I've been saying this for years. E*Trade is the most innovative pure-play online broker in the industry. With features such as IPOs, Platinum Service with free Level II quotes, Bridge 1.6 Java Terminals, free checking, and stock email alerts, E*Trade continues to be on the bleeding edge. I've been a customer even before they had an internet site. Ahh.. I kind of miss the old days of dialing in to a text-based interface with the analog modem.
The online brokerage industry has exploded from almost no accounts five years ago to 7.1 million accounts in 1998, with growth expected to continue at a 25% clip this year. The winner of the overall ranking was E*Trade (EGRP), which seems to be in a slugging match with DLJdirect (DIR). DLJdirect was last quarter's winner, after having taken it from E*Trade, which held it for the previous two quarters -- before which DLJdirect held the title. Indeed, the scores of the two brokerages continue to be very similar. E*Trade won it with a score of 7.5 out of 10. It was helped enormously by its low commissions: as little as $14.95 per trade. DLJdirect, which charges $20 per trade, dropped to third place, with a score of 7.2. "It wasn't a matter of them lowering service or hiking their prices," says Dan Burke, a senior brokerage analyst at Gomez Advisors who oversees the ranking process. "It was just that they stood still while others around them added new features. Three months is a long time to stand still on the Web." - Business Week
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