Scottrade Trade Quality and Execution

Trading Execution

Scottrade monitors the execution quality of all the trading centers to assess whether the trading center is providing our customers best execution. Scottrade uses various monitoring methods. These methods include a daily order-by-order exception report analysis. They also include a post trade date regular and rigorous review of execution quality. We perform this regular and rigorous review by analyzing statistics from Thomson Transaction Analytics and by reviewing the output of our proprietary patent-pending algorithm, the Scottrade Best Execution Index or SBI™.

* defined in SEC rule 605

Trading Quality

Scottrade online brokerage is dedicated to providing outstanding customer service to online traders. One of the ways we do this is by providing you a high quality trade execution at low cost. After you give Scottrade your order to purchase or sell a security, Scottrade routes your order to a trading center or centers that we believe will provide high quality trade executions¹. "Trade Execution," or execution for short, refers to the consummation of a securities transaction between a buyer and seller.

Trade execution quality is measured in a variety of ways. Scottrade looks at multiple factors and combination of factors in our review of trading center execution quality. These pages are not intended to describe each step in Scottrade's review procedures, but to give you a quick snapshot of how Scottrade stacks up against our competitors in the following trade execution benchmarks:

Trade Execution Speed
At-the-Quote or Better Percentage
Price Improvement Percentage²

Thomson Transaction Analytics, an independent service provider, provides these comparisons between Scottrade discount brokers and the stock brokerage industry as a whole.

Adobe Flash Player required to view data graphs.

Click here to install

Scottrade Best-Execution Index

As part of Scottrade's regular and rigorous review of execution quality, we developed a proprietary and patent-pending algorithm, the Scottrade Best-Execution Index (SBI), for evaluating execution quality on a stock-by-stock basis over a period of time. The SBI is used to identify those market centers whose execution quality is underperforming that of other market centers. Learn more...

¹U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 606 requires Scottrade and other broker-dealers that route orders to destinations centers on behalf of customers to prepare quarterly reports that disclose the trading centers to which customer orders are routed for execution and also disclose any material aspects of Scottrade's relationship with each trading center. Scottrade routes certain orders to its own trading desk and to trading centers that may provide Scottrade with remuneration for routing orders to that the trading center. Click for the specific SEC 606 disclosures.

²Information is based on analysis from Thomson Transaction Analytics. Thomson Transaction Analytics is not affiliated with Scottrade. Execution Speed is for NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 market orders of 100 to 500 shares in size. The information does not include pre-market or after-hours orders or orders received during locked, crossed or fast market conditions. Scottrade updates the information on a monthly basis.

Ways to Trade

News and Research

Helpful Information

Brokerage Products and Services offered by Scottrade, Inc. – Member FINRA and SIPC.

No information on this web site should be considered a recommendation or solicitation to invest in a particular security or type of security.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of a mutual fund carefully before investing. A mutual fund's prospectus contains this and other information about the mutual fund. Prospectuses are available through our trading site or through a Scottrade branch office. The prospectus should be read carefully before investing.

Margin trading involves interest charges and risks, including the potential to lose more than deposited or the need to deposit additional collateral in a falling market. Scottrade's margin agreement is available on our web site and at our branch offices; and contains the Margin Disclosure Statement and information on our lending policies, interest charges, and the risks associated with margin accounts. Options are not appropriate for all investors. Detailed information on our policies and the risks associated with options can be found in Scottrade's Options Application and Agreement, Brokerage Account Agreement, and Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (available from your local branch office or here). All option accounts require prior approval by Scottrade.

Market volatility, volume, and system availability may impact account access and trade execution.

Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of other clients and are no guarantee of future performance or success.