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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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: editors@barrons.com

Email: theresa@twcarey.com

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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

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BARRONS ADSALES

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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.

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2 days agoMICHAEL SANDRIK

@Paul Foote Agreed, TOS is great.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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