environment, the competitive environment,and our integration planning for Scottrade to consider.” Scottrade, which TD recentlypurchased, charges $7 for a stock trade, so TD’s new pricing is in line with that of itsacquisition.
Quirk says the brokerage business will continue to be dynamic, but warns against aprice war that takes all participants to the bottom. “Firms that try to compete acrossmultiple dimensions, such as price, product, and experience, will inevitably fail to be thebest at any of them,” he says, adding that nobody wins in a price war when firms cutback on platform innovation, client service, and investor education.
A WAVE OF CONSOLIDATION continues to break over the industry, with the venerableScottrade having been acquired by TD Ameritrade, and OptionsHouse purchased byE*Trade. At some point this year, Schwab plans to complete its integration ofoptionsXpress, but E*Trade is moving at a faster pace, expecting its new unit to beassimilated this year.
The number of online brokers has steadily declined over the past decade, and fees aregenerally lower but much less variable. In 2007, we reviewed 26 firms and 29 totalplatforms. Commissions for a stock order that year averaged $6.35, with a range goingfrom free (at a couple of longgone sites) to $14.95 (at Muriel Siebert). Placing an orderfor 10 options contracts resulted in much more variation, from a low of $7.50 (atInteractive Brokers) to a high of nearly $40 (at Bank of America Investment Services).And not every broker had enabled options trading at that time.
More From Barron’s
Apple: It’s No Longer About the iPhone
Exclusive: Disney’s Iger On Movies, Parks,ESPN
Don’t Go on a Wild Canada Goose Chase
The 16 firms reviewed here all allow options transactions. Stock trading ranges fromfree (at Merrill Edge, which gives customers 100 nofee equity trades per month, aslong as they hold the requisite assets) to $7.50 (at TradingBlock). Ten options contractsincur commissions ranging from $4.50 (eOption) to $15 (TradingBlock).
Another big trend this year is the proliferation of roboadvisors. Ten of the 16 firms inour survey report offering an automated portfoliobuilder and rebalancing feature toclients. Though frequent traders are most coveted by online brokers, growing assetsunder management is also a key driver of success. Roboadvisors are nudgingreluctant investors, particularly millennials, into the markets.
Ram Subramaniam, head of brokerage and investment solutions at Fidelity, says thefirm “believes the easy access and lower fees for professionally managed money hasencouraged younger investors to move from savers to investors, which can help themmeet their longerterm financial goals.” We did not explicitly review roboadvisoryservices for this feature, though having one helped a broker’s Range of Offerings score.
Our informal survey of Barron’s readersand other interested online traders turnedup fewer security worries than in the pasttwo years. Though the Identity TheftResource Center (idtheftcenter.org)reports an increase of 40% in overall databreaches in 2016, uncovering a total of
1,093, only 52 (4.8%) of those occurred at banks or other financial institutions.
A data breach occurs when an individual’s name, along with his or her Social Securityand driver’s license numbers, and medical or financial records, have been exposedelectronically or on paper. The only brokerage that appears on the list of those reportinga breach is Schwab, which told customers about “unusual login activity” in May 2016.“We believe someone may have obtained your username and password from a nonSchwab account or Website that you use and tried them successfully on Schwab.com,”the firm told clients.
THIS SORT OF SECURITY BREACH falls roughly into the usererror bucket, though. Ifyou use the same user name and password for multiple sites, scammers might be ableto access your account. Fortunately, most of the brokers detect when you are using anew device or browser and require additional steps before you can log in. Schwab’sMetzger says, “Our sites use multilayered protections beyond login name and passwordbefore granting access to an account. In the event unauthorized account activity is
suspected, the user is prompted to answer additional security questions, and failedlogin attempts are limited.”
Mobile platforms continue to drive development at most brokers. Every brokerage in oursurvey with a mobile app—15 of the 16—reported growth ranging from 15% to 30% intrades placed on phones and tablets. To make the experience seamless acrossplatforms, brokers have, for the most part, made it possible to synchronize watchlistsand trading defaults across platforms.
That means that when you set a trading default on, say, the Web browser of yourbroker’s services so that your standard order type is a limit order, that setting alsoappears on your mobile app the next time you log in, and vice versa. This is mosthelpful when your watchlists synchronize between your desktop or laptop and yourmobile device. Until this year, most brokers required you to set up watchlists separatelyon each platform, a tedious task that, mercifully, appears to have gone extinct.
Smartwatch apps, which primarily display alerts such as trade executions, are offeredby 11 of our 16 brokers. The Apple Watch is supported by 10 of our brokers; one(Just2Trade) supports only Androidbased watches. Two brokers, Tradier Brokerageand TD Ameritrade, support both Apple and Android watches.
BUT LET’S GET TO the real excitement of our rankings. For 2017, Barron’s reviewed16 firms, each of which supplied us with a large amount of data and handson tradingaccounts. As has become customary, Vanguard once again rejected our overtures. Weconsidered resorting to other means because so many readers are interested in seeinghow Vanguard would stack up. But since much of the data we request is difficult to findwithout a firm’s help, we decided to move on.
Two brokers we’ve examined for many years, Scottrade and TradeKing, stepped awaythis year due to acquisitions. (In TradeKing’s case, the buyer was Ally Bank.) But wehave two newcomers: Planner Securities and Tradier, each of which has an interestingstory to tell.
To analyze 2017’s top brokers, we took a hard look at the value they offer to clients,analyzing security, mobility, and socialmedia features as well as the depth of theirinvestment tools and their trading capabilities. Our primary consideration in judgingthese 16 firms is how they work for our readers, who are highnetworth activeinvestors. Priceimprovement statistics are built into our Trading Experience andTechnology category.
The ability to set up a personalized experience, both on a computer and with a mobiledevice, is a key area of focus. We want to see how smoothly the system moves fromidea generation to trade ticket, and then on to reporting the results of one’s hard work.Customizable reporting is a concern. We think it’s important for investors and traders tounderstand which of their strategies work—and which need a little more work.
Three firms earned 4½ stars, and our winner, Fidelity, was a repeat from 2016. Itsmargin was a bare 1/10th of a point over longtime favorite Interactive Brokers. TDAmeritrade moved up one spot to No. 3. Five brokers, each with unique strengths,earned four stars: OptionsHouse, Charles Schwab, Merrill Edge, TradeStation, andE*Trade.
Because there are so many different trading styles, Barron’s also pinpoints top onlinebrokers in six categories—frequent trading, inperson service, investor education, longterm investing, services for novices, and options trading—to help you decide where youmight want to open an account or transfer an existing one (see table). We also showthe brokers that were at the extremes when we calculated the monthly cost of tradingfor infrequent traders, as well as for those who trade multiple times per day.
You can read about our methodology at Barrons.com in “How We Ranked Our OnlineBrokers,” and review the categories that informed our analysis in the tables “Barron’sOnline Broker Survey: How the Brokers Stack Up,” the most comprehensivecomparison we’re aware of listing the tools and services each firm provides. This year,we expanded the tables displaying research and news based on reader requests.Those requests are extremely helpful in our research, so please keep them coming.
Fidelity Investments (4½ stars) wins because of its excellent mobile tools andassistance available whenever you want it. The firm is one of the rare brokerages thatmaintained access to international markets when others walked away. Now that thecompany has lowered its base commission to $4.95 and its per contract options fee to65 cents, Fidelity’s full suite of tools and services is also a terrific value.
Fidelity is leading the way in making the quality of its trade executions moretransparent. We’re fans of the Fidelity report that displays after every execution showinghow much price improvement its trading engine generated.
As one of the three brokers that participate in the Financial Information Forum’svoluntary extended reporting program, which is working to standardize execution qualityreports (the others are Schwab and Scottrade), the firm also puts out quarterly reportsthat show the percentage of orders that were priceimproved, and the average savingsper order. In the fourth quarter of 2016, a 500to1,000 share order of a stock listed onthe S&P 500 attained an average savings of $10.25 per order at Fidelity. That gives youmore back in price improvement than you pay in commissions.
On its Website and in mobile apps, Fidelity’s design mandate is to create a unifiedcustomer experience, so that you don’t feel like you’re in a different universe on yourtablet compared with your desktop.
Its exchangetradedfund screener now includes technical pattern recognition poweredby Recognia, which lets you look for particular price events, such as a moving averagecrossover or, perhaps, a bullish engulfing line for candlestick enthusiasts. The screenerwill display all of the technical events you’ve chosen, then narrow down the choicesfurther by fundamental items, such as market capitalization, or pricing characteristicssuch as volatility. Fidelity also has an ETF Compare tool, which shows you similar fundsand lets you compare them side by side. ETFs that trade commissionfree—91 in all atFidelity—are indicated with an icon.
Fidelity has made a concerted effort to go after the millennial market, includingrepackaging educational content onto its mobile site. There are 12 programs availablenow, with more being added monthly. The Planning and Guidance center is designed toallow customers to focus on the future, planning for any kind of goal from college tuitionto retirement to taking a long vacation. Fidelity Go, the firm’s roboadvisory service, isclearly aimed at the younger set.
Fidelity has also added a site that allows guest access for 30 days and includes itspremium research. When the 30 days are up, you can decide whether to open anaccount.
Interactive Brokers (4½ stars) maintains its position near the top of the charts. IB isaiming at more than just the hyperactive trader these days. In order to ease a newcustomer onto its flagship trading platform, the downloadable Trader Workstation, orTWS, IB has launched a layout library that includes 20 predefined setups for differentstyles of trading. There are templates for options traders, fundamental research, andtraders who focus on the news. You can set up as many layouts as you’d like andswitch among them using the tabs at the bottom of the screen.
To keep from getting lost in the complexity of the Trader Workstation, IB introduced anartificialintelligenceenabled assistant named IBot, which responds to plain Englishquestions. IBot can answer queries about price quotes, option chains, order placement,upcoming corporate events, and market activity, among other things.
The trader’s journal has been enhanced significantly, allowing you to organize yournotes by underlying symbol so you can see all of your notes in one streaming view.These notes are stored on IB’s server, so you can access them whether you’re usingthe desktop, Web, or mobile version of the platform.
IB also offers 10 lowfee roboadvisory portfolios from its Covestor Smart BetaPortfolios unit. The portfolios combine automated investing with human oversight, andtheir riskreturn profiles are potentially more profitable than passive index trackers.Rather than being invested in ETFs, the portfolios, which are rebalanced quarterly,include a wide range of individual stocks. The minimum investment is $5,000, and theportfolios may include fractional shares of some of the stocks. Fees top out at 0.08%.
TD Ameritrade (4½ stars) moved up into the top three this year by enhancing each ofits platforms. On the Web, the experience of analyzing stocks has become morepersonalized in the My Stocks Overview section of its research section. The firm’sthinkorswim platform added global indexes to the charting package, as well as FederalReserve data. Technical traders can use an enhanced scanner, which looks for classicand candlestick patterns. You can even set up a scan graphically, by dragging anddropping components into the tool.
One of the creature comforts we appreciate is the way TD watchlists can be generatedquickly from the output of a screener and then made available to all platforms—including mobile. You can have a multiscreen setup that includes your mobile devices,and all of your data and watchlists are instantly synchronized.
The designer crew at TD has made thoughtful changes to the mobile experience,including the way long watchlists are sorted on smaller devices. Some other brokersdon’t allow you to access realtime streaming data on multiple devices simultaneously,mainly because of the cost of supplying the data. “We’re good at negotiating with dataproviders,” notes a technical manager at the firm. With 20% of trades occurring onmobile devices, the focus on mobile is appropriate.
Over the past year, TD launched its own roboadvisory service, Essential Portfolios, viaits advisory affiliate, TD Ameritrade Investment Management. Goalsetting is a keypiece of this service, with five diversified model portfolios recommended by Morningstar.Slider bars allow the client to make adjustments at any point in the investing cycle, anddisplay the updated results. For clients who are not projected to hit their targets, up tothree tips are presented to help them get back on track.
OptionsHouse (4 stars), which was acquired last year by E*Trade, continues tooperate as a separate entity but will be integrated into a single platform this year. Thecombined firms are targeting the summer for the completion of the process, which willoffer the OptionsHouse platform to E*Trade customers, and vice versa. OptionsHouse’sSteve Claussen assures us that the platform will not be going away, and will bedeveloping additional tools for analyzing and trading futures. When the merger iscomplete, OptionsHouse customers will be able to utilize E*Trade’s extensive educationofferings as well as its recentlylaunched roboadvisory.
On the mobile front, OptionsHouse launched two new native mobile apps in 2016, andis currently rolling out a new HTML5 application that can run on any device, fromdesktop to smartphone. The new layout is extremely flexible, and the design teamworked to reduce the number of clicks and taps that it takes to get around, and toprovide more functionality for active traders. Options chains displays snap onto thescreen. When placing an options order, data for the underlying stock continue tostream, keeping the trader up to date during the process of crafting a spread.
The platform has switched from a proprietary charting package to one powered by thirdparty Chart IQ, which has given OptionsHouse additional technical studies as well asfundamental data (dividends, earnings, splits) that display on a chart.
On mobile, the platform has been redesigned so that it can be operated with one hand,either right or left, for quick access to quotes and trading. The mobile options chainuses a tumbler for choosing strikes and dates rather than long dropdown menus. Thereare multiple trade analysis tools on both mobile and the HTML5 platform to make sureyou know the probability of success.
Charles Schwab (4 stars) continues to pull tools from optionsXpress into its flagshipWeb platform, and in the last year has invested into its trading infrastructure to supportthose tools. Once the integration is complete, Schwab will offer portfolio margining,which will be a benefit to active traders who use options to mitigate risk. Idea generationfunctions, including Trade Source, a gain/loss analyzer, have also been added to theWebsite.
The site has also been enhanced with additional personalization, such as acustomizable opening view with widgets that can be dropped into the display. Onceyou’ve updated this view on the Web, it follows you to your mobile app. For activetraders, StreetSmart Edge added quite a few options tools, including a nicely laidouttrading workflow. A probability calculator is built into the trade ticket. When viewing
account positions, you can resubmit, close, or roll out a position into a future strike withminimal effort.
One area where Schwab has made a big push is transparency around order executionand quality. The firm has introduced a new order routing system that allows it to makedirect comparisons of quality across execution venues. During the fourth quarter of2016, this new system ensured that 98.4% of shares traded in the 5001,999 sharebucket were executed at the current market quote or better, and the average savingsper order was $11.29. This focus on execution quality is most welcome.
Schwab’s roboadvisory service, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, managed to amass$12.3 billion in assets by the end of 2016, which is an incredible figure for a service thatlaunched in 2015. The firm has added another level of financial planning, SchwabIntelligent Advisory, which combines professional advisors with automated portfolios.Performance details are displayed upon logging in to the Website or the mobile apps.
Merrill Edge (4 stars) found that about 50% of its customers who are using its mobileapps are mobile only, so it pushed to enrich the experience on smartphones andtablets. The apps now include a Dashboard feature that displays your portfolio, andquite a bit of information related to your holdings such as corporate events, ratingschanges, and news. The events are presented based on how recently they occurred,and how impactful they are to your portfolio.
When placing a trade on a mobile app, the entire process can be done on a single pagerather than swiping back and forth. There is also quite a bit of customizable researchand education content that can be viewed on mobile. The charting function is slick –when you switch to landscape mode on your device, the charts are fully interactive,which includes indicators, event markers, and comparisons to peers, indexes, orsectors. Store the template and use it again for a different symbol. There was also anemphasis on longterm investing on mobile, integrating goal planning content with selfservice functions. In April, there will be a suite of mobile education modules through apartnership with Morningstar.
Back on the Website, an options strategy builder has been launched, which helps acustomer filter strategies by market outlook and volatility expectations. The optionsorder entry screen was updated as well. The MarketPro platform includes theOptionsPlay toolkit as well as Recognia’s pattern recognition.
Life events drive the planning and goalsetting capabilities of the platform. More than 20life events, such as getting married, sending a child to college, buying a house, orretiring are included. Merrill has been baking in an enterprisewide approach to helpingclients meet their goals with varying levels of assistance from completely selfdirectedto advisor managed. Merrill Edge Guided Investing is the firm’s roboadvisory, whichmakes it possible to restrict the ETFs that will be included in the account. Customerswith a Bank of America relationship, whether checking, savings, mortgage, or creditcard, can see a unified view of all accounts from Merrill Edge. You’ll find financialadvisors in almost every Bank of America branch.
TradeStation (4 stars) dropped its $99 monthly platform fee, and added a $5 flat ratecommission, which could be more appealing to less active traders. All customers will beable to access the firm’s RadarScreen tool for no extra charge as well. GainsKeeper, atax management system, has been integrated to make April a less cruel month. Otherenhancements include an Intraday Short Locate app to allow short sellers to find sharesto borrow. When viewing quote detail on a particular stock, you’ll be able to see an“easy to borrow” or “hard to borrow” indicator. Several algorithms for managing largeblock trades have also been published.
OptionsStation Pro is also available to all customers for no additional fee, and it hasbeen simplified considerably in the last year. At the bottom of the options chain screenare four tabs rather than the previous 12, with access to trading, analysis, positionmanagement, and search. When viewing an options chain, as you click on a bid or ask,a spread gets built. The platform recognizes the spread you are building, or you canclick on a dropdown menu to start with a particular strategy. The Analyze tab displays aprofit/loss graph, while the manage tab lets you quickly roll a strategy out, or add legs.
On mobile devices, options chain displays were expanded, including Greekscalculations. Conditional order types were enabled on mobile, as well as the ability toclose all positions with a click.
The firm added a huge amount of content to its educational offerings, with resourcesthat address all asset classes and skill levels. There are live Webinars every day themarket is open, including those on strategy trading, daily market intelligence, and “IWant To Be A Trader” sessions for novices. The platform is ideal for technical analysisjunkies, and for those who want to build their own trading system.
E*Trade (4 stars) rolled out its new Portfolio display last fall, which offers a muchcleaner layout with easier access to additional functionality. The aim was to allowcustomers to get more tasks done without having to leave the page, which was a mostwelcome update. The entire navigation experience was overhauled and simplified; as aresult, the Website feels much cleaner and uptodate. The Estimated Income tool wasoverhauled, giving customers a clearer picture of how their portfolios are generatingincome with a customizable time frame and the ability to seek out additional income.
E*Trade Pro’s charting package was significantly enhanced as well, including 110technical and fundamental studies and comparison tools. The charts created in E*TradePro can also be loaded in the mobile apps, which is a welcome crossplatformintegration.
With the acquisition of OptionsHouse, E*Trade will be able to offer additional optionsanalytics and trading functionality later this year. E*Trade launched its own roboadvisor, Adaptive Portfolio, in midyear, which allows combinations of actively andpassively managed ETFs and mutual funds. Portfolio analysis functions look similarwhen viewing a robogenerated portfolio or your regular portfolio in terms of assetallocation. The firm offers three other managed solutions with higher initial minimums.
Tradier (3½ stars) is an interesting animal. This is its first year in our survey since itsfounding in 2012, and what it provide is essentially a trading engine and a back officemanagement system to which third party developers can attach a front end. So it’shard to review when compared to the others in the story since there are so manypossibilities inherent in this model. There are currently about 100 developers whopartner with Tradier, including eSignal, Quantcha, Mobile Interactive and MissingStep.CEO Stephen Ehrlich, an industry veteran, joined the firm in May and says it plans toadd another 100 providers and build its own front end this year. Ehrlich also said that itis about to announce an acquisition but was not ready to reveal the target when wewent to press.
Customers can use any front end they’d like, and subscribe to multiple partners. Sinceall account settings and data are stored in the cloud, you could use Livevol Core foryour options trading and analysis, and then switch over to Technician for chartbasedanalysis and trading. Mobile apps are dependent on the partner. Most of the partnerscharge a subscription fee that is often waived based on trading activity.
The platform earns 3½ stars based on its flexibility and pricing. In April, Tradier will offerits customers monthly flat fee possibilities for unlimited trading: $19.95 for equities, and$99 for options. Currently the flat fee is available through a handful of partners includingEF Hutton (the direct investment platform that owns the storied name), Chart IQ,Equities.com, and Key2Options. Very frequent traders could save a lot of money usingthese flat fees.
Lightspeed Trading (3½ stars) spent the first half of 2016 focusing on its smallinstitutional clients, but turned back to the retail and active trader space in the secondhalf of the year. One of its goals was to provide more content to clients, which resultedin a partnership with TipRanks, which lets you evaluate analyst and bloggerrecommendations, and includes a realtime feed of analyst updates. There were alsosome cosmetic enhancements to the order entry process, making it simpler.
For options traders, Lightspeed customers can access the Livevol options scanner forfree, which can otherwise cost you $100 per month. A smart order router for complexoptions trades was also implemented this year. The platform performed very reliablyduring the whirlwind trading episodes experienced over the last year. It’s worth a lookfor the very active trader or hedge fund.
SogoTrade (3 stars) redesigned their Website in the last year, making navigation muchsimpler. They also put the entire account application process online, which savesinternational applicants a lot of time since they no longer need to print out, sign, andmail the new account forms. There were also enhancements made to the API, allowingdevelopers and institutional customers to connect their own front end to the SogoTradeengine. OptionsPlay has been fully integrated; clicking on Trade once a spread hasbeen chosen by the investor populates a trade ticket. “About 75% of our customerstrade options,” reports Senior Vice President Kris Wallace.
The firm is making a conscious effort to attract costconscious customers who don’twant to be swallowed up by one of the larger firms. So they are offering 100 free tradesfor new clients for the first 30 days after an account is opened. They also offer theirlowest pricing tier, $3 per equity trade, to customers who transfer $10,000 or more intoa new account. With offices in Taiwan, the firm caters to Chinesespeaking traders.
SogoTrade’s parent company acquired MarketRiders this month, one of the earlyentrants in the roboadvisory space. Wallace says, “The days of 1% and greateradvisory fees are coming to a close. A large and growing percentage of the under40age demographic demands mobile access to advanced portfolio asset allocationmodels at competitive pricing.”
eOption (3 stars) completed the launch of its new desktop and mobile trading platformsin 2016, which includes enhanced research and improved charting technology andincreased security. The mobile platform is moving closer to the desktop in terms offunctionality, but remains a different experience for now. The firm’s guiding light withnew development is now “mobile first,” and they are making sure that all new featureswill be delivered to iOS and Android platforms simultaneously with the desktop. Watchlists and other features sync across platforms.
Social media sharing has been enabled in the platform, allowing customers to sharearticles to a variety of venues. The charting platform has been enhanced, and displaysentry and exit points for your trades. When placing a trade, all commissions and feesare explicitly spelled out, including regulatory fees, so there are no surprises.
