Top Online Trading Websites

Trading online is among the many opportunities offered by the Internet. Due to the many financial implications, the online trade has gained wide popularity and it is here to stay for the years to come. Many of the websites don't manage to survive the fierce competition for customers.

This article provides information on some of the best websites that provide online trading capabilities. The information is taken from the Jupiter Media Metrix, which represents one of the most widely used Internet source of information.

UV Index

The unique visitors of a website represent the set of both current and potential users. The unique visitors represent the best measure for the audience of a website. Therefore, the bigger the audience of a website the greater the chances of best shots at the biggest market shares. Some of the best performers with regards to this criterion are ShareBuilder.com, Fidelity.com Schwab.com and others.

Intensity Index

How sticky a particular website is, is measured by the amount of time each user spends on a website. High amounts of time show that the website has managed to attract and keep the interest of the visitor. Some of the high scorers are PutnumInvestments.com, Ameritrade.com, TDWaterhouse.com and others.

Frequency Index

The number of days during a month a particular user has visited a certain website is measured by the Frequency Index. The more visitors return to the website, the more likely is the website to achieve financial success and guarantee its survival. Some of the websites that score high by this measure are E*Trade.com, BuyandHold.com, Schwab.com and etc.

Loyalty Index

This index is in negative numbers and the less negative the number is the better. This index tracks the visits of the customers to the competitors' websites. It represents a measurement of the loyalty of the customers. Some of the winners in this category are ML.com, EdwardJones.com, ShareBuilder.com and others.

In order to determine the quality of a trading website, it should be measured by all of the stated above criteria, not just some of them. Therefore, according to Jupiter Media Metrix, the first place is allocated for E*Trade Financial Network, TDWaterhouse.com taking the second position. The third place is for ShareBuilder.com followed by Fidelity.com and Ameritrade.com respectively.

Conclusion

You should not consider the rating above and the corresponding criteria as a perfect measurement scale, since several mistakes have been committed. One of them is the inclusion of companies that offer different investment opportunities, like Vanguard, which is a mutual fund company and ShareBuild.com, which provides investments different from mutual funds.

The preceding data and measurements should be used in order to decide on your future broker. They should not be used as criteria against which to measure trading firms and more particularly what you need from such a firm. Since there are many other factors than the stated above that determine the success of a trading firm, you should not base your judgment only on the basis of these ones.

You should also keep in mind the dynamic character of this type of business field. This is caused by the constant trading activities of the trading companies themselves that frequently acquire other companies. Additionally, the many innovations in the technologies provide for another source of change, which may turn your today's successful choice into tomorrow's out of date option.

As for the trading platform, we can highly recommend you try Zecco.
Zecco offers free stock/etf trading, no account minimum, trading community, real time quotes, and is also protected and insured against loss by SIPC. Opening a Zecco account to take advantage of $0 stock trades allows you to save money, which you can reinvest instead of paying brokerage commissions. These fees can make really big difference for long-term investing options like retirement plans (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Rollover IRA - 401k).

For the knowledge part we always recommend subscribing to the The Wall Street Journal (and save over 75%).

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