Kiplinger\'s Personal Finance - 10.2019

24 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 10/2019

INVESTING

Firstrade—show consensus corporate

earnings estimates from Wall Street

analysts. Only Firstrade and TradeSta-

tion don’t provide any sources of bond

market research. All but Fidelity, In-

teractive Brokers and TradeStation

offer some research from Morningstar

that is usually available only to Morn-

ingstar’s premium customers. Ally

Invest and Firstrade offer full Morn-

ingstar analyst reports on stocks,

mutual funds and ETFs.

Interactive Brokers reported the

most sources of investment research

in our survey, followed by Merrill

Edge, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade and

Schwab. But both Fidelity and Interac-

tive Brokers boast a quantity of re-

search that belies a lack of quality,

with most of the reported research

missing in-depth analysis in favor of

quantitative, oftentimes computer-

generated reports.

Interactive Brokers does score a few

points, along with Ally Invest, Merrill

Edge, Schwab and TD Ameritrade, for

offering stock analyst reports from in-

vestment research firm CFRA. Firms

also earned points if they provided

stock research from an investment

bank. For example, Schwab and TD

Ameritrade include reports from

Credit Suisse (E*Trade makes Credit

Suisse reports available for customers

with more than $100,000 in assets).

WellsTrade offers reports from Wells

Fargo Securities, and Merrill Edge

provides research from Bank of Amer-

ica Merrill Lynch Global Research.

For investing ideas curated by a

professional, six of the 10 (all but the

bottom four scorers in this category)

boast lists of suggested mutual funds

handpicked by analysts from Morning-

star, investment banks or the broker-

ages’ affiliated advisories (or some

narrow down your investment search.

Kudos go to TradeStation, whose

scanner allows traders to screen

stocks, mutual funds and ETFs for

more than 2,000 data points. E*Trade,

Fidelity, Merrill Edge, Interactive Bro-

kers and TradeStation all allow inves-

tors to screen stocks based on broad

investing themes, such as cloud com-

puting or robotics.

RESEARCH

Investors who want basic research

on a stock, bond, mutual fund or ETF

can likely find what they’re looking for

at most brokerages, whose summary

and quote pages all include common

data points, such as earnings, reve-

nues, interest payments and expense

ratios. But the more sophisticated you

are about your investments, the more

clear, high-grade research you’ll need.

All but two firms—Ally Invest and

CHART OF ONLINE BROKERS

By the Numbers

The amount of cash doesn’t always tell the whole story. For example, Apple’s extraordinary balance sheet also includes $36.5 billion in long-

term marketable securities. The amount of cash doesn’t always tell the whole story. For example, Apple’s extraordinary balance sheet also

HOW THE BROKERS SCORE IN EVERY CATEGORY

The brokers’ overall score depends on the weight we assigned to

seven categories. Here’s how it breaks down: commissions and fees,

10%; investment choices, 20%; mobile app, 25%; tools and research,

roughly 13% each; and advisory services and user experience, 10%.

The best firm for you may depend on how you invest, how often you

trade and the services outside of buying and selling you need.

The Rankings

Rank Broker

Overall score

(1–100)

Stock /ETF

commissions

Commissions

and fees

Investment

choices

Mobile

app Tools Research

Advisory

services

User

experience

*E*Trade charges $4.95 per trade after the first 30 trades per quarter. †Based on the number of shares traded. #Ally charges $3.95 per trade after the first 30 trades per quarter. NA Not available.

‡TradeStation offers a $5 per-trade plan or a per-share plan for frequent traders; pricing starts at one cent per share. §WellsTrade declined to compete.

1 E*Tradeetrade.com 82.9 $6.95* 6th 2nd 3rd 7th 4th 3rd 2nd

2 Interactive Brokersinteractivebrokers.com 82.3 Per share† 2nd 4th 1st 6th 7th 4th 7th

3 Fidelityfidelity.com 82.2 4.95 8th 1st 2nd 5th 6th 2nd 4th

4 Charles Schwabschwab.com 79.8 4.95 9th 5th 5th 3rd 1st 1st 3rd

5 Merrill Edgemerrilledge.com 75.0 6.95 3rd 9th 4th 2nd 2nd 6th 1st

6 TD Ameritradetdameritrade.com 73.3 6.95 10th 6th 7th (tie) 1st 3rd 5th 5th

7 Allyally.com/invest 57.5 4.95# 4th 7th 9th 8th 8th 7th 9th

8 Firstradefirstrade.com 57.2^0 1st 3rd 10th 10th 9th NA 6th

9 Tr a d e St a t i o ntradestation.com 48.5 per share$5/ ‡ 5th 8th 6th 4th 10th NA 10th

10 WellsTradewellsfargo.com 47.0 5.95 7th 10th 7th (tie) 9th 5th NA§ 8th