Full-Service, Discount and Online Stock Brokers - Read Reviews, Compare and Select the Best One
Selecting online stock broker is an important initial step of every trader or investor. Take smart decision with reviews, tools and articles published here.
Best Discount Brokers 2011
Enjoy the update of the best discount broker list in several different categories investors find most important when selecting online stock broker.
Online Broker Comparison Tool
If you are new to investing or not satisfied with current broker, this online broker comparison tool will help you choose the best brokerage for your needs.
Brokerage Fees Comparison Calculator
Are you paying too much fees to your broker? This brokerage fees comparison calculator reveals how much you could save by trading with another broker.
Do You Have a Favorite Broker? Share a Review!
Everybody would like to trade with the best online stock broker. But which one is the best? It depends on which features are most important for you.
Best Stock Brokers
Best U.S. Online Stock Brokers List
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TDAmeritrade | Read Review |  |
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OptionsHouse | Read Review | |
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optionsXpress | Read Review | |
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TradeKing | Read Review |  |
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Fidelity | Read Review | |
Continue researching best online stock brokers by different categories:
Best Discount Broker Rating Lists in Different Categories for 2011
U.S. Stock Brokers Reviews
Reviews and Ratings of U.S. Online Stock Brokers
Charles Schwab Bank Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
Charles Schwab Bank offers investing and financial guidance you need to make smart decisions, plus a range of investment services - online investing.
Etrade Financial Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
Etrade Financial provides online investing and stock trading including: stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, futures, and mobile trading apps.
Fidelity Investment Services Review and Ratings of Brokerage 2011
Fidelity Investment Services is an online trading brokerage offering investment solutions to help you find your way, whatever your destination.
Firstrade Securities Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
Firstrade online stock broker offers stock trading, options trading, mutual funds, bonds with no minimums to start investing and no inactivity fees.
Interactive Brokers Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
Interactive Brokers is deep discount electronic access broker offering online trading of Stocks, Options, Futures, Forex, Bonds and quality executions.
MB Trading Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
MB Trading is a direct access brokerage firm that develops and markets sophisticated yet simple direct access trading technology to online traders.
Merrill Lynch Online - Merrill Edge Broker Review and Ratings 2011
Merrill Edge is a new Merrill Lynch online discount brokerage providing financial advice and investment banking services, which is now owned by BOA.
OptionsHouse Broker Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
OptionsHouse Brokerage is an online broker focusing on stock options trading featuring a professional grade platform and low fees and commissions.
OptionsXpress Broker Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
With optionsXpress you can trade stocks, options, and futures in one account. Take advantage of free education, powerful tools and excellent service.
Scott Trade Broker Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
Invest with Scott Trade to access robust trading tools & market research. No maintenance or inactivity fees for easy online trading and investing.
Share Builder Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
Share Builder takes online stock trading to a new level thanks to a wealth of tools, research and knowledge. Great for long-term investment plans.
TDAmeritrade.com Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
TDAmeritrade online broker services include online stock trading, online investing and retirement planning to help you pursue your investment goals.
TradeKing Review and Ratings of Brokerage Services 2011
TradeKing is an online broker providing tools and research for online trading of stocks, options, bonds and more. Best site usability among brokers.
Vanguard Brokerage Review and Ratings of Investment Services 2011
Vanguard brokerage-investment company can help you invest, keep your costs low, and focus on what matters most to your long-term financial success.
Zecco Trading Broker Review 2012 - Pros, Cons, Features, Ratings
Zecco Trading is an online stock broker that offers low cost stock trading, discount options pricing and a powerful and easy-to-use trading platform.
Useful Tools
Brokerage Comparison, Fees Calculator, and More
Online Broker Comparison Tool for Selecting the Best Stock Broker
If you are new to investing or not satisfied with current broker, this online broker comparison tool will help you choose the best brokerage for your needs.
Brokerage Fees Comparison Calculator - Compare Brokers' Costs
Are you paying too much fees to your broker? This brokerage fees comparison calculator reveals how much you could save by trading with another broker.
Best Online Stock Broker - Share Your Experience and Review It!
Everybody would like to trade with the best online stock broker. But which one is the best? It depends on which features are most important for you.
Brokers Related Articles
Articles Related to Brokerage Industry
Best Online Broker Research, Reviews, Ratings Sites for 2011
Which is the best online broker? Overview of trustworthy sites reviewing brokerages by several criteria and posting rankings for easy comparison.
Free Stock Trading - Are Trading Costs Really That Important?
A lot of traders and investors continuously search for low cost or even free stock trading brokerage services. But, is that really so important?