The big advantage to eOption is the ability to trade enormous spreads at low cost. Thisfirm is by far the least expensive choice for heavy options traders, and theenhancements to the platform make it easy to build spreads quickly.
Firstrade (3 stars) focused on enhancing its options platform over the last year, addingsupport for 3 and 4legged strategies. The ability to roll a strategy forward was addedas part of this upgrade, as was a rewrite of the buying power and risk engine to provideadditional funds for purchase of securities for those using margin.
The firm was one of the six cutting its commissions this winter, and is now even withSchwab and Fidelity at $4.95 for equities. Firstrade remains committed to providingrealtime streaming data, high quality market information, and research. It also hasmultilingual customer service representatives available to provide live help. CEO JohnLiu says, “We believe it is vital that customers are able to reach out to a real personwhen they have questions about their money.”
Firstrade is seeing trades on its mobile platform grow to 25% of all transactions placed,and expects to see 30% by the end of the year. They are launching a new mobile applater this year, and expect the number of mobile users to increase significantly acrossthe industry.
Just2Trade (2 stars) streamlined its Website and enhanced their mobile apps over thelast year. Just2Trade’s fees are very low, at $2.50 per stock trade, but the firm does notoffer access to mutual funds or bonds. The Webbased trading application hasstreaming data with stock and options trading functionality that is relatively basiccompared to others in the survey. Tabs offering access to charts and trading ideas opennew windows that access thirdparty Websites, including advanced charting under theTradeX banner and trading ideas on BestTrades.
For more advanced trading and analytical capabilities, you can access your Just2Tradeaccount through several thirdparty applications, though you’ll pay additional fees.
Sponsored Results
1. Best Stock Broker
2. How To Trade Stocks Online
3. Online Broker Rankings
4. Best Online Brokers
5. Best Online Trading
6. Stock Market Day Trading
7. Online Broker Reviews
8. Best Commodity Brokers
These include the recentlyadded MetaTrade, Sterling Trader Pro, OEC Trader andCQG Trader. The mobile futures trading platform, iBroker, is also available.
Trading Block (2 stars) had a fairly quiet year in 2016 as most of the firm’s focus wason rebuilding its middleware to better serve its network of registered independentadvisors and brokers. The longscheduled revamp of the clientfacing front end will takeplace this year. Trading Block’s score suffers because they do not offer a mobile tradingplatform yet, and fees are on the high side after all the other price cuts.
TradingBlock’s suite of proprietary scanners, which include TradeBuilder and PortfolioHedger for free, allow you to look for options strategies and collar strategies to protectexisting stock or ETF positions. You can add EdgeFinder for $199/month, which is arealtime customizable scanner that analyzes over 30 different variables to locatepotential trades. It also has a method for finding mispriced contracts, which can result inmore profitable trades.
Planner Securities (2 stars) focuses on bringing foreign accounts to the U.S. markets.Its current big push is into Brazil, but the firm is also present in Russia, Ireland, andBulgaria. The platform offers research on Brazilian ADRs, and also automatically opensan iBillionaire roboadvisory account for every new customer. “If you trade, allocate 10%of the commissions generated and put them into the robo,” says Humberto Santos,Planner Securities’ managing director.
The trading platform is AlphaPlan, which is a flexible Webbased application. The firm’sinvestment banking side also provides private equity, and offers management andfinancial advisory services to professional soccer players from Brazil and elsewhere.
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Like Barron’s on Facebook
Follow Barron’s on Twitter
NEWEST OLDEST
117 PEOPLE LISTENING
2 days agoAl Peinhardt
As a decades-long Fidelity client, I can attest to Fidelity's push for millennials. I've relied heavily on theirscreener. However, just this week they dumped their old classic screener and substituted a really dumbed
Email Print 4 Comments Order Reprints
4 comments
+ Follow Share Post comment
BARRONS ADSALES
Powered by Livefyre
down version that's reduced its functionality. I'm trying out a screener that I have to pay for, but I'd beinterested in whether another broker has a good screener.
Flag Share Like Reply
2 days agoPaul Foote
While I have a Fidelity account for its research resources, I seldom use the account. Fidelity provides adesktop platform only for its most active taders. Anyone can have the best desktop platform fromthinkorswim. Nio one matches thinkorswim's On Demand for backtesting. With thinkorswim, I do not payticket charges for options-only trades. I can enter multiple-leg transactions in a single ticket. In myFidelity account, I cannot even enter a married put transaction as a single transaction. I need to payFidelity two ticket charges. In my optionsXpress account, I can enter multiple-leg transactions. In mySchwab accounts, I cannot place all of the same transactions in a single ticket. Schwab has beenclaiming for a long time that it will integrate optionsXpress. Schwab has failed to do so. Like Fidelity,Schwab charges me a ticket charge for an options-only trade. Considering costs only, there are somebrokers offering lower costs for options traders. However, thinkorswim offers prompt trade support, swimlessons, chats with other traders, and a huge number of technical studies from which to select.
Flag Share 2 Like Reply
2 days agoMICHAEL SANDRIK
@Paul Foote Agreed, TOS is great.
Flag Share Like Reply
1 day agoTheresa Carey BARRON'S
Schwab says the integration will be completed this year. They had a ton of back-end work todo on both sides. WHen the integration is completed, portfolio margining will be available,which requires an entire revamp of their risk management system.
Fidelity will let anyone have the platform who asks, really, especially if you have lot of assets inyour account(s). There are extra costs to Fidelity to provide all the streaming data, so theydon't just give it away.
And I agree, TOS is great.
Flag Share 1 Like Reply
Barron'sFacebookTwitter Google+LinkedInYouTubeRSS Feed AppStore Google Play
Return to Top
Customer Service
Customer Center
Contact Us
Live Help
Create an Account
Subscribe to Barron's
Magazine Subscribers: Activate Your Digital Access
About Barrons.com
Advertising
Masthead
Privacy Policy
Updated Cookie Policy
Data Policy
Copyright Policy
Subscriber Agreement & Terms of Use
Your Ad Choices
Community Guidelines
Also From Barron's
Conferences
Reprints
Classifieds
College Program
Find a Broker
Barron's in Japanese
Tools & Services
Mobile Site
Email Newsletters
Barron's on iPad/iPhone
Barron's on Android
Watchlist
Video
Annual Reports
StockGrader
Barron's 400
Economic Calendar
Stock & Mutual Fund Listings
Commodities, Options & Annuities Listings
Fund Prospectuses
Copyright ©2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WSJ WSJ LIVE MARKETWATCH BARRON'S DJX MORE
ASIA EDITION
U.S. EDITIONWelcome, BARRONS Customer Center Logout
BARRON'S TABLE WIDE
Barron’s Online Broker Survey 2017: How They Stack UpHere are the 7 categories of service we examined to rate brokers for online stock and options trading.
March 18, 2017 1:21 a.m. ET
1 General Brokerage Information
Firm WebsitePhone (fornew customerqueries)
BrowserorSoftwareBased
Can NonU.S.ResidentsOpen anAccount?
PortfolioMargining
StockLoanProgram
SecurityFeatures WebPlatform
SecurityFeatures SoftwarePlatform
LoginSecurityFeatures
ClearingFirm
TargetCustomer
CharlesSchwab schwab.com 8668559102 Both Yes
ViaoptionsXpressaccount
Yes
128bitsecuresocketslayer(SSL3) andEVcertificates
128 bitencryptionbetweensoftwareandservers.
Securitytokensavailable onrequest
SelfClearing
Investors andtraders lookingfor everythingfrom advice toadvancedtrading tools.
eOption eoption.com 8887935333 Browser
13countriessupported,minimum$25,000accountbalance.
No Yes 2048bitSSL
SSLencryption
Securitytokenavailableuponrequest
HilltopSecurities
Costconciousoptions tradersinterested intrading stragiesthat eOption'scommissionstructuremakesaffordable
E*Trade etrade.com800ETRADE1 (8003872331)
Both No Yes No
2048bitEVcertificates,TLS 128bitencryption.
2048bitEVcertificates,TLS 128bitencryption.
Digitalsecurity IDtokenavailable onrequest foraccountsover$50,000;soft tokenavailable forfree
Selfclearing
Engaged,active investorsand longtermmass affluentinvestors
Fidelity fidelity.com 8003433548 Both No Yes Yes
TLSencryptionwith 2048bit RSApublic keys
256bitAES.Force 128bitencryptionat aminimum
Symantectokenavailable forWeb login;soft tokensfor otherdevices;twofactorauthorizationfor high risktransactions.
SelfClearing
From novicesto activetraders, andthose inbetween.
Firstrade firstrade.com 8008698800 Browser19countriessupported
No NoAES 256bitencryption
n/a Browserbased PIN
ApexClearing
Novice tomoderatelyactive selfdirectedinvestors whoseekpersonalizedservice.
InteractiveBrokers interactivebrokers.com 8774422757
Both(softwareis primaryplatform)
Over 200countriessupported
Yes Yes 128bitSSL
128bitSSL
Hard tokenorsmartphoneapp
Selfclearing
Active traders,institutions andadvisorslooking forattractivepricing andextensiveresearchamenities
Just2Trade just2trade.com 8552744934 Browser Yes No No SSLprotocolTLS 1.2
n/a PIN for loginto newdevices
COR Mass affluentdemographicknowledgeableaboutinvesting,comfortabletradingindependently
LightspeedTrading lightspeed.com
1888LSPD123 OR 6463934800
Both(softwareis primaryplatform)
Yes,exceptOFACrestrictedcountries
Yes No 128bitencryption
128bitencryption
VPN clientwith multilayer loginprocess; softtokenavailable forweb access
Wedbush
Sophisticatedinvestorsincludingactive retailtraders, hedgefunds,institutions, proprietarytrading groupsand algorithmicfirms
Merrill Edge merrilledge.com 8886373343 Browser No No No
SSL SHA2256 bithashalgorithm;EVcertificates
n/a
Soft token,onetimepasscodevia SMS,email orphone;SafePasscard onrequest.
MerrillLynch,Pierce,Fenner, &Smith
Investors whowant goodtrading tools aswell as accessto advice, cashmanagement,and integratedbankingproducts
OptionsHouse optionshouse.com 8775983190 Browser No Yes Yes
128bitencryptionincludingMD5 andSHAschemas;fullysignedHTTPScertificateprotection
n/a User ID andpassword
ApexClearing
Selfdirectedactive investorsand traderswho seekopportunities toexecute simpleand complexoptionsstrategies
PlannerSecurities alphaplan.us 6463817000 Browser Yes No Yes SSL n/a User ID and
passwordApexClearing
NonUSresidents,mostlyBrazilian,interested inaccess to U.S.markets
Sogotrade SogoTrade.com 8887097040 Browser
Yes,exceptOFAC andFATF restrictedcountries
No Yes Up to 256bit SSL n/a
Browserbased PINenteredthrough onscreenkeypad
ApexClearing
Costconciousinvestors of allexperience andasset levelsinterested instocks, optionsand ETFs;longterminvestors are
Email Print 0 Comments Order Reprints
HOME MAGAZINE DAILY INVESTING IDEAS ADVISOR CENTER MARKET DATA PENTA BARRON'S NEXT
News, Quotes, Companies, Videos SEARCH
countries keypad target of itsnewMarketRidersacquisition
TDAmeritrade tdameritrade.com 8004549272 Both Yes Yes No AES SSL AES256
Devicerecognition;unfamiliardevicetriggerschallengequestions
Selfclearing; ForexclearingbyWedbush
The entirespectrum of theinvesting andtradingcommunity;tools, services,and educationtailored to eachlevel
TradeStation TradeStation.com 8008089336
Both(softwareis primaryplatform)
Yes No Yes 128bitSSL
Proprietarysecurityfeatures
TwostepverificationthroughSymantecVIP
Selfclearing
Highly active,sophisticatedretail traders,and less activetraders whoaspire to more,seekingadvancedanalysis andexecutioncapabilities
Tradier tradier.com 9802723880 Both Yes No No n/a n/a User ID andpassword.
