Review our top 10 list of the most trusted and regulated Business Brokers in the USA. We tested with actual money accounts and compared their key criteria. There are so many options when choosing a business broker in the USA. Thus, it’s hard to find the best broker who is safe and aligns with your investment goals.
In-depth research, detailed comparisons, and verification of the safety of brokers are important steps to avoid scam brokers and poor-quality platforms. We simplified the selection process of choosing a business broker by picking out a list of the top 10 brokers and explaining which types of trading they’re best for.
Rank | Broker | Score | Best For |
1 | Interactive Brokers | 4.9 | Best business broker overall. Very low trading fees. Wide range of available products. |
2 | Fidelity | 4.6 | Best for mobile trading. Great research tools. Wide range of trading products. |
3 | Merrill Edge | 4.6 | Best for investing. Low trading fees. Fast account opening. |
4 | Ally Invest | 4.5 | Best for Education. Very low trading fees. Great for active trading. |
5 | E*Trade | 4.5 | Best trading conditions. Great research tools. Interest on uninvested cash. |
6 | Charles Schwab | 4.4 | Best trading platform. Fast account opening. Great research tools. |
7 | Tradestation | 4.1 | Best web based trading platform. Great for mobile trading. Very good research tools. |
8 | Zack’s Trade | 4.0 | Best customer service. Wide range of trading instruments. Low trading fees. |
9 | tastytrade | 3.9 | Best research tools. Great for education. Low trading fees. |
10 | Trade Zero | 3.8 | Best for short selling. Great customer support. Very good education. |
The United States has a strong regulatory framework that is supposed to ensure fairness, transparency, and investor protection in financial markets, including business brokerage accounts. Key regulatory bodies include:
Business brokerage account regulation:
Such accounts in the U.S. have to face the same rigorous regulatory requirements as individual accounts. Brokers have to provide user transparency, secure funds handling, and full disclosures. Features often included to facilitate business needs are role-based access controls, integrated accounting tools, and advanced financial reporting.
For U.S. companies opening international brokerage accounts, it’s the Tier-1 regulators that guarantee, at least theoretically, the best overall standards regarding international transparency and protection. They are the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australia’s Securities and Investments Commission, and, not least, the SEC itself. Brokers licensed with these authorities promise safe, transparent experiences. U.S. businesses, therefore, would have dual compliance to operate across borders (national and global regulations that protect the interest of your business in any kind of cross-border transaction).
Here are the most important areas that decide how trustworthy a broker is: who their top tier regulators are, investor protection they provide, and if they have any history of misconduct, or scandals. Here is a table below offering all the crucial information.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Top -tier Regulators | FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), SEC (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA) | SEC and FINRA (USA), ASIC (Australia) | SEC and FINRA (USA), CIRO (Canada) |
Investor Protection | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k) | $500k (cash up to $250k), 1M CAD to Canadian clients |
Year of Foundation | 1977 | 1946 | 2010 | 2017 | 1982 | 1971 | 1982 | 1978 | 2017 | 2015 |
Trusted Broker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Involved in Scandal | Track record is clean: no major regulatory incidents or fines | Sued in 2024 for Hack Exposing 77,000 Clients’ Finance Data | Track record is clean: no major regulatory incidents or fines | Track record is clean: no major regulatory incidents or fines | Paid $900,000 in 2014 for supervisory violations related to best execution and protection of customer order information | Agreed to pay $187 million in 2022 to settle an SEC investigation into the firm’s robo-advisor, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. | In 2022 gave a fine as it failed to register its Crypto lending product | Track record is clean: no major regulatory incidents or fines | Track record is clean: no major regulatory incidents or fines | Paid a $250,000 fine in 2024 as it failed to properly oversee the things posted by online influencers the firm hired to promote its service. |
