Online Brokers 2000: Datek Tops the Roster, Waterhouse Tanks, Dreyfus Shines

Speed thrills. That's the message from the online trading public, which, for the third time in a row, has made Datek the winner of TheStreet.com's Online Broker Survey 2000. Datek's fast order confirmation, speedy executions and strength in complex trades helped put it over the top despite relatively poor marks for customer service and a spotty history with regulators.

We ranked the online brokers according to what readers said was most important -- nine categories ranging from reliability to real-time news.

In calling a winner, we divided the brokers into two main groups, depending on how many votes they received. The League A brokers received votes from more than 650 respondents. League B brokers were firms that between 72 and 307 voters identified as the primary broker. (For more details on methodology, see our separate story.) ...