Top 10 Brokers Based in the United States by WIKILIX Score

Ten firms headquartered in the United States lead this ranking, the highest-scoring US-domiciled brokers WIKILIX has on record with a clean regulatory status. They come from a wider group of 56 American-registered firms scoring 50 or above, and the order is the WIKILIX score alone, from Jefferies at 89 down to FOREX.com at 68.3.

Where the 56 came from, and why the score sets the order

Every firm here is registered in the United States, scores at least 50 on the WIKILIX scale, and carries our clean 'regulation' status rather than a warning label. That last filter does real work. Of the 56 US-domiciled firms above the score line, 20 carry a status flag we would rather a reader saw first, which left 36, and these ten sit at the top of them. The WIKILIX score reflects a firm's licence record and how long it has operated, so it rewards firms that have been examined by more than one authority. Nothing about spreads or platform quality enters it.

A US address is not a US licence

Here is the detail that catches people out. Being headquartered in America does not mean a firm is overseen by an American regulator, at least not in what we hold. Jefferies shows a UK Financial Conduct Authority licence and a Canadian one, with no domestic entry at all. RBC Dominion Securities and Morgan Stanley Fund Services each appear under a single Canadian licence from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization. Only the futures and securities names, E*TRADE Futures and Paxos among them, carry US registrations with the National Futures Association or the Securities and Exchange Commission. All ten hold at least one tier-one licence somewhere, but the country on the letterhead and the country on the licence are often two different places.

The list also leans old. Nine of these ten opened before 2010, and RBC Dominion Securities traces its brokerage line to 1901. Across the full pool of 56, the median score sits near 62, and 32 of the 56 hold licences from two or more separate authorities, a sign of firms working across borders rather than in one market. T. Rowe Price alone shows six.

What this list will not settle for you

Two limits are worth stating plainly. A domicile ranking says nothing about who a firm accepts as a client, so a US address here is not a promise that an American resident can open an account, nor that a foreign resident cannot. It also says nothing about cost, because we hold no spread or commission figures. And a note for anyone expecting the familiar retail names: some large US consumer brokers score below this cut, with Charles Schwab at 67.1 and Robinhood at 59.1 both landing just outside the ten, while many firms that court US retail traders sit offshore rather than in America. Read each firm's own status page and confirm any licence on the regulator's register before you send money.

Before you open an account with a US-registered firm

• Check which legal entity the account sits under. A US parent can book your account through a foreign subsidiary with different protections.
• Match the licence to the product. A securities registration does not cover margin forex, and a futures registration does not cover equities.
• Confirm the registration number on the NFA's own BASIC lookup or the SEC register, not on the firm's marketing pages.
• Ask whether US residents are actually onboarded, since several firms here serve institutions rather than retail clients.