Fees of all the platforms are given in the table below. Interactive Brokers offers the most competitive fees with $0.005 per share for US stock fees and E*Trade does not take a commission free for most of their offerings.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
UK stock fee | 0.05% with £3 min | £9 | – | – | – | – | – | 0.3% with £12 min | – | – |
US stock fee | $0.005 per share with $1 min; $0 for lite plan | $0 | $0 | $0 for stocks above $2; $4.95 + $0.1 per share for others | $0 | $0 | $0 for first 10000 shares per trade with flat $5 after that | $0.01 per share with $1 min | $0 | $0.99 flat fee for orders up to 200 shares, $0.005 per share above that; limit orders that are 200 shares or more are free |
German stock fee | 0.05% with €3 min | €19 | – | – | – | – | – | 0.3% with €12 min | – | – |
Mutual Funds | $15.00 | $49.95 | For 800 funds $0, others $19.95 per trade; | $0 | $0 | $49.95 | $14.95 | $27.50 | – | – |
EU/UK government bonds | 0.1% for first €10000 of trade with 0.025% for above €10000 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.3% with min €12 | – | – |
US Treasury bond | 0.002% of trade value with $5 min | $0 | $0 | $1 per bond with $10 min | $0 | $0 | $50 | Up to $1M 0.025%*face value +$3 per bond; Above $1M 0.005%*face value +$3 per bond | – | – |
Such fees like account, deposit and withdrawal fees are given in the table below. Interactive Brokers does not take any deposit or withdrawal fees and Fidelity has no fees for accounts that are inactive.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Deposit fee | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Withdrawal fee | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $15 |
Account fee | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Inactivity fee | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $10 per month for accounts lower than $5000 or for below 10 transactions in 3 months | $15 per month for accounts below $25000 | $0 | $0 |
The availability of deposit, credit or debit cards are mentioned in the table below. Interactive Brokers had no minimum deposit requirements and Merrill Edge was extremely fast in opening an account in a day.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Time to open account | 1-3 days | 3 days | 1 day | 3 days | 7 days | 1 day | 1-2 days | more than 3 days | 1 day | 1 day |
Minimum deposit | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $250 |
Credit/Debit Card | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
The web trading platforms are compared in the table below. Charles Schwab offers the best trading platform and Tradestation stood out for mobile trading.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Algorithmic trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Demo account | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trading platform score | 4.9 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.3 |
Mobile app score | 4.9 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
Available financial products are compared in the table below. Interactive brokers had the best choice of products overall and Ally Invest had the most amount of bonds to pick from.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Mutual Funds (providers) | 600 | 550 | 100 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 54 | 550 | – | – |
Stocks (markets) | 90 | 25 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 90 | 4 | 3 |
ETFs | 13000 | 2500 | 2300 | 2300 | 2800 | 2300 | 3000 | 13000 | 2200 | 600 |
Options (exchanges) | 34 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 34 | 8 | 10 |
Bonds | 41336 | 209000 | 8300 | 221000 | 88000 | 60000 | 630 | 38321 | – | – |
Futures (markets) | 32 | – | – | – | 3 | 8 | 11 | – | 8 | – |
Cryptos | 5 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | 4 | – |
If you want to maximize returns on idle funds then you must pay attention to interest rates on cash balances. The table below compares the interest rates offered by brokers on USD, GBP, and EUR cash balances. Interactive Brokers offers the best rates among all.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Max interest on GBP cash | 4.5% | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Max interest on USD cash | 4.1% | 2.4% | 4.2% | – | 0.2% | 0.1% | – | – | – | – |
Max interest on EUR cash | 2.9% | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Interest on £10k | 0.1% | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Interest on $10k | 0.0% | 2.4% | 0.0% | – | 0.0% | 0.1% | – | – | – | – |
Interest on €10k | 0.0% | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
The number of clients each broker has is compared in the table below. Fidelity has the most number of clients.