ApexClearing
The engagedretail investor
TradingBlock tradingblock.com 8004940451 BothYes, 4countriessupported
Yes No
Up to 256bit SSL;Sterlingplatformmaintainedby provider
256bitSSL No Apex
Clearing
Engaged stockinvestors,optionsinvestors,independentinvestmentadvisors andregisteredrepresentativeson Webplatform; activetraders onsoftwareplatform
2 TRADE EXPERIENCE
CustomizableTradingDefaults
Tax LotSelectionWhenPlacingOrder
MultipleOrderEntry
Ordersbestagedfor laterentry
Place orders inmultipleaccountssimultaneously
Tradesplaced indollaramounts(ex: $10,000of MSFT)
Baskettrading
Customerdesignationof orderrouting
Customerroutingorders toIEX
Automatedtradingstrategy
Tradingjournal
Fractionalshares ofstock
Automaticdividendreinvestment
CharlesSchwab
In StreetSmartEdge
Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Activetradersenabled fordirectaccess
No No In StreetSmartEdge
Yes Yes
eOption Yes No Yes No No No No No NoAutotradenewsletterssupported
No Yes Yes (accountwide setting)
E*Trade E*Trade Proand mobileapps
Yes Yes E*TradePro: Yes No E*Trade Pro:
Yes No E*TradePro: Yes
E*TradePro: Yes
E*TradePro: Yes,via API
E*Trade Pro:Yes Yes Yes (broker
assisted)
Fidelity Yes. Yes Yes Yes Yes (ActiveTrader Pro only)
Yes (Webonly)
Yes(Webonly)
Web:Optionsonly. ActiveTrader Pro:Yes
No InWealthLabPro
Yes No Yes (accountwide setting)
Firstrade No
Adjustedaftertrade vialivebroker.
No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes (posttrade)
InteractiveBrokers
Yes(extensive) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes (multiplemethods)
Yes Yes Yes, viaAPI Yes
Yes(CovestorSmartBeta)
Yes (accountwide setting)
Just2Trade Yes No Yes No No No Yes No No No No No No
LightspeedTrading
Yes(extensive) No Yes Yes RealTick or
Sterling: Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes, viaAPI No Yes No
Merrill Edge Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Via livebroker
Yes, vialive broker No Yes Yes Yes
OptionsHouse Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Via livebroker No Yes
Yes, anexcellentimplementation
Yes Yes, via livebroker
PlannerSecurities Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes
Sogotrade Yes No No No No Yes No No No No SogoOptions:Yes Yes Yes
TDAmeritrade
Yes (extensive viathinkorswimplatform)
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TradeStation Yes(extensive)
No (FIFOonly) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
A strengthof thisplatform
Yes No No
Tradier No Yes Yes Yes No Indevelopment Yes No No Yes Yes No No
TradingBlock Software only No Viasoftware
Yes(software) No No
Software:Yes.Web:Advisorsonly
Yes(software)
Yes(software)
Softwareplatform viaAPI
No No By request totrade desk
3 Range of OfferingsAverageNo."EasytoBorrow"Stocks(1)
CommissionFree ETFs
MutualFunds:Total
MutualFunds:NoLoad
MutualFunds: NoTransactionFee
Options:Complexmax no.of legs
Bonds(2)
SingleStockFutures
FuturesOptions
Futures /Commodities
ForeignADRs Forex Robo
Advisor InternationalExchanges
CharlesSchwab
Does notmaintainETB list;over10,000stocksavailableto short
226 16,807 13,026 7,046 4C, T,M, CD,I
Via oXaccount
Via oXaccount
Via oXaccount Yes
8currenciesavailablefor equitytrading
SchwabIntelligentPortfolios
Globalinvestingservices (viabroker) in 30countries
eOption 2,200 0 8,876 1,289 451 4 C, T,M, CD No No No Yes No No None
E*Trade 6,000 133 9,103 5,877 4,474
4 online,up to 8via livebroker
C, T,M, CD,I
No Yes Yes Yes No AdaptivePortfolio None
Fidelity 3,000 91 11,681 3,816 3,671 4
C, T,M, CD.I viabroker.
No No No Yes
16currenciesonline, 4more viabroker
Fidelity Go
Canada,Mexico, So.America (3),Europe (24),Asia (12),PacificIslands (3),So. Africa.
Firstrade 4,200 12 12,954 5,241 473
2 online,up to 5viabroker
C, T,M, CD No No No Yes No No None
InteractiveBrokers 7,400 41 8,327 5,567 2,911 8
C, T,M, CD,I
Yes Yes Yes Yes22currencies,91 pairs
CovestorSmart Beta,PortfolioBuilder,various 3rdparty options
Canada (7),Mexico (2),Europe (46),Asia (12),PacificIslands (4).CFDs onmultipleexchanges.
Via Meta
Just2Trade 3,800 0 0 0 0 2 n/a No Yes Yes Yes NoVia MetaTrader 5Market Place
None
LightspeedTrading
5,600 0 0 0 0 4+ C, T No Yes Yes Yes 38 pairs No None
Merrill Edge 3,800 0 13,270 6,541 6,153 2
C, T,M, CD.I viabroker.
No No No Yes NoMerrill EdgeGuidedInvesting
Via livebroker
OptionsHouse 4,000 5 12,472 4,946 0 4C, T,M, CD,I
Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Futures ondollardenominatedproducts
PlannerSecurities
Noanswer 0
ViaLiveBroker
0 0 4 C, T, I No No No Yes No Yes Via livebroker
SogoTrade 3,925 0 12,474 4,800 340 4
C, T,M, CDand Iviabroker.
No No No Yes No MarketRiders None
TDAmeritrade 3,000 101 13,071 7,891 4,019 8
C, T,M,CD; Iviabroker.
Viabroker Yes Yes Yes 77 Pairs Essential
PortfoliosVia livebroker
TradeStation 3,000 0 4,854 988 0 4+ Viabroker No Yes Yes Yes No No Europe (7)
Tradier 4,000 0 12,000 4,900 400 4 C, T,M, CD No No No No No Openinvest None
TradingBlock 4,000 0 12,406 1,233 0 4C, T,M, CD,I
Yes(softwareplatform)
Yes(softwareplatform)
Yes YesViasoftwareplatform
For reps andadvisors only None
(1) Number of stocks on the broker's "Easy to Borrow" list as of 2/1/2017
(2) Bonds: C=Corporate, T= US Treasuries, M=Municipal, CD=Certificates of Deposit, I=International
4 Research Amenities: Screeners, Data, Charting
Stock/ETFscreener
OptionsStrategyScanner
Mutual FundScreener
BondScreener
Canscreenerresults beexported?
Real TimeStreamingStockQuotes
Real TimeStreamingOptionsQuotes
Limits toRealTimeQuotes forNonProfessionalTraders
VolatilityData
HistoricalVolatilityData (1)
StockHistoryforCharting
StockChartingSupplier
Daily MarketReports Analyst Reports Real Time Streaming
News Feeds
HighBalance/FrequentTrader ResearchBonuses
AdditionalResearch
CharlesSchwab
Fundamentaland technicalscreens onWebsite andStreetSmartEdge; Recogniaand ScreenerPlus inStreetSmartEdge; preferredstock screener;customizable
Screener with20 presetscreens,customizable;TradeAssessorscreens basedon customer'sforecasts;Option Builderhelps find,price andplace 2leggedstrategies
Basicscreener with16 criteria,advancedwith 60criteria; 11presetscreens;customizable;availableoutside login.
Can searchfor corporate,munis,agencies,Treasuriesand CDs;corporatescreenerallows searchby underlyingstock symbol;full lengthcredit reportsfor munis andcorporates
Yes, toExcel; canalso createwatchlistsfromscreenerresults
Yes Yes None
Chartingstudy inStreetSmartplatforms;calculatedfor eachoption inbothStreetSmartEdge andon Web
IV 6 years;AV 19 years
15 years(activetraderplatforms)
Markit onDemand,Recognia; StreetSmartEdgecharting isproprietary
Credit SuisseFirst Edition,Last Edition,Traders Forum,Equity HighNoon, andmore; MorningstarMorning Notes;Ned DavisResearch DailyEconomicCommentary;Market EdgeDailyCommentary;Argus MarketDigest, MarketUpdate andMarket Watch;Schwab MarketUpdatepublished fivetimes per day;Economic,earnings, andsplits calendarsfromBriefing.com;Dividendscalendars fromThomsonReuters
Schwab ratings andresearch, Argus,Briefing.com, CreditSuisse, EconomistIntelligence Unit,MarketEdge,Morningstar,Recognia ChartPatterns, Reuters,S&P, Trader Market(Randy Frederick'sweekly blog), andVickers Insider
AP Online, BusinessWire, CanadaNewsWire,CCNMatthews CNBC,CompanynewsGroup,Daily Options News,Dow Jones,GlobeNewswire,Hugin, Investrend,Jagnotes, JCNCorporate News,Knight Ridder/Tribune,M2, MarketWire,MarketWatch (US andCanada), Mergent(Asia/Pacific), PRNewswire,PrimeNewswire,Reuters, Street Insider,Trade Ideas, U.S.Newswire, UnitedPress International,Securities andExchange Commission– Edgar Filings
Nothing additional.
BondSource NewIssue Alerts, OnInvesting (quarterlymagazine),MarketEdge,Schwab Centerdaily and middayupdates, SchwabInvesting Insights,Mutual Fund SelectList updates, ArgusResearch Alerts,Morningstar Equityreports;Internationalresearch via NedDavis, CreditSuisse andMorningstar; clients canpurchase oraccess a variety ofthirdparty toolsfrom the Trader'sMarketplaceincludingBriefing.com, IBD,MarketEdge,StockCharts,Trader's Library,Wiley, XTF,FlyontheWall,Hidden Levers,MarketTaker,OptionsPlay, andothers
eOption No builtinscreeners
Basic screenerplusOptionsPlay
None None No Yes Yes None Yes
Historical IVnotavailable;AV providedby QuoteMedia.
10+ years QuoteMedia
Daily MarketReport fromRecognia;Morning MarketInsight posted90 minutes afteropen
Summary of analystratings (Buy, Sell,Hold) fromQuoteMedia
MarketQ streaming(may incur fee);Business Wire, PRNewswire, and RTTNews
Nothing additional.
Comtex News,OneOption,Recognia, andOptionsPlay
E*Trade On Web,fundamentaland technicalscreens withpredefinedstrategies;customizable.E*Trade Prohas StrategyScanner withpredefinedscreens
Screener,strategyoptimizer,optionsanalyzer, andprobabilitycalculator
Markit onDemandscreeneravailableoutside login;61 criteria, 22preset scans,customizable;can compareup to 5funds/ETFs;mutual fund"All StarList;" cancompare upto 5 ETFsand mutualfunds onsingle page
Customizablescreener andbond ladderbuilder; cansearch onstock symbolto find bondsissued bythat company
No Yes Yes None StreamingIV andGreeks inPro
IV and AVsince 2011.