FIMA Securities - Leading Investment Company in South-East Europe
FIMA Securities is providing services in securities trading, portfolio management, company take-overs, management and employees buy-outs and more.
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Factors to Watch When Selecting a Broker
Online stock brokers are only one of many choices these days to buy and sell stocks, whose major advantage is definitely extremely low brokerage fees. If this type of broker will suit your needs is something that you have to find out and understanding what a broker actually does, will help you a lot. Broker is a salesperson working for a brokerage house whose purpose is to make money for themselves and their sales staff by caring out your transactions; broker interests are not necessarily aligned with yours.
To become a broker one must first pass licensing exam or more of them. Only then is allowed for them to advise you, solicit business from you, and to execute your transactions for you. A broker can advise you, try to sell you, and do your trades for you and their level of service is the main difference between a full-service stock broker and discount stock brokers; full-service brokers offer you advice and hand holding while the discount and online stock brokers just execute your trade orders and perhaps try to solicit more business from you.
Full-Service Stock Brokers
Full-service brokers usually offer a wide variety of financial products as well as investment advice and research. They charge higher fees than discount brokers.
Discount Stock Brokers
Discount stock brokers do not offer any advice or research - they just execute your trade instructions. At least that's the way it used to be with a discount stock broker. These days, however, there is a wealth of research from third parties that many discount stock brokers can offer you within your account at their website.
Because a discount stock broker doesn't have to hire expensive stock analysts and expensive stock brokers, discounters can charge considerably lower fees than full-service brokers.
Online Stock Brokers
Online stock brokers a similar to discount brokers in the level of their service only that they only offer online computer order entry services and can therefore be even cheaper for you.
Choosing Among Online Stock Brokers
It's essential that you determine the level of service you need! If you aren't willing to do your own homework on choosing investments in the stock market, then a full service broker might be for you. If you plan to mostly buy investments for the long term and hold on to them, then you won't be trading so often and the higher commissions won't matter so much in the big picture. On the other hand, if you are planning to trade more often, then online stock brokers are ideal for you. They give you the lower costs of trades, which matters a lot since you'll be trading more often.
The next step in choosing online stock broker is to compare each broker to evaluate the best broker that meets your needs; even within this group of stock brokers they can offer you different services and features.
Brokerage Fees
This is a fee you are charged for buying or selling through your online account and it the most important cost of trading. They can be expressed on a per unit base or in percentage terms, depending on the market you are trading. There is often a sliding scale offered to you, meaning the more units you purchase in a single transaction, the less the "cost per unit" you will pay. Compare each broker and read the fine print within contracts.
Account Holding Fees
Account handling fees will vary depending on the type of cash management account you use. If the broker supplies their own account then the cost will be minimal. Look for any hidden fees and be careful also about fees concerning corporate actions, fees for withdrawing money... All fees should be listed in the terms and conditions and presented to you before opening an account.
Trading Platform
Online brokers usually supply their own trading platform. The software that you use can be simply web based or separate application that has to be downloaded and installed on your computer. If foreign currency trading is your preferred platform, you can view forex charts at fxcm.com and place and manage trades directly from the charts. Most brokers will offer you at least the web version of trading platform for free, but there can be a big difference among them in data and data quality they provide you. While delayed data from exchanges is mostly free, they can charge you different fees for providing you real-time stock quotes and other data, like Reuters News for example.
Phone Orders
Online services can go down during hours of service. Interruptions to broadband services, power outages and computer problems can stop you from accessing information you need at critical points. This is why you must have phone access to your online broker. Most online brokers accept also telephone orders in this case, but they charge you a higher fee for these trades.
Customer Service
Customer service becomes an important issue with an online account as you need to access this at some stage. You can check their accessibility before you join. You should check that you are not keep on hold for extended periods of time. Not only is this annoying, it also means that others are having issues with their accounts or trading platforms.
Cash Account
Most brokers have a cash account facility that is linked to your trading account which means you can access your money anytime. For the cash holding on the trading account brokers normally pay you interests, not as high as saving accounts, but this can be a factor of decision, especially in bear trends, when you step out of stock positions and hold cash for an unknown period of time.
Financial Statements
All online brokers should offer you financial statements so that you can reconcile your accounts. This becomes important at tax time and when discrepancies occur in your account.
Terms And Conditions
Carefully read the terms and conditions offered by online brokers. Compare minimum account balances and possible other minimum requirements, like minimum trades per month.
Extra Benefits
Many brokers will give you extra incentives to open an account with them. Some brokers offer cost-free trading for a limited period of time or for a limited period of trades; others will offer free reports on the markets you are interested in. Check these bonus offers if all other equal between your potential brokers, but not make this number one criteria.
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Written by: Goran Dolenc
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