An annual IBD survey, launched in 2012, has asked investors to rate their primary online broker based on the most important and desirable broker attributes.
For the 13th year in a row, Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence collaborated on our annual online broker comparison study, evaluating investor sentiment on brokers' performance across key service areas.
Using the individual ratings given to each attribute, we calculate an overall customer experience index score for each broker. This score is the basis for the Best Online Brokers rankings.
This year's online broker comparison survey follows the two-phase methodology employed in previous years. Both phases collect data using online surveys.
In Phase 1, we started the research with 25 attributes. The objective of Phase 1 was to determine which features and services offered by online brokers were most important to investors.
Two Phases Of Online Broker Research
From Aug. 30 to Oct. 21, 2024, we conducted an online survey of 409 visitors to IBD's Investors.com website to test the 25 attributes for potential inclusion in Phase 2 of the online broker study.
We used the Maxdiff trade-off technique in Phase 1 to select the characteristics for inclusion in Phase 2. The Phase 1 survey presented each respondent with 10 sets of attributes; each set included five randomly chosen characteristics from the potential pool of 25. Respondents identified the most and least important features in each set.
The Phase 1 survey helped us reduce the 25 attributes to 20 and assign the weights for the 20 features that would be used to calculate the Overall Customer Experience Index for each broker.
Together, the top seven attributes account for 55% of the importance. The characteristics in this tier are trade execution/speed/price, website security, equity trading platform, site performance, customer service, investment research, and mobile trading platforms/apps.
The next six attributes together account for 26% of the importance. These tier-2 attributes are research tools, portfolio analysis and reports, timely information on market shifts, incentives/discounts/pricing, risk management, and options trading platform.
The bottom seven attributes account for 20% of the importance. The third tier includes trade ideas, pre-market and after-hours trading, availability of account types, choices for cash management, educational resources, up-to-the-minute data on inflation and other market-influencing statistics, and trade ideas for a down market.
Read Our Full Special Report On The Best Online Brokers For 2025
Clients Evaluate Their Brokers
Phase 2 of the online broker comparison study measured consumers' experience and satisfaction with their primary online broker.
From Oct. 31 to Dec. 9, 2024, the Phase 2 survey collected the participation of 2,212 investors. Of the 2,212 respondents, 1,014 were IBD website visitors and readers, 564 were Wall Street Journal research panelists, 415 were Barron's research panelists, and the remaining 219 came from TechnoMetrica's consumer panel partners. The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and IBD are part of Dow Jones.
To qualify for our online broker comparison ranking, a broker must have had at least 125 customers participate in our Phase 2 survey.
Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, E-Trade (part of Morgan Stanley), Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Merrill Edge (part of Bank of America), and Vanguard Brokerage met the threshold.
In Phase 2 of the survey, investors rated their primary broker on the 20 attributes using a five-point scale (excellent, very good, good, fair and poor).
We developed a customer experience index for each broker attribute using the following question: Based on your experience with your primary online broker during the past six months, how would you rate your primary online broker?
The customer experience index denotes the difference between the percentage of respondents giving ratings of excellent and very good and the percentage who gave ratings of fair and poor.
We computed the overall customer experience index for each broker using the weights developed in Phase 1 for the 20 attributes of this online broker comparison study.
Raghavan Mayur is the president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence.
Licensing & Reprints
The 2025 Best Online Brokers logo and accolades are available for licensing through IBD's partner, The YGS Group, at IBDlicensing@theYGSgroup.com or 800-290-5460.
