If you are still looking for a suitable provider you‘ll find some inspiration here. If you already have had experiences of your own with one or the other broker we invite you to leave your rating. Below you will find everything about the readers‘ awards.
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How does the award process work?
The choice of online brokers is vast and sometimes the decision is anything but easy for beginners and experienced traders both. When choosing the right online broker ratings and testimonials from other users can be of significant help. We at AskTraders have many years of experience in online trading. Our team consists of active traders, hobby traders and experienced broker testers. Since we are not dependent on any provider our reviews are objective and trustworthy, but we go one step further.
We want to offer you reviews and evaluations from real users. To this end we launched the users‘ awards. Parallel to our comparisons, such as the Forex broker comparison, there is a corresponding readers‘ award answering the question of who could prevail in a certain area as the best broker according to our readers – that is the crucial difference to our comparisons. And so it may happen that the ranking is different. For example, from our point of view provider A is the test winner in the stock broker comparison, while here on this page you may find another broker in first place. Because here it‘s only the user rating that matters, not our opinion.
Of course we'll provide some guidance on the aspects you might consider in your assessment. After all, we have extensive expertise in testing online brokers. But the final decision is yours alone. Readers who are still looking for a suitable provider thus get a comprehensive picture of the company.
„Best broker is …“ – this is how you elect the winner
Each reader may vote annually for a provider he believes to be the best broker in the respective category. At the end of the year we count the votes and the test winner of our readers receives the corresponding award for the entire following year. That means the providers you see here on this page are the winners of the last poll.
The ranking is updated continuously. Accordingly, the provider with the most votes currently is at the top. Your contribution allows you to actively influence the result. At the beginning of each year, the counters are reset to zero and voting starts again.
Since the poll runs throughout the year, even brokers established during the year have a chance to obtain the coveted awards. Occasionally vendors change their offer fundamentally during the year or adjust their conditions. In this case, companies that may have been favoured by investors so far may receive more attention, and of course the same applies the other way round: If a broker changes his terms and conditions to the detriment of the customers, this will be reflected in the customer ratings.
The major advantage for other readers is that the ranking on the voting page is constantly updated. This gives them a realistic picture of the broker, because a significant change e.g. in the conditions is likely to reflect promptly in the ratings. Thus you too will recognize positive and negative trends faster.
Possible criteria for your rating
Although the vote is based solely on your assessment and that of other users, we would like to give you some guidelines for orientation criteria that we take into account in our tests, based on our many years of experience. If you find these useful, you are welcome to use them for your broker test.
Overview of the award categories and our readers‘ award winners
Best Forex Broker
An extensive trading offer, the best trading platform and outstanding customer service – this is what distinguishes the best forex broker. Of course, the provider has not received the „best Forex broker“ award based on our ratings, but on our readers‘ votes.
But users have also considered other factors, like payment conditions and additional offers, in their evaluation. Very important in this context are the issues of regulation and deposit insurance. For other readers this award has the advantage that especially beginners immediately find their bearings for their initial brokerage choice. Thus traders benefit from the experience of others.
Short-term traders like to fall back on Forex trading. This is available from Sunday evening to Friday evening throughout, i.e. 24/5. Moreover it is the most liquid market ever. The average trading volume is US$ 5 trillion daily! When choosing a suitable provider traders should be aware of the available account models. If you trade larger volumes, you might use STP or ECN accounts, where traders get direct market access with optimal spreads. In return, commissions are due, but those trading frequently and with large volumes can save significantly in the long run.
Beginners on the other hand might do their first „paper trades“ on a free Forex demo account, where they get virtual credit from the provider to use for trading under real trading conditions. At the same time there is no risk of actually losing money. Although this does not make anyone a professional trader it will facilitate getting started.
[icon_btn text=”Go to Forex award” link=”/us/awards/best-forex-broker/” icon=”ask-forex-icon”]
Best Stock Broker
In equities trading, our readers value two things: low order fees and excellent service. But there are other things traders consider as well, including for example a broad selection of exchanges on which the investor can buy shares. In addition, many investors also pay attention to the fact that the broker offers low-priced stock savings plans. Our readers have chosen who they think is the best stock broker of the year.
Despite a large number of derivatives and new financial products traditional stock trading remains popular. Ultimately derivatives are based on the price of the stocks, and so without stocks there would be no indices or certificates. The interesting thing about trading stocks is that investors can trade here on short notice, but also in the long term.
Americans are confident in their stocks and as a result, have some of the best stock brokerage firms in the world. There are 13 major stock exchanges across the world, of which 6 are based in the U.S. alone. More and more investors have become aware of stocks due to the low interest rate phase that has been going on for many years now. Equities with a reasonable dividend policy are again the focus of many investors especially as an alternative to state pension funds. Trading partners are stock brokers who offer an attractive range of securities savings plans. We recommend that short-term oriented stock traders pay attention to particularly favorable order fees. In any case investors should keep in mind that too much activity here really depletes ones capital.
[icon_btn text=”Go to Stock award” link=”/us/awards/best-stock-broker/” icon=”ask-stock-icon”]
Best ETF Broker
ETFs have seen a triumphant success in recent years. Particularly for medium to long-term oriented investors, it has been recognized that passively managed funds tracking the performance of a given index are in most cases superior to actively managed funds. Our readers have voted who is the best ETF broker. Since ETF investors are generally very price sensitive, many readers have focused on fees. Meanwhile it has even become standard that there are a number of ETFs investors can buy for free. The range of ETF savings plans was also evaluated.
ETFs should no longer be missing in any well-sorted portfolio. ETFs are a very simple way of diversifying very widely. Investors should also ensure that they have a sufficient supply of free ETF savings plans. As already mentioned, these are no longer optional but have become the standard.
In our ETF broker comparison we have taken the above factors into account. However, our rating may differ from that of our readers. Every investor focusses on other things. If you‘ve already had some experience with an ETF provider, you can use the ETF Award add your rating – helping other traders who are still looking for the right broker.
[icon_btn text=”Go to ETF award” link=”/us/awards/best-etf-broker/” icon=”ask-etf-icon”]
Vote now:
In your opinion, who is the best broker?
AskTraders offers you the opportunity to rate providers from various areas. By voting for your favorite you‘ll help other users find a suitable broker. Of course all results from our award area are subjective, but there is hardly anything more valuable in the financial industry than real users‘ experiences. At the end of the year, the results of the votes are evaluated and AskTraders announces the broker who could convince and inspire customers. Although we present numerous providers in our broker reviews and broker comparisons on this portal, the user award in the categories Forex, shares ETFs, crypto brokers certainly offers valuable clues for you use in the course of your considerations. You have already formed a good or less good opinion of a broker? Then please vote and share your experience with other traders!