Broker | Interactive Brokers | Fidelity | Merrill Edge | Ally Invest | E*Trade | Charles Schwab | Tradestation | Zack’s Trade | tastytrade | Trade Zero |
Number of clients | 2.6M | 44.2M | 3.5M | 11M | 5.2M | 35.6M | 220k | N/A | 105k | N/A |
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Choosing the right broker is highly important for both a beginner and an experienced trader. Here’s how we evaluate the best options for you:
Any business using brokerage accounts for trading in the United States has to be aware of what kind of tax consequences businesses may be facing:
Businesses should consult with tax advisors who specialize in investment and corporate tax to manage these complexities effectively.
The following are the important steps to get started with business brokerage accounts:
Businesses, through brokerage accounts, can do different kinds of trading, such as the following, under the surveillance of federal and state law:
Based on our thorough research, it would be safe to say that Interactive Brokers will be the best option for you. What makes the platform stand out is the wide range of financial instruments it provides. That is really helpful for different business strategies. You do not have to worry about safety as the top U.S. authorities regulate the platform. So, if you want a secure and transparent trading platform with global reach, Interactive Brokers is the best option.
Anyone who provides financial services by which you can buy and sell financial instruments like mutual funds, ETFs, stocks and derivatives can be called an online broker. An important thing is that these services are given with the help of an online platform or app. You will be able to do trading, check your portfolio and do all the market research you want from anywhere you want. So, if you want to trade on important U.S. exchanges like the NYSE and NASDAQ, then an online broker will be very important. They provide –
It is very similar to a personal brokerage account but is meant for businesses only. It is a financial account with the help of which businesses can buy and sell securities like stocks, bonds and mutual funds. A brokerage firm usually manages such accounts and gives access to the financial markets.
There are a number of things that you need to keep in mind when you select a brokerage firm. You need to make sure that the firm is a registered one. It is important to get registered by either the SEC, FINRA, or other regulatory bodies. Next, what you need to check is the fees, as this is one of the most important things. Check the transaction fees and the account maintenance fees. The trading platform that will be used needs to have crucial features and tools to help make the process simple. Then, the brokerage should give access to numerous securities apart from continuous support to solve all queries.
If you want a brokerage account that is safe, then you must choose the ones that are regulated by bodies like the SEC and FINRA. Another thing that you need to look for is whether the brokerage offers insurance through SIPC. What this does is that it gives protection if the firm fails.
There is no standard rate for the services, and that is why you need to properly compare the fees of different brokerages. The common fees to look for are –
There are several things needed if you want to open a business brokerage account. They are –
Yes there are many accounts that gives you the ability to do trading in the international markets. But before you begin it is important to check whether the firm follows all the international trading laws or not.
To manage the risks, you need to use risk management tools. These include –
A company runs based on a number of rules and practices. This system comes under something known as corporate governance. You must make sure that you have proper corporate governance so that you can maintain transparency and fairness in all your financial tasks.
It is important to verify whether your activities are safe or not. To do this, you need to take help of security measures like using passwords that are strong and unique. You will also have to enable two-factor authentication and see that the platform uses proper encryption technology. It is also important to do continuous security audits so that no unauthorized access is possible.
When securities are traded by big entities like companies and banks, it is called institutional trading. It is different from retail trading because it involves big transaction volumes. There can be different price rates for institutional accounts.
Yes, there is no fixed rate and that means the rates are open to negotiations. Especially the accounts that have high trading volumes they are more likely to get negotiable rates.
It is all about the proper management of assets and securities in a brokerage account. What this does is that it makes sure there is enough cash flow to take care of the urgent business needs.
Arjun is a seasoned stock market content expert with over 7 years of experience in stock market, technical & fundamental analysis. Since 2020, he has been a key contributor to Strike platform. Arjun is an active stock market investor with his in-depth stock market analysis knowledge. Arjun is also an certified stock market researcher from Indiacharts, mentored by Rohit Srivastava.
Shivam is a stock market content expert with CFTe certification. He is been trading from last 8 years in indian stock market. He has a vast knowledge in technical analysis, financial market education, product management, risk assessment, derivatives trading & market Research. He won Zerodha 60-Day Challenge thrice in a row. He is being mentored by Rohit Srivastava, Indiacharts.
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