34+ years Markit onDemand onetrade.com;proprietarycharting onE*Trade Pro.
MorningstarIntra Day newsarticles,researchreports, marketcommentary,articles andvideos; DailyMarketCommentaryprovided byBriefing.comand S&PCapital IQ.
S&P Capital IQ,Moody's, ThomsonReuters, Morningstar,MarketEdge, Trefis,Research Team(Smart Consensus); TipRanks offersaggregated opinionsfrom over 4,000analystis and 4,500bloggers.
E*Trade Pro: CNBCstreaming, Dow Jones,MarketWatch, PRNewswire,BusinessWire,MarketWire,GlobeNewswire,Briefing.com; CNBCStreaming alsoavailable on Web
Credit Suissereports for clientswith $100,000 inassets.
E*Trade.com:TipRanks, DowJones,MarketWatch, PRNewswire,Business Wire,MarketWire, andGlobeNewswire; commentary fromE*TRADE CapitalManagement,Morningstar, S&PCapital IQ,Briefing.com,Seeking Alpha,Trefis, Minyanville,Dreyfus,BondDesk, CMEGroup, and DailyFX
Fidelity
Fundamentaland technicalscreens withcustomizableweighting ofcriteria; canscreen on chartpatterns; 56builtin stockscreens and 13ETF screens;customizable;ETF screener inmobile apps aswell
StrategyPairing Toollets clientswho knowwhatunderlying andoption strategyinterests themto scan fortrading ideas;StrategyEvaluatorevaluates andcomparesdifferentstrategies;results canpopulate atrade ticket;Active TraderPro has ascreener with26 presetstrategies andthe ability tocreate customscreens;ProbabilityCalculator;"What If"evaluator
3 scannerson Website,including aCompareFunds tool. FundEvaluatorincludesinteractivesliders,customizablecolumns, andsorting; FundPicks listupdatedquarterly
Extensiveability tosearch livebondinventory;access tonew issuesand CDs;fixedincomepage alsofeatures anInterest RateSensitivityAnalysis
Yes (toExcel)
Yes inActiveTrader Proand oniPad app
Yes inActiveTrader Proand oniPad app
None
30, 60, and90day IV inActiveTrader Pro
IV and AV180 days inActiveTrader Pro
45 years
Customizablecharting isproprietary;Recogniasuppliestechnicalpatterns andevents
Multiple reportsavailable fromS&P, HightowerReport, NedDavisResearch, andZacks
Analystrecommendations andupgrades/downgradesfrom over 125 firms;access to researchreports on more than6,000 stocks frommore than 12independent 3rd partyresearch firms; EquitySummary Score fromStarMine andInvestars; Fidelitycouples currentanalystrecommendationswith their respectivehistorical accuracy.
Active TraderPro andATP.com displaystreaming news, asdoes the iPad app
Active tradersreceive additionaltechnical analysistools fromRecognia
Briefing.com,Business Wire,Canada Newswire,CCNMatthews,CompanyNewsGroup, DowJones RealtimeNews, Hugin,Investrend, JCNNewswire, JCNNetwork,MarketWatch,Market Wire, MCTBusiness News,Midnight Trader,PR Newswire, PRNEuropean,PrimeZone,Reuters, SECFilings 10kWizard,FlyOnTheWall, UPITop News, UPIBusiness News,UPI BusinessHealth News, UPIHiTech News,Markit OnDemand,Market News IntlFixed IncomeBullets, BondBuyer; S&PReports,Hightower, Zacks,and Recognia
Firstrade
Screener with 7preset OptionsPlay
integrated into 31 criteria for KnightBondpoint No Yes Yes None Implied No 55 years Morningstar Unspecified
Morningstar reportsmultiple times daily;Weekly EconomicInsights, MarketOutlook, ResearchHighlights, and
Zacks, Briefing.com,Benzinga (Premium), Weekly
Morningstar Morningstar ETF
Firstrade strategies;customizable
integrated intoplatform screening Bondpoint
screener No Yes Yes None volatility No 55 years Morningstar Unspecified Highlights, and
Upgrades andDowngrades fromBriefing.com;Morningstarcommentary videos
PR Newswire, andBusinessWire
Morningstarnewsletter research reports
InteractiveBrokers
Fundamental,technical,mediasentimentscreeners; 46presetstrategies;customizable;technicalstudies can beapplied to 30years ofhistorical data
ProprietaryscannersincludeProbabilityLab, OptionsStrategy Laband OptionStrategyActivityScanner
Mutual FundReplicatorscans forETFs thatreplicateperformanceof a selectedfund at lowercost toinvestors
Proprietaryscreener with29 criteria;Muni BondScannerallows clientsto scan over1,000,000muni bondson 28 criteria
Yes (toExcel)
All quotesarestreaming
All quotesarestreaming
100simultaneousrealtimequotes atBaseline;active tradersreceive moresimultaneousquotes; lessactive traderswho wantmore than100simultaneousquotes canpurchasesubscriptions
VolatilityLabincludes 3skew tools,3 plottingtools, 2optionactivitygraphs
IV and AV 6years 30 years
Proprietarycharting builtin to platform;can connecta wide rangeof thirdpartyapplicationsvia API
IB Daily Lineup(free), includes(a) top 10 newsarticles, (b)analystupgrades anddowngrades, (c)Briefing StockMarket Update,and (d) majorindex levels andcharts;subscribers toDiscountResearchBundle also getan economicevent calendarand a corporateearningscalendar in theDaily Lineup;premium dailyreports forfutures areavailable fromThe HightowerReport
Analyst ratingshistory, a 2yeargraph of mean ratingswith a log ofupgrade/downgradeactivity; Zacks,Briefing Daily SectorWrap, Briefing RateBrief, and BriefingFed Brief; AltaVista,Seeking AlphaEarnings CallTranscripts, andMarket Realist;Premium reportsavailable includingValidea, TheStreetQuant Ratings, Argusand Rareview Macro
24/7 Wall Street,StreetInsider.com,Seeking Alpha,MarketWatch,Morningstar, FoxBusiness, and IBTrader's Insight;premium newswiresavailable for additionalfee: Dow Jones,Briefing.com,FlyOnTheWall,Benzinga Pro, and MTLiveBriefs.
Nothing additional
IB Daily Lineup,MarketPlace@IB,worldwide data,and Morningstarequity analystreports;Subscriptionsavailable for:AltaVista, AsburyResearch (stockmarket,dollar/commodities,interest rates,market sectors,investmentcompass, andweekly wrapupsreports available),Argus, Estimize,ETF Guide, FordEquity Research,Guosen,HammerstoneMarkets, TheHightower Report(energy, financials,grains, livestock,metals, softcommodities, dailyand weekly reportsavailable), MarketEdge, MarketGrader, MRP, Morningstar(equity, ETF,credit), NewConstructs, OTRGlobal, PropThin,Rareview Macro,SADIF Analytics,TheStreet QuantRatings, Validea,ValuEngine, andWaveryly Advisors(macro)
Just2Trade None Very basic None None n/a Yes Yes None Impliedvolatility No 16 years Proprietary None None Forbes, other free
sources. Nothing additional Nothing additional
LightspeedTrading
Fundamental,technical,TradeIdeas(Technical); nopreset screens;customizable
Scanners onWeb and in
softwareplatform
None None Yes All quotesarestreaming
All quotesarestreaming
Based onclient's datasubscription
Yes IV and AV 2years (3rd
partysoftware)
10 years Proprietary Yes (contentunspecified)
TipRanks Professional newsfeed ($10/month)
Exclusive researchoffered to selectclients; Lightspeedprefers to keep theresearch providersconfidential
Audio broadcastnews service;strategicpartnershipsprovide clients withdaily stock specificnews and analysis;technical ETFnewsletter andalerts; VIPaccounts haveaccess toadditional research
Merrill Edge
Bank ofAmerica MerrillLynchscreeners;Morningstarand Cap IQscreens includedefinedscreeners suchas WarrenBuffett Stocksand CashCows; Recogniascreener fortechnicalanalysis;customizable.
Proprietaryscanner thatstarts withcustomer'soutlook onequity priceand volatility;up to 4leggedstrategies canbe selected
Select Fundsand SelectETFsscreeners;Morningstarand Lipperratings plusmany othercriteria
Proprietaryscreener Yes Yes Yes None Yes IV and AV 30+ years Markit On
Demand
Bank ofAmerica MerrillLynch MorningCall;Morningstar andS&P IntradayResearch Notesand AnalystReports;Briefing.comMarket UpdatesandCommentary
Morningstar andMerrill Lynch research
Thomson Reuters,Dow Jones, BusinessWire, and PRNewsWire
Nothing additional
PR NewsWire,Business Wire,BAML MorningCall, Morningstar,S&P IntradayResearch Notes,Merrill Edge ETFSelect List
OptionsHouse
ProprietaryLiveActionscans in realtime onfundamentaland technicaldata with over100 predefinedscreens forstocks andETFs;customizable;140 fields tochoose fromthat includevolatility,volume andorder flowstatistics
Four strategyscanners:StrategySeek,AdjustTrade(to roll existingstrategies),SpreadMakerand StrategySearch fromoptions chaindisplay; extensive anddeep optionsscanning tools
No screeningtoolscurrentlyavailablewhile newplatform isbuilt
None
Yes, as awatchlist,to Excel, orto .PDF
Yes Yes
Only for verylow balanceaccounts orinactiveaccounts (notrades in past3 months)
StreamingIV for everyexpirationshown vs.its 30dayaverage;extensivevolatilitystudies.
IV 8 years,AV 20years.
20+ years Proprietary None
1015 proprietarydaily reports; live dailyWebcast with guestanalysts; Reutersreports; ResearchLABteam producesanalyst reports onhundreds of symbolsand symbol groupsthroughout the day;premium researchavailable at additionalfee.
optionMONSTER,Zacks, Benzinga,headlines and symbolspecific news from AP,AllBusiness,AllThingsD,Bankrate.com,Barrons.com,bizjournals.com,BusinessWeek, CNBC,CNNMoney.com,Consumer Reports,Daily FX,Entrepreneur.com,ETFguide.com,ETFZone.com, FastCompany, Forbes, FoxBusiness, Fortune,Fortune SmallBusiness, FT.com,Inc.com,IndexUniverse.com,Indie Research,Investopedia.com,Investor's BusinessDaily, Kiplinger.com,Law.com,MarketWatch,Minyanville, Money,Morningstar.com,Motley Fool,NYTimes.com,paidContent.org,Portfolio.com, Reuters,Seeking Alpha, SiliconAlley Insider,SmallCapInvestor.com,TheStreet.com,TradingMarkets.com,U.S.News, The WallStreet Journal, Business Wire, CNWGroup,GlobeNewswire,Marketwire, PRNewswire; CustomTwitter feed;FollowAlerts providereal time newsnotification forwatchlist and portfolioholdings
Nothing additional
Briefings premarket andthroughout the day;builtin Twitter feedfor positions andwatch lists;ResearchLABanalyst reports;various premium3rd party researchreports foradditional fee
PlannerSecurities None None None None n/a Yes Yes Implied
volatility None 3 years Quote Media None None None None None
SogoTrade
Fundamentaland technical;30 presetscreens;customizable;SogoForecastersuite offersadvanced stockscreeners
Strategiessection on theSogoOptionsPlatform;SogoPlayapplicationdisplays riskand reward,and probabilityof profit
None None Yes Yes Yes None Yes No 20 years Proprietary inSogoElite.
