Top 10 SEC Regulated Brokers by WIKILIX Score

Ten brokers hold the highest WIKILIX scores among the firms we track that carry a clean registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. They are ranked below by that score alone, from T. Rowe Price at 87.9 down to BGC Brokers at 63. All ten appear on the SEC's own records, and none carries a warning label on WIKILIX.

Why these ten, and in this order

The order is the WIKILIX score, highest first, and nothing else decides it. That score is our overall reading of a broker's standing, weighted toward the strength and number of the licences it holds. It says nothing about spreads or execution quality, which are not things we hold verified figures on. Seventy-two of the brokers we track carry an SEC registration. Thirty-seven of them score 50 or higher, and once the flagged names come out, thirty remain with a clean status. These ten are the highest-scoring of that thirty. The eleventh, Capital Trader at 62.4, is the first firm this page leaves off.

Seven firms were removed on purpose. Three, including tastytrade, are recorded as suspicious clones, and four more, among them KEB Hana Bank, have no current regulation on record despite an SEC entry. All seven scored well enough for a top ten built on score alone. Leaving them in would have put a clone above E*TRADE, so they are named here and kept off the list instead.

SEC registration is narrower, and wider, than it looks

An SEC registration means a firm has entered the federal securities system and answers to it, usually alongside FINRA. It is a securities credential, not a foreign-exchange one, so several names here are banks and asset managers rather than retail trading apps. Pictet, sixth on the list, is a Geneva private bank founded in 1805. T. Rowe Price and StoneX are large American firms that opened in 1937 and 1924. Sixteen of the thirty qualifying firms were trading before 2000, and the oldest name in the wider pool, J.P. Morgan, dates to 1799, though its score of 59.1 keeps it out of the top ten.

The credential also travels. Six of these ten are based outside the United States: ED&F Man and BGC in London, Pictet in Switzerland, UniCredit in France, and Avior in South Africa. A firm can register with the SEC to deal in American securities without being an American company, which is why "SEC regulated" and "US broker" are not the same claim. Robinhood, the most familiar retail name in the wider pool, sits mid-table at 59.1.

Before you rely on an SEC entry

• Match the exact legal entity. Firms here such as E*TRADE Futures and UniCredit Bank GmbH register a specific subsidiary, and a sister company under the same brand may not share the registration.
• Read the registration type. The SEC oversees broker-dealers and investment advisers under different rules, and a firm may hold one and not the other.
• Confirm the entry is live on the SEC's own records and on FINRA BrokerCheck before you deposit, not just on a list like this one.
• Treat an SEC entry as one licence among several. Every broker here holds at least three authorities' licences, so read what the others cover too.

This reflects the licences WIKILIX has on record today. Confirm any registration on the SEC's own records and on FINRA BrokerCheck before you act on it.