Scottrade

Scottrade
Formerly called
 Scottsdale Securities
Private
Industry Financial services, discount brokerage, self-directed investing
Founded Scottsdale, Arizona (1980)
Headquarters Town and Country, Missouri, USA
Key people
 Rodger O. Riney
(CEO)
Jane Wulf
(Chief Administrative Officer)
Ron Wiese
(Chief Financial Officer)
Ian Patterson
(Chief Information Officer)
Products stock broker, investing online: Stocks, Options, Mutual Funds, IRAs, CDs, Fixed Income, Etc.
Revenue $776 mil. (2012)[1]
Number of employees
 3,725 (2012)[1]
Website scottrade.com

Scottrade is a privately owned American discount retail brokerage firm headquartered in Town and Country, Missouri. Its founder, former President and the current CEO is Rodger O. Riney. Scottrade has 503 branch offices around the U.S. It also offers services to Asian-Pacific customers with a service center staffing Chinese-speaking stockbrokers.

History

Exterior of the Scottrade Center
Scottrade office, Canton, Michigan

In 1980, Rodger Riney, founder, moved from St. Louis to Scottsdale, Arizona where he and a partner incorporated Scottsdale Securities.[2]

In 1981, Riney returned to St. Louis to open a second branch, but ultimately split apart from his partner in the year 1985 due to conflicting business models. Riney kept the company name, Scottsdale Securities, and lowered the price of commissions to attract more clients. Riney's approach was successful and by 1991 Scottsdale Securities had a total of 15 branches throughout the US.[2]

Scottrade.com was launched in 1996 (along with Scottrader.com to supply streaming online quotes to clients). Scottrade.com was successful and grew rapidly amidst the dot-com bubble of the '90s.[2]

By 1998, Scottrade.com commissions were as low as $7 per trade (the same price as of November 2011) increasing their customer base.[2]

In 2000, Scottsdale Securities officially renamed to Scottrade due to the success of their online firm.[2]

In 2003, Scottrade launched their Chinese trading site, Chinese.scottrade.com.[2]

In 2004, Scottrade's corporate headquarters were relocated to a new building called Corporate Hill in West St. Louis County.[2]

Scottrade saw substantial growth throughout the 2000s, expanding from 200 branch offices in 2004 to 500 by 2010.[2]

In 2006, Scottrade formed a partnership with the St. Louis Blues NHL team, purchasing the naming rights to the 19,150-seat arena in downtown St. Louis. The arena was renamed the Scottrade Center.[3]

During the late-2000s recession Scottrade did not lay off any of its associates. In 2008 alone, Scottrade hired 1,000 new associates and opened 75 new branches despite the economic turmoil.[2]

Scottrade has won numerous awards, most prominently those of J.D. Power and Associates. See awards section below.[2]

In December 2010, Scottrade opened its 500th branch office – located in the West Side of Manhattan.[4]

On December 18, 2013, Scottrade announced to its customers that Scottrade (Hong Kong) Limited will cease operations by December 31, 2013, and that customers have the options of transferring to another brokerage at no cost or Scottrade US will liquidate the accounts and refund its customers by January 31, 2014 by check or wire transfer at no cost to the customers.

Services offered

Scottrade renders both online and branch office services including brokerage services, banking services, investment education, and it offers award-winning online trading platforms, including the Scottrade Trading Web Site, ScottradeELITE Advanced Trading Platform, Scottrader Streaming Quotes, Scottrade OptionsFirst, Scottrade Mobile Application, and Scottrade Mobile Website.[5]

The Scottrade Trading Web Site is Scottrade's standard trading platform with stock screeners; quotes and research; real-time quotes and charting; account monitoring and a knowledge center.[6]

Scottrader Streaming Quotes provides real-time market data and news within a trading platform accessible via the Scottrade Trading Web Site.[7]

ScottradeELITE is an advanced trading platform including news columns from both Comtex and Dow Jones, advanced charts, level two and TotalView quotes, and stock screeners.[8]

OptionsFirst, designed by OptionsHouse in 2008, is a platform allowing complex multi-leg options orders, margin accounts with low minimum deposits, and multiple accounts to the same user. All regular common stock and ETF orders are allowed excluding OTCBB and Pink Sheets.[9]

Scottrade Mobile, launched in 2009, is a trading website accessible from any internet-enabled mobile device.[10]

A Scottrade Mobile Application was released for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry devices on August 2, 2011.[11]

Awards

In 2013, Scottrade was ranked No. 53 on Fortune's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" List, a drop of 22 from the previous year. This was the firm's sixth consecutive appearance on the list.[12]

In 2012, Scottrade was ranked No. 31 on Fortune's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" List, a drop of 19 from the previous year. This was the firm’s fifth consecutive appearance on the list.[13]

In 2011, the firm was ranked No. 12 on Fortune's 14th annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" List, a jump of 15 from 2010. This was the firm’s fourth consecutive appearance on the list. "[Scottrade] thrives by going against the grain: Its brokers offer no advice to customers and do not work on commission. Its workplace bucks trends too — no one has ever been laid off, and no office has ever been closed.”[14]