The SogoTradeMorning CallNewsletterprovidescommentaryand recaps onthe previousday's marketactivity; dailysectorperformanceanalysis vs. theS&P 500provided by thenewsletter
ValuEngine ResearchReports andNewsletter
Comtex, ChineseWorldNet
Barchart MarketData Solutions; fullChinese Websiteavailable
newsletterTDAmeritrade
Fundamental,technical,analyst ratings;84 predefinedon Web; ViathinkorswimSharing, userscreate andproliferatescansfrequently;customizable
On Web: S&PCapital IQOptionsScreener; inthinkorswim:SpreadHackerandOptionsHacker(realtimescanner) withmany volatilityscans; scansin thinkorswimarecustomizableand flexible
Morningstardata include35 criteriawith 30predefinedscreens;customizableandexportable;can comparemutual fundsand ETFs.
Bond Wizardfeatures botha screenerand a bondladderbuilder; aselection ofprepackagedladders builtin; 5yearMonthlyIncomePortfoliosavailable;Moody's andS&P bondresearch
Yes Yes Yes None Realtimestreamingimpliedvolatility;proprietaryVol Indexcalculatedfor eachstock, indexand future
Onthinkorswim:IV 12 years,AVcompletehistory
Frominceptionof securityor 20years,
whicheveris shorter
Proprietarycharting onWebsite andinthinkorswimplatform
Over 45 dailymarket,portfolio, andsecurity reportswhich can beviewed on theWebsite,mobile, or viaemail; featureddaily marketreports: Argus'sMorningPerspective andMarket Watchreports, S&PCapital IQ'sStock Picks andPans, Trends &Ideas, Word onthe Street, andMarket Moverscolumns;MorningBriefing andFive STARSStocks reports;First Call's MostRecommended,EarningsSurprises, andUpcomingAnnouncementsreports; MarketEdge's technicalidea reports;Market JavaAlert is emailedeach morning,coveringfutures, globalmarkets, news,calendarevents, a dailystock idea, andstock moverslinks to the S&PMorningBriefing andArgus MarketMovers report;Credit Suisseindustry reports;Dow JonesNorth AmericanMorningBriefing; TDEconomicsreports; TheCredit SuisseFocus List;S&P's SectorWatch;TechnicalMarket Insightreports and builtintothinkorswim, theRED OptionSMdaily marketsummary andblog
S&P Capital IQ,TheStreet, CreditSuisse,ResearchTeam, Ford,Jaywalk, MarketEdge, Vickers InsiderTrade, Morningstar;fixed income reports:Moody's and S&PCapital IQ;thinkorswim's company profile toolincludes Trefis
Dow Jones RealTime,Benzinga, MidnightTrader, MarketWatch,numerous pressrelease wires,TradersAudio live pitaudio, CNBC Video,Benzinga AudioSquawk, Econodaycalendar data, andWall Street Horizons;streaming pit talk fromTradersAudio andS&P, and InternationalCNBC video (Europeand Asia, and FuturesNow); news feeds arescannable by tickersymbol
Nothing additional tastytrade,Thomson Reutersvideo, Benzinganews squawk,Global News fromRansquawk, Realtime streamingCNBC,Shadowtrader,Briefing.com, andS&P; Argus'sMorningPerspective andMarket Watchreports; S&PCapital IQ's StockPicks and Pans,Trends & Ideas,Word on the Street,and Market Moverscolumns, FiveSTARS Stocksreports; First Call'sMostRecommended,EarningsSurprises, andUpcomingAnnouncementsreports; MarketEdge's technicalidea reports;Market Java Alertemailed eachmorning; CreditSuisse industryreports; Dow JonesNorth AmericanMorning Briefing;TD Economicsreports; The CreditSuisse Focus List;S&P's SectorWatch; Arbeter’sTechnical MarketInsight reports andbuilt intothinkorswim, theRED Options dailymarket summaryand blog
TradeStation
Technical andfundamentalscans with 69preset scans;extensivelycustomizable
Proprietaryscanner that isextremelycustomizable
Proprietaryscreener thatscans theentire funduniverse
Proprietaryfree bondscanner
Yes Yes Yes
2,000maximumrealtimesymbols
Yes
IV starting in2007, AVcompletehistory
49 yearsdaily, 26yearsintraday,6 monthsof tickdata
Proprietary;additionalchartingpackagesavailablefrom AppStore bysubscription
Morning MarketBriefing is aspecial premarket onlinebriefingpresented eachweekdaymorning from9:00 a.m. to9:30 a.m. ET;weeklystocks/ETFsreport, weeklyFutures MarketOutlook
NoneBenzinga and ComtexNews (free); DowJones ($95/month)
Market briefings,stock and ETFupdates; Forex inFocus
Tradier
Most of thefrontendplatforms thatuse the Tradierback endincludescreening tools
Depth ofscanning toolsdepend on thefront endchosen
Screeningtools dependon front endchosen
Screeningtools dependon front endchosen
Dependson thefrontendplatformchosen
Yes Yes NoneDepends onplatformchosen
Depends onplatformchosen
5 years
ThroughpartnersincludingChart IQ
Throughpartners None
TradingBlock
Fundamentalscanner onWebsite with 16preset screens;customizable.
Web:TradeBuilderand PortfolioHedger builtin; Software(additionalfee):EdgeFinder, arealtimescanner
None None
In softwareapplication,yes; onWeb, no
Yes Yes
OTC Marketquotesdefault todelayed; canrequest realtime for$5/month.
YesWeb only:IV 1 year,AV 1 year
Web: 5;software:10+ years
ChartIQ onWeb, SterlingTrader Pro insoftware
None NoneWeb: none; Software:CCS Business Wire($30/month)
Nothing additional Links to externalsites
(1) IV = Implied Volatility, AV = Actual Volatility
5 Research Amenities: Analyst reports and News
Daily MarketReports?
Analyst Reports Real Time StreamingNews Feeds?
InternationalResearchand Data
HighBalance/FrequentTrader ResearchBonuses
AdditionalServices andResources (FeeBased)
CharlesSchwab
Credit SuisseFirst Edition,Last Edition,Traders Forum,Equity HighNoon andmore; MorningstarMorning Notes;Ned DavisResearch DailyEconomicCommentary;Market EdgeDailyCommentary;Argus MarketDigest, MarketUpdate andMarket Watch;Schwab MarketUpdatepublished fivetimes per day;Economic,Earnings, andSplitsCalendars fromBriefing.com.Dividendcalendars fromThomsonReuters.
Schwab ratings andresearch, Argus,Briefing.com, CreditSuisse, EconomistIntelligence Unit,MarketEdge,Morningstar,Recognia ChartPatterns, Reuters,S&P, Trader Market(Randy Frederick'sweekly blog), VickersInsider
AP Online, BusinessWire , CanadaNewsWire,CCNMatthews CNBC,CompanynewsGroup,Daily Options News,Dow Jones,GlobeNewswire,Hugin, Investrend,Jagnotes, JCNCorporate News,Knight Ridder/Tribune,M2, MarketWire,MarketWatch (US andCanada), Mergent(Asia/Pacific), PRNewswire,PrrimeNewswire,Reuters, Street Insider,Trade Ideas, U.S.Newswire, UnitedPress International,Securities andExchange Commission– Edgar Filings
SchwabEquityRatingsInternational,aninternationalstock rankingmethodologycoveringapproximately4,000 largeand small capstocks in 27foreign equitymarkets onfundamentals,valuation,momentum,and risk; Researchfrom NedDavis, CreditSuisse, andMorningstar;quotes fromTSX andforeign OTCmarkets(Pinks);profiles forover 40countries areprovided byTheEconomistIntelligenceUnit;Recogniachart patternrecognition.
Nothing additional
Third party offersat discounted costincludeBriefing.compremium services,Investor’sBusiness Daily,MarketEdgePlatinum, Trader’sLibrary, XTF ETFExperts, WileyTradingBookstore,StockCharts.com,FlyontheWall,Quantcha,Options Play andmore
recognition.
eOption
Daily MarketReport fromRecognia;Morning MarketInsight posted90 minutes afteropen
Summary of analystratings (Buy, Sell,Hold) fromQuoteMedia
PR Newswire, CanadaNewswire, BusinessWire, Marketwired,GlobeNewswire, UPI,Market NewsPublishing,FlyontheWall,McClatchyTribune,Filing ServicesCanada, M2Presswire, StockWatchNews, Eworldwire,Thomson ReutersONE, Sinocast,Accesswire,Equities.com,Investors Guru, StockNews Now, TheWashington Post, JCNNewswire, ACNNewswire, NewsfileCorp., ABN Newswire,Seeking Alpha,Stockhouse News
None Nothing additional None
E*Trade
MorningstarIntra Day newsarticles,researchreports, marketcommentary,articles andvideos; DailyMarketCommentaryprovided byBriefing.comand S&PCapital IQ
S&P Capital IQ,Moody's, ThomsonReuters, Morningstar,MarketEdge, Trefis,Research Team(Smart Consensus);TipRanks offersaggregated opinionsfrom over 4,000analysts and 4,500bloggers
E*Trade Pro: CNBCstreaming, Dow Jones,MarketWatch, PRNewswire,BusinessWire,MarketWire,GlobeNewswire,Briefing.com; CNBCStreaming alsoavailable on Web
None
Credit Suissereports for clientswith $100,000 inassets
Automated tradingplatforms thatconnect throughAPI: AbleTrend,Cooltrade,ionDesk,TrendLens; alsoMarketEdge.com,Briefing Trader,andSmartStops.net
Fidelity Multiple reportsavailable fromS&P, HightowerReport, NedDavis Researchand Zacks
Analystrecommendations andupgrades/downgradesfrom over 125 firms;access to researchreports on more than6,000 stocks frommore than 12independent 3rd partyresearch firms; equitySummary Scoresfrom StarMine andInvestars; Fidelitycouples currentanalystrecommendationswith their respectivehistorical accuracy
Active TraderPro andATP.com displaystreaming news, as domobile app
Realtimequote dataare availablefor securitiestraded inAustralia,Austria,Belgium,Canada,Denmark,Finland,France,Germany,Greece, HongKong, Ireland,Italy, Japan,Mexico,Netherlands,New Zealand,Norway,Poland,
Portugal,Singapore,South Africa,Spain,Sweden,Switzerlandand theUnitedKingdom;news, chartsand researchreports arealso availableon securitiestraded inthesemarkets
Active tradersreceive additionaltechnical analysistools fromRecognia
None
Firstrade Unspecified
Morningstar reportsmultiple times daily;Weekly EconomicInsights, MarketOutlook, ResearchHighlights, andUpgrades andDowngrades fromBriefing.com;Morningstarcommentary videos
Zacks, Briefing.com,Benzinga (Premium),PR Newswire,BusinessWire
NoneWeeklyMorningstarnewsletter
None
InteractiveBrokers
IB Daily Lineup(free), includes(a) top 10 newsarticles, (b)analystupgrades anddowngrades, (c)Briefing StockMarket Update,and (d) majorindex levels andcharts;subscribers toDiscountResearchBundle also getan economicevent calendarand a corporateearningscalendar in theDaily Lineup;premium dailyreports forfutures areavailable fromThe HightowerReport
Analyst ratingshistory, a 2yeargraph of mean ratingswith a log ofupgrade/downgradeactivity; Zacks,Briefing Daily SectorWrap, Briefing RateBrief and Briefing FedBrief; AltaVista,Seeking AlphaEarnings CallTranscripts, MarketRealist; premiumreports availableincluding Validea,TheStreet QuantRatings, Argus andRareview Macro
24/7 Wall Street,StreetInsider.com,Seeking Alpha,MarketWatch,Morningstar, FoxBusiness, IB Trader'sInsight, IB MarketSignals, StreetInsider,StockTwits stream,Bloomberg TV video,Reuters Newswire,Zacks Newswire;premium newswiresavailable for additionalfee: Dow Jones,Briefing.com,FlyOnTheWall,Benzinga Pro, MTLiveBriefs, ReutersGlobal, StreetInsiderPremium, and severalothers
Internationaldata availablefor more than100 markets;some requiresubscriptions
Nothing additional
Investors'Marketplacedisplays offeringscategorized intofive groups:investingapplications,research,businessdevelopment(careerfocused),technology fromsoftware vendorsand consultants,and administrativeassistanceincludingaccounting,auditing,compliance, taxprep, and legalhelp
Just2Trade None None Morningstar None Nothing additional None
LightspeedTrading Yes TipRanks Professional news
feed ($10/month) None
Exclusive researchoffered to selectclients; Lightspeedprefers to keep theresearch providersconfidential
Discounts topreferred partnertrader training andanalytics software
Merrill Edge Bank ofAmerica MerrillLynch MorningCall;Morningstar andS&P IntradayResearch Notesand AnalystReports;ongoingBriefing.comMarket UpdatesandCommentary
Morningstar andMerrill Lynchresearch.
