Mint.com has put together a pretty good graphic that will help you determine which stock broker is right for you.

The biggest added benefit goes to optionsXpress users who now gain access to Schwab’s financial research and tools as well as brokerage services.

Understanding a Quote

Placing a Stock Order

Paper trading has no impact on the actual market, so users can continually execute trades and practice strategies without having to worry about losing their own money.

It is increasingly getting popular for stock brokers to offer some sort of paper trading feature within their services. Discount broker like Zecco offers paper trading for both stocks and forex.

Wall Street Survivor is a popular free paper trading platform that allows users to practice and tweak trading strategies.

Below is the breakdown summary from the 2011 broker survey.

Commissions and Fees

• Best: ShareBuilder
• Worst: optionsXpress

“Experts say many brokers are making up the revenue with more fees for common services, such as transferring balances or closing an account. Indeed, recent fee increases outnumbered decreases by more than two to one. “The nuisance fees aren’t going away,” says James McGovern, a vice president at Corporate Insight, a financial-services consulting firm.”

Customer Servce

• Best: TradeKing
• Worst: ShareBuilder

Not coincidentally the best ranked brokerage for commissions and fees is the worst for customer service.

“Our winner, for the second year running and by a wide margin, is TradeKing. The people at this five-year-old firm communicate with customers a lot, from its blog-happy CEO to the customer-service reps who respond to calls and e-mails with lightning speed. (The firm answered one call in 36 seconds, less than half the average time it took brokers in our survey.)”

Research

• Best: E*Trade
• Worst: ShareBuilder

“The new frontier in this area is social media: Most of the firms in our discount-broker survey are hosting conversations about investing ideas on Facebook and Twitter, while a growing number are setting up similar forums on their own websites.”

Trading Tools

• Best: Fidelity
• Worst: Vanguard

“Of course, spiffy trading tools are of no use if the trading isn’t fast and easy, so SmartMoney asked Gomez to test how rapidly customers can place trades on these sites. Fidelity, the fastest, clocked in at less than four seconds. Vanguard was the clear laggard.”

Mutual Funds and Investment Products

• Best: Fidelity
• Worst: ShareBuilder

“In recent years Fidelity, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab have finished nose and nose in this category. All three brokerages sell thousands of mutual funds, a smorgasbord of government and corporate bonds, stock options and commission-free ETFs.”

Banking Service

• Best: Fidelity
• Worst: Vangaurd

“”My broker has become my bank,” Schwartz says. That kind of talk is music to the ears of brokerages, of course; for years, they’ve been rolling out banking services whose fees can help offset the lower trading commissions they earn during down times. (And those fees can add up quickly: If customers want a debit card for some brokerage accounts, for example, they can wind up paying as much as $50 a year, plus $1 for every ATM withdrawal.) Not to mention, a banking relationship makes it more cumbersome for a customer to leave.”

Overall 2011 Broker Ranking

1. Fidelity
2. TD Ameritrade
3. Scottrade
4. TradeKing
5. Charles Schwab
6. E*Trade
7. Vanguard
8. Merrill Edge
9. optionXpress
10. ShareBuilder

source – SmartMoney

With that in mind, the 2011 version of Kiplinger’s stock broker rating focuses on cost-saving brokers that offer exceptional web services.

1. Fidelity (5 stars)
2. TD Ameritrade (5 stars)
3. E*Trade (4 1/2 stars)
4. Vangaurd (4 1/2 stars)
5. Charles Schwab ( 4 stars)
6. optionsXpress (4 stars)
7. Scottrade (3 1/2 stars)
8. TradeKing (4 1/2 stars)
9. Firstrade (3 stars)
10. Merrill Edge (3 stars)
11. Zecco (3 stars)
12. Just2Trade (2 1/2 stars)
13. Muriel Siebert (2 1/2 stars)
14. USAA (2 stars)

source – Kiplinger

The magazine has broken down brokers in a number of different categories. Below are the top rankings for the average trader.

Best for Long-term Investing

1. Fidelity (4 1/2 stars)
2. TD Ameritrade (4 1/2 stars)
3. Schwab (4 stars)
4. E*Trade (4 stars)
5. Tradeking (4 stars)

Best for Frequent Traders

1. TradeStation (4 1/2 stars)
2. MB Trading (4 1/2 stars)
3. Interactive Brokers (4 1/2 stars)
4. Lightspeed Trading (4 1/2 stars)
5. thinkorswim (4 stars)

Best for Options Traders

1. thinkorswim (4 1/2 stars)
2. tradeMonster (4 1/2 stars)
3. OptionsHouse (4 1/2 stars)
4. optionsXpress (4 stars)
5. TradeKing (4 stars)

Best for International Traders

1. Interactive Brokers (4 1/2 stars)
2. ChoiceTrade (4 stars)
3. TradeStation (4 stars)
4. optionsXpress (4 stars)
5. MB Trading (4 stars)

source – Barron’s Magazine Online

You can now trade currencies with Zecco Forex on MetaTrader 4, one of the most popular and sophisticated foreign exchange trading platforms in the industry.

Open a FREE MetaTrader 4 forex account to get:

• Algorithmic trading powered by EA (Expert Advisor) systems and custom MQL4 language commands.
• Dozens of customizable trade indicators.
• Award winning research and analysis.
• Micro lot trading

Open a Zecco Forex account.

Now you can monitor your Zecco Trading account and the financial markets wherever you are, from your Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

The new Zecco Mobile Lite app features blazing speed and a clean and simple design that I think you will really like. With Zecco Mobile Lite you can:

• View your portfolios and watch lists on a single screen.
• Use advanced charts to find new investment opportunities.
• Keep tabs on the day’s financial news and market movers.
• Tap into the ZeccoShare community for investment insight.
• Receive stock alerts via push notifications.

The app is free to download off iTunes and all features are available to Zecco users.

Open a Zecco account.

Zecco Zap Trade – lets you place stock trades directly from your favorite research sites.

ZeccoPulse – gives you a clever and unique perspectives on the financial market.

Zecco Streamer – helps monitor the markets and the trader’s investments, with free streaming quotes, real-time watchlists and so much more.

Open up a free Zecco account to reap the benefits of these new upgrades.