5-Star Financials: optionsXpress

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Over the past year, shares of options broker optionsXpress (Nasdaq: OXPS) have gone nowhere. But that hasn't muted the bullishness of the faithful Motley Fool CAPS community who have awarded it a sterling five-star rating.

With the surge in equities trading, shouldn't this Stock Advisor recommendation get some momentum? Let's take a look.

CAPS pitches
CAPS player HoldSideAnalyst notes the strong cash flows and operating margins. He goes on to write: "Retail derivatives trading will continue to grow as people come to understand and accept these markets. They have a great website (consistently highly rated by Barron's, Kiplinger's, etc) which will draw in investors. You can't be an active user of this website and not like this stock."

Or take a look at the comments from siraud002: "In the current market environment and upcoming market euphoria and volatility, I'm placing my bets on this one." siraud002 goes on to point out the high valuations of other derivatives players like International Securities Exchange (NYSE: ISE), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (NYSE: CME), and CBOT (NYSE: BOT).

Reading through the CAPS commentary, I also noticed some good-natured buyout scuttlebutt. The natural suitors include TD AMERITRADE (Nasdaq: AMTD), E*Trade (Nasdaq: ETFC), and Charles Schwab (Nasdaq: SCHW).

My take
I've written several pieces on optionsXpress over the past year, and it's no secret that I'm bullish. Revenues continue to increase at a rapid pace, and the company has built a strong electronic platform for retail trading in options. The company is also leveraging its infrastructure into other categories like futures trading.

Do you agree with our CAPS community? Make your voice heard and let us know.

Further Foolishness:

• optionsXpress Back on the Customer Track
• optionsXpress in the Express Lane
• optionsXpress Keeps Growing

OptionsXpress and Charles Schwab are both Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations. You can find out why with a 30-day free trial to the Gardner brothers' market-beating service.

Fool contributor Tom Taulli, author of The Complete M&A Handbook, does not own shares of companies mentioned in this article. He is currently ranked 2,149 out of 29,896 rated players in CAPS.