Thomson Reuters,Dow Jones, BusinessWire, and PRNewsWire
AFP WorldNews,AssociatedPress, BostonGlobe, BBCNewsfile,Briefing.com,BusinessWire, CanadaNewswire,CanadianPressDataFile,ChicagoTribune, DowJones, DPA,All EquityNews, TheEconomist,GlobeNewswire,InformationWeek, TheGuardian UK,Investor’sBusinessDaily, LosAngelesTimes,Observer,
Nothing additional;clients can accessoneononeguidance from thefirm's licensedinvestmentspecialists andfinancial solutionsadvisors by phoneor in person
None
Observer,Marketwire,MondaqBusinessBriefing,Need to KnowNews, NewYork TimesDealbook, PRNewswire,The CanadianPress, TheNew YorkTimes,Reuters, TheWall StreetJournal,United PressInternational,UPI, USAToday, andXinhua NewsAgency
OptionsHouse None
1015 proprietarydaily reports; Livedaily webcast withguest analysts;Reuters reports;ResearchLAB teamproduces analystreports on hundredsof symbols andsymbol groupsthroughout the day;premium researchavailable at additionalfee
optionMONSTER,Zacks, Benzinga,headlines and symbolspecific news from AP,AllBusiness,AllThingsD,Bankrate.com,Barrons.com,bizjournals.com,BusinessWeek, CNBC,CNNMoney.com,Consumer Reports,Daily FX,Entrepreneur.com,ETFguide.com,ETFZone.com, FastCompany, Forbes, FoxBusiness, Fortune,Fortune SmallBusiness, FT.com,Inc.com,IndexUniverse.com,Indie Research,Investopedia.com,Investor's BusinessDaily, Kiplinger.com,Law.com,MarketWatch,Minyanville, Money,Morningstar.com,Motley Fool,NYTimes.com,paidContent.org,Portfolio.com, Reuters,Seeking Alpha, SiliconAlley Insider,SmallCapInvestor.com,TheStreet.com,TradingMarkets.com,U.S.News, The WallStreet Journal, Business Wire, CNWGroup,GlobeNewswire,Marketwire, PRNewswire; customTwitter feed;FollowAlerts providereal time newsnotification forwatchlist and portfolioholdings
Futuresquotes ondollardenominatedproducts oninternationalexchanges
Nothing additional None
PlannerSecurities None None QuoteMedia, some
fees may apply NoneThird partyresearch uponrequest
None
SogoTrade
The SogoTradeMorning CallNewsletterprovidescommentaryand recaps onthe previousday's marketactivity; DailySectorperformanceanalysis vs. theS& P 500provided by thenewsletter
ValuEngine ResearchReports andNewsletter
Barchart Market DataSolutions marketnews; Comtex,Chinese WorldNet
EntireWebsite canbe translatedto Chinese,and includesChineselanguagenews feeds
Nothing additional None
TDAmeritrade
Over 45 dailymarket, portfolioand securityreports whichcan be viewedon the Website,mobile, or viaemail. Featureddaily marketreports: Argus'sMorningPerspective andMarket Watchreports, S&PCapital IQ'sStock Picks andPans, Trends &Ideas, Word onthe Street, andMarket Moverscolumns;
MorningBriefing andFive STARSStocks reports;First Call's MostRecommended,EarningsSurprises, andUpcomingAnnouncementsreports. MarketEdge's technicalidea reports;Market JavaAlert is emailedeach morning,coveringfutures, globalmarkets, news,calendarevents, a dailystock idea, andstock moverslinks to the S&PMorningBriefing andArgus MarketMovers report;Credit Suisseindustry reports;Dow JonesNorth AmericanMorningBriefing; TDEconomicsreports; TheCredit SuisseFocus List;S&P's SectorWatch;Technical
S&P Capital IQ,TheStreet, CreditSuisse,ResearchTeam, Ford,Jaywalk, MarketEdge, Vickers InsiderTrade, Morningstar; Fixed income reports:Moody's and S&PCapital IQ;thinkorswim's Company Profile toolincludes Trefis
Dow Jones RealTime,Benzinga, MidnightTrader, MarketWatch,numerous pressrelease wires,TradersAudio live pitaudio, CNBC Video,Benzinga AudioSquawk, Econodaycalendar data, andWall Street Horizons
2,400internationalindexesavailable; TDGlobalReport, plusinternationalnews fromrealtimefeeds inprevious box;stockscreenerfeatures anADRscreener
Nothing additional TradeWise, anaffiliated advisoryservice, offersoption tradestrategyrecommendations;premiumMarketEdgereports available
TechnicalMarket Insightreports and builtintothinkorswim, theRED OptionSMdaily marketsummary andblog
TradeStation
Morning MarketBriefing is aspecial premarket onlinebriefingpresented eachweekdaymorning from9:00 a.m. to9:30 a.m. ET;weeklystocks/ETFsreport, weeklyFutures MarketOutlook
None
Benzinga (free); othernews sourcesavailable for a fee fromthe TradingApp store
Internationaldata availablefor severalEuropeanexchanges ata fee
Nothing additionalOptional realtimestreaming marketdata
Tradier Throughpartners None Benzinga None Nothing additional
Over 100providers useTradier's tradingengine and backend processing,most for additionalfees
TradingBlock None None
Web: SeekingAlpha;Software: CCSBusiness Wire($30/month)
None Nothing additional
TradeSpoon, RBTechnologies(optionsscanning),Quantly, Quovo
(1) IV = Implied Volatility, AV = Actual Volatility
6 Costs for Account with $100,000 or more in assets
$Commission:Stock Order(1)
$Commission:OptionsOrder Base / PerContract
$Commissionon 10optionscontracts
$Commissionfor CoveredCall (2)
Fee to CloseLowPricedOptionsContracts
$ MutualFundCommission(outsideNTF list)
$ BondTransactionFee (5)
$ FuturesCommissionper Contract(6)
$ BrokerAssistedTrades
$ Platform orMaintenanceFee
$ AccountTransferFee(outgoing)
VoluntaryReorganizationFee (forcorporateactions) (3)
$ Fee forWires Out
$MonthlyTradingCosts (6stocktrades,2options)
$MonthlyTradingCosts(200tradesplus$30Kmargin)
%MarginRate,$10000balance
%MarginRate,$25000balance
%MarginRate,$50000balance
%MarginRate,$100,000balance
s
CharlesSchwab $4.95 $4.95 / $0.65 $11.45 $8.20 Standard
commissions
$76(purchaseonly)
$1/bond,$10minimum
n/a(optionsXpresscustomers$3.95)
Add 25.00
TotalView/LevelII data$10/month forinfrequenttraders
Full $50;partial $25
$39 (waived forlarge accounts /frequenttraders)
25.00 52.60 1,840.00 8.50% 8.00% 7.00% 6.875%
Notpublished,but pricingcan benegotiated
eOption 3.00 3 / 0.15 4.50 6.75 No fee forbuytocloselow valueoptions;otherwise
standardcommissions.
14.95 5.00/bond;minimum39.00
n/a Add 6.00 50.00 for inactiveaccounts;SterlingTrader Pro costis 230.00/monthplus data.
Full 60.00;partial $50partial
50.00 30.00 27.00 887.50 5.50% 5.50% 4.75% 4.25% Discountedmargin ratesfor largerdebitbalances
E*Trade6.95, 4.95 formore than 30trades/quarter
4.956.95 /0.65 11.4513.45 13.0517.05 Standard
commissions 19.99 1.00/bond 2.99 Add 25.00
Nonqualifiedaccounts cansubscribe toE*Trade Pro for99.95/month
Full 60.00;partial25.00
38.00 25.00 68.60 1,858.75 9.00% 8.75% 8.25% 7.75%
More than30 tradesper quarter,or accountslarger than250,000qualify forfree accessto E*TradePro
Fidelity 4.95 4.95 / 0.65 11.45 8.20Free forcontracts0.10 or less
49.95(purchaseonly)
1.00/bond n/a 32.95 None
50.00retirementaccountcloseout.
38.00 (waivedfor largeaccounts /frequenttraders)
15.00(waived forlargeaccounts /frequenttraders)
52.60 1,835.63 8.325% 7.825% 6.875% 6.575%
Ratesnegotiatedon a casebycasebasis
Firstrade 4.95 4.95 / 0.65 11.45 13.15 Standardcommissions 9.95 Net yield
basis n/a19.95 (plus0.65/contractfor options)
NoneFull 75.00;partial25.00
25.00
30.00domestic;50.00international
52.60 1,827.50 7.75% 7.50% 7.00% 6.50% None listed
InteractiveBrokers
.005/share,minimum 1
0.150.70/contract,minimum 1
7.00 6.00
Premium lessthan 0.05:0.25/contract;premium0.050.10:0.50/contract
14.95
10 bps forfirst 10,000,remainder2.5bps.
0.85 plusexchange andregulatory fees
30 (closingorders only) IB Block Desk0.01/share(min 10,000)and0.95/contract(min 100contracts)
None foraccounts over100,000;10.00/monthminumummonthlycommission ifunder 100,000
No fee No fee
1 wire freeper month;10.00 forsubsequent
20.00 854.00 2.16% 2.16% 2.16% 2.16%
Aggressivecommissiondiscounts forfrequentU.S. equityand optionstraders
Just2Trade $2.50 2.50 / 0.50 7.50 7.50 Standardcommissions n/a n/a 2.50 20 plus 0.50
per contract
15.00/quarter,waived foraccounts over10,000 or formore than 5trades perquarter
75.00 25.00
Domestic30.00;international60.00(increasefrom 2016)
30.00 1,162.50 7.00% 6.50% 6.25% 5.50%
Very activetraders mayqualify for a$0.50/tradediscount
LightspeedTrading
Maximum4.50
0.60 percontract. 6.00 5.25 Standard
commissions n/a n/a 0.60 20.00
None; accountsunder 15,000must generate25.00/month incommissions
No fee 20.00 None 29.94 1,200.00 6.00% 6.00% 6.00% 5.00%
Very activetraders cannegotiatediscountedpricing forequities,options andfutures
Merrill Edge 6.95 (4) 6.95 / 0.75 14.45 17.65
Lesser ofstandardcommissionsor 75% ofprincipal
19.95 Net yieldbasis n/a 29.95 None 49.95 30.00 24.95 28.90 1,645.00 9.13% 8.00% 8.00% %6.63
Discountsnegotiatedon a case bycase basison marginrates, equityand optionscommissions
OptionsHouse 4.95 4.95 / 0.50 9.95 12.40
Free forcontracts0.10 or less;otherwise0.50/contract.
