Scottrade
Encyclopedia
Scottrade is a privately owned American discount retail brokerage firm headquartered in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

. Its Founder, President and CEO is Rodger O. Riney. Scottrade has 500 branch offices around the U.S. It also now has one international branch office in Hong Kong, and it also does offer special services to its Asian-Pacific customers with a Chinese service center staffing Chinese-speaking stockbrokers.

History

In 1980, Rodger Riney, founder, moved from St. Louis to Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...

 where he and a partner incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...

 Scottsdale Securities.

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 the Scottsdale Securities had a total of 15 branches throughout the US.

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
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...

 of the 90s.

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

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

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

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

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

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
Scottrade Center
Scottrade Center is a 19,150 seat arena located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, opened in 1994. It is the home of the St...

.
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.

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

In December 2010, Scottrade opened its 500th branch office. It is located in the West Side of Manhattan
West Side (Manhattan)
The West Side of Manhattan refers to the side of Manhattan Island which abuts the Hudson River and faces New Jersey. Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and lower Broadway separate it from the East Side. The major neighborhoods on the West Side are West Harlem, Morningside Heights, Manhattan Valley, Upper...

.

In 2011, Scottrade launched Scottrade Bank.

Services offered

Scottrade renders both online and branch office services including brokerage services, advisment services, investment education, and 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.

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.

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

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.

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
Common stock
Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. It is called "common" to distinguish it from preferred stock. In the event of bankruptcy, common stock investors receive their funds after preferred stock holders, bondholders, creditors, etc...

 and ETF
Exchange-traded fund
An exchange-traded fund is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and trades close to its net asset value over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as the S&P 500 or MSCI EAFE...

 orders are allowed excluding OTCBB and Pink Sheets
Pink Sheets
OTC Markets Group, Inc., informally known as "Pink Sheets", is a private company that provides services to the U.S. over-the-counter securities market including electronic quotations, trading, messaging, and information platforms. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, OTC...

.

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

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

Awards

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 last year. 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.”

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.”

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.

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."

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."
In April 2010, Scottrade was reviewed in CEOWORLD Magazine ranked 2nd Best Online Investments Stock Broker.

Competitors

Competitors in the discount brokerage industry include: E*TRADE, TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade is an American online broker with over 6 million U.S. customers, and many more internationally, that has grown rapidly through acquisition to become the 746th-largest US firm in 2008. TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation is the owner of TD Ameritrade Inc...

, Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments
FMR LLC or Fidelity Investments is an American multinational financial services corporation one of the largest mutual fund and financial services groups in the world. It was founded in 1946 and serves North American investors. Fidelity Ventures is its venture capital arm...

, Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab may refer to:*Charles M. Schwab , American steel magnate*Charles R. Schwab , founder of the eponymous brokerage*Charles Schwab Corp., an American based brokerage firm...

, Firstrade, and TradeKing
Tradeking
TradeKing is a privately held discount brokerage firm with headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and subsidiary offices in Charlotte, NC.-History:Launched in December 2005, TradeKing offers online brokerage services for active stock and option traders...

.

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.
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