SmartMoney conducts a broker survey every year and now you see why I highly recommend Etrade Financial and TradeKing. Etrade is ranked first for the third year in a roll and TradeKing is ranked fourth but have the cheapest trading commission in the top ten at $4.95 a trade. In fact, the top three, Etrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab are $9.99, $10.95 and $12.95 respectively so it’s not even close.
I personally use Etrade right now but have been contemplating on switching to TradeKing because of the lower commissions. According to SmartMoney, TradeKing has:
- Mutual Funds [1] and Investment Products: 3 stars
- Banking Services: 2 stars (they actually don’t have a banking unit like Etrade)
- Trading Tools: 5 stars
- Research: 3 stars
- Customer Service: 5 stars
Not too bad. I must admit that I love the fact that Etrade has a high yield [2] savings account tied to the brokerage firm and act as a super high yield sweep account for me. But $4.95 of TradeKing is sure tempting.
It’s nice to see that a major magazine like SmartMoney essentially telling me that whether I stay with Etrade or go with TradeKing, I will be in good hands though. The debate continues…
Sign Up For an Etrade Account [3]
- – Official Site
- Etrade Financial [3] – Official Site
Additional Reading:
- Etrade Financial Review [4]
- TradeKing [5] – Review from MoneyNing.com
- SmartMoney Top Broker Survey Full Rankings [6] – Official Site