Interactive Brokers, Fidelity Top Barron's 2018 Review Of Online Brokers

In 2018, it couldn’t be more true that online brokerages work hard to make trading approachable, even for the average Joe. Both new and experienced traders expect a seamless trading experience between their desktop, mobile, tablet, and even smartwatch applications.

Now, it’s time to find out who delivered. This week, Barron’s released their 23rd annual ranking of Best Online Brokers.

How It Works

It ranks online brokers based on the following: trading experience technology, usability, mobile, range of offerings, research, amenities, portfolio analysis and reports, customer service, education and security, and costs. Each factor holds the same weight of five points in the ranking process.

The Rankings

Interactive Brokers IBKR takes the top spot, dominating in range of offerings, portfolio analysis and reports, and costs categories. It ranked as the best brokerage for frequent traders and options traders.

Fidelity comes in a close second. It scores only two points lower on the 40-point scale. While it does outshine Interactive Brokers in usability, mobile experience, research amenities, it ranks much lower in costs - a score of 2.3 out of five.

TD Ameritrade AMTD rounds out the top 3 spots. It’s on par with Interactive Brokers and Fidelity in terms of trading experience technology and mobile experience, but its costs were too high to justify a No. 2 ranking. It also ranked as the best brokerage for beginners and best for long-term investing.

Charles Schwab SCHW ranks forth. It spent much of the last year updating its outdated technology, mobile trading, and customer service models and shined in its delivery of investor education. High trading costs were its weakest point.

Tradestation and MerrillEdge took spots five and six, respectively. MerillEdge ranked first for in-person service.

E*Trade ETFC takes the seventh spot, with Barron’s praise of its robo-advising platform and technical analysis.

Newcomer

Newcomer tastyworks makes its first appearance on the list. It has cutting-edge technology, a low-cost, and can be customized to fit traders’ needs. After ranking outside the top 10 in 2017, Ally Invest reappears at spot number nine. It redeems itself with its customizable web experience and Ally Invest LIVE platform. The tenth spot goes to Lightspeed Trading, who wows reviewers with its tools for options and securities traders.Tradier and OptionsHouse fell out of the top ten for 2018.

eOption, SogoTrade, Firstrade, OptionsRoute, and Just2Trade lag behind the top ten. Each of these platforms shows promise in developing innovative applications, streamlining process, focus on decreasing fees, and delivering education to new and experienced traders.