Alpha compiled its inaugural ranking of the Top Equity Trading Firms based on voting in the spring and early summer by nearly 300 hedge fund firms. Brokerage quality was broken down into four broad functional areas — Algorithmic Trading, Electronic Trading/Direct Market Access, Trading Expertise & Market Knowledge and Traditional Execution — each of which included a series of specific points of service on which hedge fund managers evaluated their brokerages. Respondents also rated the importance of each service attribute, the result of which was then used to calculate the overall winner in each major category, rewarding firms that do well in the tasks hedge funds prize most. In the accompanying tables we rank only those firms for which we received a minimum number of responses.

    Alpha's 2007 Top Equity Trading Firms survey was conducted by Research Specialist Timothy Roberts, with Associate Editor Michele Bickford, under the guidance of Director of Research Operations Group Sathya Rajavelu and Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney.