Top 100 US Retail Brokerages · Q3 2026 Telemetry

Top 100 US Brokerages

Cross-cohort benchmarking of 100 US retail brokerages across SEC Rule 606 PFOF economics, clearing correspondent relationships, creator affiliate bounties ($50–$250 CPA), and Aries's disruption whitespace.

Tracked: 100 Firms
Total AUM: $42T+
Clearing: Self / Apex / Velox

01 / Executive Scope

Executive Scope: The Top 100 US Retail Brokerage Index

Synthesizing SEC Rule 606 filings, FINRA BrokerCheck registrations, Meta and Google Ad Library creatives, and creator affiliate contracts.

Tracked Firms100Across 7 Segments

Tracked AUM$42T+Retail & Wealth Desks

Active Accounts185M+US Funded Investors

PFOF Exposure58%Heavy or Moderate

Average CAC$145Blended Paid + Bounty

Native MCP Adoption1%Aries Only (Whitespace)

The 3 Macro Observations of the 2026 Brokerage Landscape

1. The Zero-Commission Mirage

While 82% of retail brokerages advertise “$0 commissions,” SEC Rule 606 filings confirm they monetise via heavy Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) spreads and aggressive margin APRs ranging between 9.25% and 13.50%.

2. The High-Bounty Churn Trap

Retail neobrokers (Webull, Robinhood, Moomoo) spend $50 to $250 CPA per funded account. Over 35% of these promo-acquired accounts churn or withdraw within 90 days once promotional stocks are claimed.

3. The Agentic AI Vacuum

Despite surging developer interest in automated AI trading agents, 99 of the top 100 brokerages require complex REST webhooks or legacy desktop software. Aries (finance.dev) is the sole broker offering a native Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.