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My brother in law said a 3.5 star broker with 200+ reviews beats a 4.8 with only 12, and I thought he was nuts
Back in 2019 I was setting up my first solo account and got fixated on star ratings like they were gospel. My brother in law, who had been trading for years, said to check the review count before anything else, since a broker with 12 reviews and a 4.8 could just be a few buddies and their cousins. I brushed him off at the time, picked a shop with a shiny 4.9 and maybe 15 reviews, and within 6 months they moved their fee structure twice with zero notice. Meanwhile the boring 3.5 star broker he pointed at, sitting on 240 reviews going back to 2014, still had the same spreads and the same phone support number. Now when I look at reviews I sort by oldest first and read the 1 and 2 star ones, because that is where the real stories live. He was right and I hated hearing it. Curious what you all weigh more, the average score or how many people bothered to leave anything at all?
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jason732d ago
A guy on a trading podcast I listen to said the same thing, that a 4.8 from 12 reviews is basically a family vote, and he called the sample size the only thing that matters. I pulled up a few brokers after that and the pattern was right there, the high score shops with barely any reviews had fee changes every few months while the 3.5 with 200 plus reviews was steady for years. Reading the 1 and 2 star reviews first is the move, because that is where people write the whole story with dates and dollar amounts. The star average tells you almost nothing on its own, it is the count and the age of the reviews that tell you if a shop has been around long enough to be trusted. Your brother in law was right and most people learn it the hard way like you did.
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