20.00 25.00 pertrade 2.00 25.00 None 75.00 50.00 25.00 49.60 1,646.25 6.75% 6.25% 5.50% 5.00%
Ratesnegotiatedon a casebycasebasis
PlannerSecurities 8.95 1/contract,
minimum 10 10.00 18.95 Standardcommissions 25.00 Negotiated n/a 15/transaction,
negotiable
8.95/month;waived if morethan 20.00commissionsgenerated
100.00 No fee
Domestic30.00;international50.00
73.70 2,076.25 7.25% 7.25% 7.00% 6.50% None listed
SogoTrade 3.005.00 5.00 / 0.50 10.00 10.5012.50 Standardcommissions 15.00 25.00 n/a 25.00
50.00 Low Equityfee for accountswith under100.00 that haveno trades in thelast year.
75.00 50.00
Domestic25.00;international50.00
50.00 1,506.25 8.25% 8.25% 7.25% 6.00%
Discountedrates onoptions andequities fortradersaveraging50+ tradesper month
TDAmeritrade 6.95 6.95 / 0.65 13.45 17.05
Free forcontracts0.05 or less
49.99 Net yieldbasis. 2.25 44.99, free for
Apex None 75.00 38.00 (free forApex)
25.00 (freefor Apex) 68.60 2,258.75 9.00% 8.75% 7.75% 7.50%
Customerswho qualifyfor Apexreceive avariety of feewaivers
TradeStation 5.00 5.00 / 0.50 or1/contract 10.00 7.50 Standard
commissions 14.95 14.95 plus5.00/bond 0.251.20 50.00 per
transaction
35.00/year forIRAs; platformfee is 50.00/yearfor low activityand balancesunder 2,000.00
125.00 20.0025.00(decreasefrom 2016)
145.00 1,706.25 8.50% 8.25% 7.75% 7.75% None listed
Tradier (7) 3.49
0.35/contract,min 5 forsingle leg, 7 5.00 8.49 Standard
commissions 5.00 50.00 n/a Add 10.00 perorder
Depends onfrontend 75.00 50.00 30.00 30.94 942.75 3.75% 3.75% 3.75% 3.75% None listed
Tradier (7) 3.49 single leg, 7for multi leg.
5.00 8.49 commissions 5.00 50.00 n/a order frontendsubscription
75.00 50.00 30.00 30.94 942.75 3.75% 3.75% 3.75% 3.75% None listed
TradingBlock $7.50 7.50 / 0.75 15.00 11.25 Standardcommissions 30.00
1.00/bond,50.00minimum
1.99 per side No additionalfee
Sterling TraderPro230.00/monthplus data
75.00Domestic 50.00,international100.00
Domestic25.00,international50.00
75.00 1,686.25 7.45% 7.45% 7.45% 7.45%
Minimumsand ticketchargeswaived forvery activetraders
(1) Stock order of 500 shares
(2) 500 shares of stock plus 5 contracts.
(3) There are no fees for mandatory reorganizations.
(4) For accounts with over $100,000 at Merrill Edge, there are 100 commissionfree stock transactions monthly.
(5) Brokers who charge on net yield basis do not charge an explicit commission, but they mark up the price of the bond, thus reducing your yield.
(6) Trading costs include exchange fees and regulatory fees, which depend on the instrument being traded.
(7) Rates shown are the base Tradier fees. The partner chosen to supply the frontend may apply additional fees.
7 MobileMobileOperatingSystemsSupported
Tabletspecificapp
Mobilewatch Website Streaming
Data
MultiLegOptions
MutualFundTrading
InternationalTrading
AccountApplication
AmazonEchoapp
CharlesSchwab
iOS,Android,Windows
Yes Applewatch Yes iOS,
Android Yes Yes ADRS andToronto
Via MobileBrowser No
eOption iOS,Android Yes Apple
watch No Yes Yes No ADRs No Inprogress
E*TradeiOS,Android,Windows
Yes Applewatch Yes Yes
Yes(iPhone,Android)
Yes(iPhone,Android)
ADRs,ForeignOrdinaries
Via MobileBrowser No
FidelityiOS,Android,Windows
Yes Applewatch Yes Yes Yes Yes Mobile
browser app Yes Yes
FirstradeiOS,Android,WIndows
Yes No Yes Yes No No n/a Yes No
InteractiveBrokers
iOS,Android,Windows
Yes Applewatch Yes Yes Yes
Yes (inmobilebrowser)
Yes Via MobileBrowser No
Just2Trade iOS,Android Yes Android
watch No Yes No No No No No
LightspeedTrading
iOS,Android,Windows
Yes No HTML5 Yes Yes n/a n/a Via MobileBrowser No
Merrill EdgeiOS,Android,Windows
Yes Applewatch Yes Yes Yes Yes ADRs Via Mobile
Browser No
OptionsHouseiOS,Android,Windows
Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes n/a Yes No
PlannerSecurities
iOS,Android,Windows
Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No In progress No
SogoTradeiOS,Android,Windows
Yes Applewatch Yes Yes No No No Via Mobile
Browser No
TDAmeritrade
iOS,Android,Windows
Yes
AppleandAndroidwatches
Yes In apps Yes Yes ADRs Yes Yes
TradeStation iOS,Android Yes Alerts
only Yes Yes Yes No ADRs No No
Tradier (1)iOS,Android,Windows
Yes
AppleandAndroidwatches
Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Inprogress
TradingBlock None No n/a No n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
(1) Tradier's mobile functionality depends on the partner supplying the front end chosen by the customer.
8 Reports and Service
CustomizablePortfolioPerformanceReports
InternalRate ofReturnCalculated
Consolidateholdingsfrom otherinstitutionsforreporting
100% Capacity(all clients canbe logged onsimultaneously)
$Minimumto OpenCashAccount(1)
LiveChat
# Live Eventsin 2016
#WebinarsHeld in2016
Checkingaccount
BillPay
CreditCard
OnlineTransferTo/FromExternalAccounts
Averagewait timeon holdforcustomerservice
Otherservices
CharlesSchwab
Yes, includingbenchmarkcomparisons
Yes, alsoTimeWeightedReturn
Yes No
None iflinked toSchwabOneChecking.$100otherwise.
Yes
6,845(includes inbranchseminars).Schwab Live:Conversationsbroadcastonline.
512 Yes Yes AmericanExpress Yes 50
seconds
Variableannuity,banking andlendingservices
eOption Yes Yes No Yes 500 Yes 0 0 Yes No Yes Yes 26seconds None
E*Trade Yes No No No 500 Yes 71 118 Yes Yes No Yes 63seconds
Banking,retirementplanning
FidelityYes, includingbenchmarkcomparisons
Yes Yes No 2,500 Yes
2 Traders'Summits, 4Workshops,2200 branchseminars
90+ Yes Yes Visa Yes
73seconds,29secondsfor ActiveTraderServices
Cashmanagement,externalaccountaggregation
Firstrade Yes Yes No No None Yes 9 0 Yes No No Yes 8 seconds None
InteractiveBrokers
Yes, veryflexible andcustomizable
Yes Yes Yes 10,000 (5,000 forIRA, 3,000if underage 26.)
Yes 1 439 No No No Yes Less thanoneminute
InvestorsMarketplaceincludingadvisors andnonbrokerageservices;access tohedge funds;GreenwichCompliancehelpsadvisorsmeet theirregistrationandcomplianceneeds
Just2Trade Yes, basiclevel No No Yes 2,500 Yes 0 20
Yes, foraccountsover$25,000
No No Yes 1 minute None
LightspeedTrading Yes No No Yes
10,000 forWebTrader,25,000 forLightspeedTrader.
No 0 17 No No No YesLess than5seconds
None
Merrill Edge Yes Yes Yes No None Yes 1,691 60 Yes Yes Yes YesLess than30seconds
Bankingservicesthrough Bankof America
OptionsHouse
Yes, includingbenchmarkcomparisonsand flexiblereport output
Yes No Yes None Yes 26 250 Yes No DebitCard Yes
Top tierunder 30seconds,secondtier under45seconds,third tierunder a
Sponsored Results
1. Best Car Lease Deals
2. New Luxury Cars Of 20173. New Sports Cars 2017
4. Luxury Crossover SUVs
5. Top Income Stocks
6. Reverse Mortgage Calculator
7. Best ETF Funds
8. 10 Best Financial Advisors
Powered by Livefyre
report outputoptions
under aminute,andremainder90seconds
PlannerSecurities No Yes No No 500 No 0 0 Yes No Debit
Card No less than1 minute
Investmentadvisoryservices
SogoTrade No Overnight No Yes None Yes 0 3 No No No Yes 15Seconds None
TDAmeritrade Yes. Yes Yes No None Yes 100+ 6000+ Yes Yes Yes Yes 48.4
seconds GainsKeeper
TradeStation
PortfolioMaestro offersextensivereportingoptions andstrategycomparison
Yes No Yes 5,000 Yes 0 250+ No No No Yes (2)
47secondsfor 24hoursupport
Strategiesand analysistechniquesdeveloped bythird parties
Tradier No No Yes No 500 No Throughpartners
Throughpartners No No No No less than
1 minute
Investmentadvisoryservices
TradingBlock No No No Yes None No 0 47 Yes No YesLaunchplannedin Q2
NoneInvestmentadvisoryservices
(1) Account minimum is $2,000 for opening a margin account at all brokers. This is a regulatory requirement.
(2) Only if initiated by TradeStation.
Latest in Barron's Table Wide
Report Card: Barron’s 2016 MidYear Roundtable1.Leaders & Laggards — Fourth Quarter 20162.The Top 200 Sustainable Mutual Funds3.Leaders & Laggards Third Quarter 20164.
NEWEST OLDEST
10 PEOPLE LISTENING
Barron'sFacebookTwitter Google+LinkedInYouTubeRSS Feed AppStore Google Play
Return to Top
Customer Service
Customer Center
Contact Us
Live Help
Create an Account
Subscribe to Barron's
Magazine Subscribers: Activate Your Digital Access
About Barrons.com
Advertising
Masthead
Privacy Policy
Updated Cookie Policy
Data Policy
Copyright Policy
Subscriber Agreement & Terms of Use
Your Ad Choices
Community Guidelines
Also From Barron's
Conferences
Reprints
Classifieds
College Program
Find a Broker
Barron's in Japanese
Tools & Services
Mobile Site
Email Newsletters
Barron's on iPad/iPhone
Barron's on Android
Watchlist
Video
Annual Reports
StockGrader
Barron's 400
Economic Calendar
Stock & Mutual Fund Listings
Commodities, Options & Annuities Listings
Fund Prospectuses
Copyright ©2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Email Print 0 Comments Order Reprints
0 comments
+ Follow Share Post comment
BARRONS ADSALES