Broker of the Year 2021 decided - these are the winners of the Broker of the Year 2021 election

Broker Election 2021: the already 21st edition of the Broker of the Year election, which took place from 01 March to 31 March 2021 at www.brokerwahl.de, has been decided.

• • comdirect defends title as Online Broker of the Year

• Traders and investors could vote for their favourite broker in a total of 6 categories
• Record participation: over 98,000 participants voted for the best brokers
• DEGIRO in the top 3 no less than four times
• NeoBroker and LeanBroker particularly successful

 

Due to the trading boom of the last 24 months and the successful entry of new brokers into the already highly competitive broker market environment, there were some shifts in the winners, as in the previous year. The new brokers were able to improve on their already good performance last year and showed the established brokers and banks that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

However, brokers that have been in the market for a long time and are lean (i.e. lean and focused on trading) and can offer low-cost share trading are also among the clear winners of the ongoing trading boom.

 

Online Broker of the Year 2021

comdirect, which has since been integrated into Commerzbank, won the battle for the title in the main category. "Online broker of the year 2021" and thus repeat the success from the previous year. Second place went to the LeanBroker DEGIRO (last year still in fourth place), which came in just ahead of the AllroundBroker Consorsbank was able to place.

Then come three neo-brokers: Trade Republic, Gratisbroker and justTRADE. They are followed in eighth place by LeanBroker onvista bank and in ninth place by the next neo-broker: Smartbroker from Berlin.

 

 

Day trading

In the election to the "Day trading broker of the year 2021" the LeanBrokers and NeoBrokers are among themselves.

Last year's runner-up, justTRADE, swapped places with DEGIRO and won a title in the broker poll for the first time.

Last year's winner DEGIRO had to settle for second place this year - but managed to achieve more top 3 placements than any other broker. As in 2020, the free broker from Munich was in third place. This was followed in fourth and fifth place by ViTrade and flatex, which together with DEGIRO all belong to flatexDEGIRO Bank AG. So 3 brokers in the top 5 in day trading - that's a real exclamation mark!

Overall, in this segment the NeoBroker and LeanBroker among themselves, as fees are particularly important for frequent traders and these two broker types can score particularly well here.

 

 

ETFs - demand continues to rise at an already high level

The demand for ETFs as an investment instrument is increasingly strong and the trading boom has even given a further boost here.

The following financial instruments are the most important for the participants in the broker selection (with comparison to the previous year):

Type	2021	2020	Development
Shares	89,7%	85,9%	+3,8%
ETFs	73,6%	66,3%	+7,3%
Savings plans	39,7%	40,5%	-0,8%
Fund	38,4%	41,9%	-3,5%

 

Interest in ETFs is still growing at an already high level of 7% to 73.6% and is already close to the top performer, equities.

The ETF market segment is correspondingly competitive among brokers.

Here, DKB came out on top as the "ETF broker of the year 2021" and won a title in the broker poll for the first time ever, after having to settle for second place in the same category last year.

The previous year's winner, the Berlin-based NeoBroker Trade Republic, moved up to second place. DEGIRO followed in third place, securing the third of a total of four top three placements. This is followed by justTRADE, Smartbroker and flatex.

 

 

ETF provider

For the first time, we also asked about the awareness of ETF providers.

iShares clearly came out on top, ahead of Deka ETF and Lyxor ETF.

ETF provider	Awareness
iShares	59,4%
Deka ETF	49,0%
Lyxor ETF	45,3%
Xtrackers	41,4%
BNP Paribas	40,9%
Vanguard	39,7%
Amundi ETF	39,7%
UBS	38,9%
HSBC	36,8%

 

You can see that the top ETF providers are still relatively close together in terms of awareness. In terms of popularity, iShares is clearly ahead of BNP Paribas, Lyxor, Deka and Vanguard.

 

Futures & Options

Although futures and options are more something for experienced traders, demand among investors is also increasing here:

Financial topics	2021	2020	Development
Futures & Options	12,8%	10,8%	+2,0%

 

Among the futures brokers, WH SelfInvest was able to repeat the previous year's success and clearly won the title of "Futures Broker". "Futures broker of the year 2021" defend

Behind them, there was a close neck-and-neck race, which DEGIRO won in the end in second place (and thus the fourth top 3 placement) ahead of LYNX in third place.

 

 

CFD Trading

Interest in CFD trading is also growing, even though the market is much smaller than for classic share trading.

Financial topics	2021	2020	Development
CFDs	9,9%	8,4%	+1,5%

 

In the CFD broker category, Admiral Markets (which will operate under the name Admirals in the future) managed the triple and won the CFD category for the third time in a row after 2019 and 2020, and can thus call itself "CFD broker of the year 2021" name. IG Europe came in second after narrowly missing out on a top place last year with fourth place.

WH SelfInvest follows in third place with the second top 3 placement ahead of ActivTrades and CMC Markets.

 

 

Forex & Cryptocurrencies

While the demand for classic foreign exchange trading is almost stagnating, the demand for cryptocurrencies is exploding.

There, interest grows from just under 15% in 2020 to over 30% in 2021 - i.e. a doubling within just one year!

Financial topics	2021	2020	Development
Foreign exchange trading	7,3%	7,1%	+0,2%
Cryptocurrencies	30,4%	14,7%	+15,7%

 

Among the Forex brokers, ActivTrades was able to repeat the success of 2020 and win the title "Forex broker of the year 2021" win. However, there were some changes in the following places, so that IG Europe (previous year's 3rd place) and XTB (previous year's 5th place) were able to move up to 2nd place. FXCM and Tickmill follow in the other places.

 

 

 

NeoBroker - come to stay!

It is also interesting to note the consistently strong performance of NeoBroker, which already caused a sensation last year and proved in this year's broker poll that they are not just a flash in the pan.

Trade Republic (2nd place in ETF brokers and 4th place in online brokers), justTRADE (1st place in daytrade brokers, 4th place in ETF brokers and 6th place in online brokers), Gratisbroker (3rd place in daytrade brokers and 5th place in online brokers) and Smartbroker (5th place in ETF brokers and 8th place in online brokers) all achieved top positions.

This should gradually set alarm bells ringing for the big all-round brokers. maxblue (Deutsche Bank) and S Broker (Sparkassen Broker), which were still competing for the titles not so long ago, no longer made it into the top 10 of the online brokers in 2021. From the ranks of the big all-round brokers, which offer online banking and other financial services in addition to trading, only comdirect and Consorsbank could be satisfied. Unfortunately, ING did not compete in the broker poll.

Those of the all-round brokers who want to participate in the trading boom must therefore come up with something: possible options would be to reposition themselves in trading or to reposition themselves in the market segment through an acquisition. However, the market for acquisitions is narrow and is already shrinking: at the end of March, the financial portal finanzen.net put a clear exclamation mark and bought NeoBroker Gratisbroker (although it is already on the market with its own broker).

But NeoBrokers do not only have a direct influence on the big banks and brokers.

 

Electronic trading venues

The market segment of electronic trading venues has also been gripped by a strong change for some time.

The market leader Xetra is facing stronger challengers in retail trading:

Electronic trading venues	Awareness
Xetra	83,9%
Tradegate	62,0%
LS Exchange	35,5%
EUWAX	31,5%
Baader Bank	30,6%
Gettex	29,7%

 

Electronic trading venues	Popularity
Xetra	36,9%
Tradegate	28,2%
LS Exchange	6,0%

 

 

Robo advisor - not yet the big breakthrough, but steady growth

Although the market for robo advisors is growing steadily, it is not yet a big issue for many investors:

Robo Advisor	Awareness
Cominvest	36,5%
Scalable Capital	35,4%
Oskar	15,1%
Robin	7,6%
Quirion	6,2%
Evergreen	5,8%
fintego	5,8%
Whitebox	3,5%
Liqid	3,2%
Growney	2,5%
Ginmon	2,1%
Visualvest	2,0%
Castell Insight	1,4%

 

Even the two best-known RoboAdvisors only achieve awareness values of just over 35 percent.

In the popularity ratings, the RoboAdvisor Cominvest is just ahead of Scalable, Oskar, Robin, Evergreen and Quirion.

 

Broker choice - already the 21st choice for Broker of the Year

Already for the 21st time, the broker election took place under www.brokerwahl.de and after there had already been a very high participation in 2020, the record number of participants was clearly exceeded again this year with more than 98,000 traders.

A good sign that share trading finally seems to be becoming more popular in Germany.

However, there have also been some shifts in terms of investor profiles.

Investors are more risk-averse this year than in 2020:

Risk profile	2021	2020	Development
Risk-taking	47%	42%	+5%
Risk neutral	45%	49%	-4%
Risk-avoiding	8%	9%	-1%

 

Due to the trading boom of the last few years, there are of course also more traders who do not yet have so much trading experience:

Trading experience	2021	2020	Development
Until 2 years	38%	32%	+6%
2 to 5 years	19%	16%	+3%
Over 5 years	43%	52%	-9%

 

About the choice of broker:

The broker poll has been held since 2001 at www.brokerwahl.de and is organised by the financial portal Broker-Test.de. The complete winner lists of the 6 categories Online Broker, Daytrade Broker, ETF & Certificates Broker, Futures Broker, CFD Broker and Forex Broker can be found here: Broker Election 2021 Results

 

Press contact:

David Ernsting
presse@ernsting.com
+49 30 - 577 055 13-0