Barron’s Ranking of Brokerages (March 28 edition)

hank

Actually a pretty intelligent discussion under the title “Training Investors to Be More Rational”

(Provided FYI)

1. Interactive Brokers
2. Fidelity
3. E*Trade
3. Charles Schwab (apparently a tie for #3)
5. TD Ameritrade
6. Merrill Edge
7. tastyworks
8.Webull
9. Ally Invest
10. Robinhood
10. J.P. Morgan Self-Directing Investing (apparently another tie)
11. SoFi Invest

Sorry - I’m not sure what specific criteria were used. For Fidelity they praise its many online features which include tracking of gains and losses as well as some educational tools directed at newer younger investors.

Coincidentally, the magazine includes a fitting tribute to Ned Johnson as did the WSJ a few days ago.

Sven

Specific criteria and weighing factors were not mentioned in the ranking process. Customer support, on-line and/or live person, are essential to many investors. Thus the article appeared to be incomplete.

yogibearbull

Actually, the ranking methodology is mentioned in the paper copy (pg 30) & the e-version. There were 6 broad categories & 106 subcategories. Barron's also opened demo a/c and trading a/c at each brokerage for firsthand evaluation. A weighted-average score of 6 broad categories determined the rankings. But this detail is not linkable.

sfnative

13. Vanguard. (I made that up.)

JD_co

sfnative said:

13. 18 .Vanguard. (I made that up.)

@sfnative There, I fixed it for you.

fundfun

Looks like a list of who advertised with them the most.

carew388

12. Muriel Siebert brokerage !

hank

Doesn’t TRP run a brokerage service. Where are they?

msf

Barron's ratings article:
https://www.barrons.com/articles/fidelity-robinhood-best-online-brokers-ratings-51648162632

13. Vanguard. (I made that up.)
As Barron's noted in the companion piece, The Best Online Brokers for 2022: Tools to Cope With a Complex Investing World, "once again, Vanguard chose not to cooperate."
https://www.barrons.com/articles/best-online-brokers-review-51648162195

Doesn’t TRP run a brokerage service. Where are they?
Doesn't American Century run a brokerage? Oh, the indignity of being excluded
https://www.americancentury.com/content/direct/en/products/account-types/brokerage.html

Various fund families operate brokerages as appendages for the convenience of their fund investors as opposed to providing robust services. I've never had any visibility into TRP's or AC's offering, so I'm just guessing they fit this description.

MikeM

FWIW, the Barrons article says, "And, once again, Vanguard chose not to cooperate." Seems they do not want to be rated versus their peers.

Observant1

Vanguard's website performance deteriorated significantly for me after their site was updated several months ago. If others are experiencing similar issues, it's probably wise that Vanguard chose not to participate in Barron's broker survey ¹.

¹ I don't recall Vanguard ever participating in Barron's annual survey.