Blog : Complete Discount Broker Rankings and Review
by Peter Leeds on May 15th, 2014
The Peter Leeds team reviewed every discount broker. After eliminating what we felt to be the worst ones, we were left with 22.
We phoned each of the brokers, e-mailed them, reviewed their policies and commission rates, compared their response times, and more... You will not find a more comprehensive report on the discount brokers anywhere.
Depending on what you are looking for in a broker, this report will help you find the discount broker which is best for your needs.
** No fees or compensation was paid by any of the brokers, nor would it have been accepted. Learn More >>>
The reviewed discount brokers:
Commissions:
While the commission rates of various brokers can vary significantly, we found the average cost per trade was about $7.25.
For many brokers, the fees are also dependent on the price of the shares being traded, the type of underlying security, the frequency of trades made, the size of an investor's portfolio, etc...
Some of The Most Expensive:
Some of the Least Expensive:
Extra Fees to Trade Penny Stocks:
Be warned that many brokers will hit you with extras charges or a higher commission rate to trade penny stocks.
While 26% of them do not treat penny stocks any differently than other shares, 74% of them do.
Money Required to Open an Account:
The amount initially required to open an account varied from zero to $35,000. If you are living in an alley behind a dumpster, you'll probably be leaning towards the cheaper initial amounts. If you are a billionaire, I'm sure just about any of these initial account requirements would be fine.
No Minimum Requirement:
The Greatest Amount Needed to Open an Account:
On the Phone:
We ranked all the discount brokers on two on-phone categories: professionalism and helpfulness. By combining these criteria, we were able to ascertain which of the brokers stood out, and which were obviously in the wrong business.
The Best:
Not So Great:
E-Mail Wait Times:
How long does it take to reply to an e-mail? For some of these discount brokers, we had to give up after 7 days!
The fastest (Less than 2 minutes):
One Week and Still No Response:
E-Mail Helpfulness and Professionalism:
Some of the brokers were excellent in their e-mail responses. However, many were not good at all, while even more never bothered to reply.
The Best:
The Worst:
As of January 2017 we no longer publish the blog and it has been removed from the webiste menu.
You are reading this old blog entry because we still like to reference it. :-)
You are reading this old blog entry because we still like to reference it. :-)
Get Our Best Low-Priced Investments
- don't have the time?
- can't do all the work required?
- want selections from the authority?
For only $199 per year, we give you our best high-quality, low-priced stock picks. Along with a full team, Peter Leeds is the widely recognized authority on small stocks. Start making money from penny stocks right away.