Last month, TradeKing and Zecco announced that they were merging. You can watch the announcement video featuring TradeKing CEO Don Montanaro and Zecco CEO Mike Raneri here:

I rate both brokerages well so my initial thoughts were that the merger can possibly result in a combined company that is even better. If the end result is that the best aspects of both brokerages are combined then the new firm will be strong competition for the majors. If the worst aspects of both brokerages are combined then investors will begin to migrate. Only time will tell.

Matt Krantz of USAToday provided some speculation as far as how the merger will affect these companies in his article last week:

“Longer term, though, the merger could open the door for changes. Eventually, the new firm might be in a better position to improve some of the back-office challenges both Zecco and TradeKing have faced in the past.”

“For instance, some customers were annoyed when they didn’t get their brokerage tax statements until well into March this year. Both Zecco and TradeKing use the back-office processing services of another firm, which was the root of the issue. ‘This merger gives us more options to correct issues,’ says Zecco CEO Michael Raneri.”