Availability index on US and UK online stockbroker websites

During the 1 October - 1 December 2005 period, WatchMouse tested the websites of UK and US online stockbrokers. Every 5 minutes, one of the test stations of WatchMouse retrieved the homepage of the site, without graphics, frames etc. This HTML page was expected to download within 8 seconds, without any errors. If that time was exceeded or if an error occurred, it was verified by one of the other test stations. If this station also established an error, it was counted as 'poor availability or not available'.

An uptime of 99.99% or higher is extremely desirable for high-profile companies and those that achieve high turnovers through their sites. Many companies stipulate an uptime of 99.9% as a minimum requirement in the Service Level Agreement with their IT department or provider. An uptime below 99% is usually regarded as unacceptable. In the table below these limits are indicated with colours.

You can also read the WatchMouse press release about this availability index on www.watchmouse.com

US online stockbrockers

#	Website	Uptime percentage	Trading hours down per month
1.	Ameritrade Plus	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Bank One	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Charles Schwab	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Cititrade	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Merrill Lynch Direct	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Morgan Stanley	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Quick and Reilly	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Tradingdirect	100.00	0 minutes
1.	USAA	100.00	0 minutes
1.	Wellsfargo	100.00	0 minutes
11.	Scottrade	99.94	5 minutes
11.	T. Rowe Price	99.94	5 minutes
11.	TD Waterhouse	99.94	5 minutes
11.	Wallstreet*E	99.94	5 minutes
11.	E-trade	99.94	5 minutes
11.	Fidelity	99.94	5 minutes
11.	Mercantile Brokerage	99.94	5 minutes
11.	Sharebuilder	99.94	5 minutes
19.	HarrisDirect	99.87	11 minutes
20.	Ameritrade	99.81	16 minutes
20.	Muriel Siebert	99.81	16 minutes
20.	Optionsxpress	99.81	16 minutes
20.	Wang Investments	99.81	16 minutes
24.	American Express Brokerage	99.74	22 minutes
25.	Accutrade	99.68	27 minutes
26.	Vanguard	99.61	33 minutes
27.	Buy and Hold	99.49	43 minutes
27.	Firsttrade	99.49	43 minutes
29.	AB Watley Direct	99.04	1 hour, 20 minutes

UK online stockbrockers

#	Website	Uptime percentage	Trading hours down per month
1.	Alliance-Leicester	100.00	0 minutes
2.	Halifax	99.95	5 minutes
2.	Hargreaves Lansdown	99.95	5 minutes
4.	RedM	99.90	11 minutes
4.	iweb	99.90	11 minutes
4.	Selftrade	99.90	11 minutes
7.	E-trade UK	99.85	16 minutes
7.	ODL Securities	99.85	16 minutes
7.	Barclays Stockbrokers	99.85	16 minutes
10.	iDealing.com	99.75	27 minutes
11.	NatWest	99.70	33 minutes
12.	James Brearley	99.61	43 minutes
13.	The Share Centre	99.11	1 hour, 38 minutes
14.	TD Waterhouse UK	99.06	1 hour, 43 minutes
15.	stocktrade	98.96	1 hour, 54 minutes
16.	Charles Stanley Fastrade	97.18	5 hours, 9 minutes

Do you also wish to receive a report on the performance of your company's website? Sign up for a free 30-day trial subscription without any further obligations. You will receive an availability report each week, and you can have your staff alerted by e-mail or SMS in the event of problems.

www.watchmouse.com/trial