In 2010, the firm was ranked No. 27 on Fortune's 13th annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" List. This was the firm’s third consecutive appearance on the list. "Almost all managers are promoted from the lower ranks, bucked the recession, laying off no one, hiring more than 1,000 new associates, and opening 58 new branches. Benefits include an onsite fitness center and subsidized gym memberships.”[15]

In 2009, Scottrade placed 60th in Fortune's Top "100 Best Companies to Work For" List. According to Fortune, the major contributor to making the 2009 list was Scottrade's ability to shake the turmoil on Wall Street and achieve its 20 year milestone on October 10 of paying quarterly bonuses and never having a layoff. Other factors were a 25% job growth (390 new jobs) and zero employees outside of the U.S.[16]

In 2008–2009, "Scottrade was ranked No. 1 in investor satisfaction with online investing services for the eighth time since 2001, according to J. D. Power and Associates' 2008 Online Investor Satisfaction Study."[17]

In 2008, Fortune announced "that Scottrade, a leading online investment firm, has been ranked 58th on the 11th annual '100 Best Companies to Work For' list." One of the primary reasons for the ranking, according to the Business Wire article, was job growth. Scottrade hired 46% more people in 2007 than 2006, promoted over 500 employees in 2007, and disclosed that over 20% of Scottrade branch managers "began their Scottrade careers as interns."[18]

Recently Scottrade was also selected by Computerworld magazine's 2008 16th best place to work in IT. Many things were considered when rating the work environment for technology professionals such as benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention. In addition to a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings, Computerworld conducted an extensive survey of Scottrade’s IT workers.[19]

Scottrade earned three stars and finished ninth overall in the StockBrokers.com 2011 Online Broker Review.[20] In 2012, they improved drastically and earned five stars along with a fourth place finish. In addition, they were awarded Best Overall Client Experience.[21] For 2013, Scottrade remained in fourth place, earning four stars, and once again earning Best Overall Client Experience.[22] In 2014, they were awarded #1 Overall Client Experience for the third year running, #1 New Tool for FRIPs, and placed sixth overall with four stars.[23]

Scottrade ranks highest in the industry in J. D. Power and Associates 2013 Investor Satisfaction Survey with an overall score of 810 which is 58 points above the industry average.[24]

Recently given the changes in philosophy within Scottrade, including the termination of more experienced and higher paid brokers and branch managers, Scottrade has not entered the '100 Best Companies to Work For' list.

SEC complaint and settlement

In 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company with making fraudulent misrepresentations to clients. The company settled the dispute by paying a $950,000 fine.[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Top 150 - 27. Scottrade Financial Services Inc.". St. Louis Business Journal. March 29, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 About Scottrade | Company History & Timeline Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  3. ↑ Scottrade Center: Guide to the Scottrade Center - History Scottradecenter.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  4. ↑ Scottrade Today Opens Milestone 500th Branch Office Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  5. ↑ About Scottrade | Company Fact Sheets Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  6. ↑ Online Trader | Tools for Stock Trading Online Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  7. ↑ Scottrader Streaming Quotes - Real-Time Stock Quotes and Trading Tool Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  8. ↑ ScottradeELITE – Advanced Trading Tools for the Active Trader Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  9. ↑ Scottrade OptionsFirst – Professional Trading Tools for Advanced Online Options Trading Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  10. ↑ Scottrade Mobile – Research and Trade from Any Internet-Enabled Mobile Device Scottrade.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  11. ↑ Mobile Trading Website – Scottrade Mobile Scottrade.com. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  12. ↑ "100 Best Companies to Work For". Fortune. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  13. ↑ Scottrade - Best Companies to Work For 2012 - Fortune. Money.cnn.com (2012-02-06). Retrieved on 2014-01-21.
  14. ↑ 100 Best Companies to Work For 2011: Scottrade - from FORTUNE. Money.cnn.com (2011-02-07). Retrieved on 2014-01-21.
  15. ↑ 100 Best Companies to Work For 2010: Scottrade - from FORTUNE. Money.cnn.com. Retrieved on 2014-01-21.
  16. ↑ "100 Best Companies to Work For 2009: Scottrade". CNN (Fortune 2 FEB 2009).
  17. ↑ "J.D. Power ranks Scottrade No. 1 in investor satisfaction." St. Louis Business Journal 25 OCT 2007
  18. ↑ "Scottrade Named to Fortune's``100 Best Companies to Work For List for the First Time" Forbes.com Business Wire - Press Release 22 JAN 2008
  19. ↑ "Scottrade named 16th Best Place to Work in IT by Computerworld" Business Wire. June 26, 2008
  20. ↑ "2011 Online Broker Review", January 18, 2011.
  21. ↑ "2012 Online Broker Review", February 21, 2012.
  22. ↑ "2013 Online Broker Review", February 19, 2013.
  23. ↑ "2014 Online Broker Review", February 18, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Scottrade ranks highest in J.D. Power’s 2013 U.S. Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study". Scottrade.com. June 17, 2013.
  25. ↑ "SEC Charges Scottrade for Misrepresentations to Customers", U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. June 24, 2008. Accessed September 8, 2010.

External links