A broker is a person who manages securities accounts and collects orders to transmit them to the financial markets. Many independent brokers or brokerage companies offer their services in this direction. How to make a wise choice in the face of the panoply of offers available? Brokerage services abound, both online and off.
In fact, to place your orders on the stock exchange, you have two options: use your banker or go through a broker. The first option seems the easiest because you only need to use your traditional banker to open a securities account and collect orders. The catch in this case is that your banker will have to use a stock broker himself. This inevitably generates additional costs. In view of this observation, using an online broker becomes the most attractive option to be profitable. Investors can choose their broker from the comfort of their living room on the internet. Prices and services vary from one broker to another. It is therefore necessary to carry out an analysis to make a better choice.
Tips for choosing the right broker
- Define your stock investor profile
It is essential to know your needs as an investor before choosing a brokerage offer. You need to analyze what you will need to place your stock market orders. In other words, you have to adapt your needs to market offers. Indeed, an investor placing orders regularly on the financial markets will not need the same profile as a stock market intermediary as another placing only a few orders per week.
- The broker’s service offer
Apart from the investor profile, the service offer is a good indicator for choosing your stock broker. This is all the more important if you are a beginner in order to benefit from the advice and services necessary to get used to the stock markets.
- Choose your online broker: Brokerage fees
Brokerage fees are obviously a decisive point in your choice of broker. By definition, brokerage fees represent the fees of your stockbroker. When buying a security, fund or stock market product, you have to pay commissions to your broker. Brokerage fees vary from one broker to another. They depend mainly on the quality of the service, the number of orders you place, their type and their amount. It can be a lump sum or a percentage to deduct from the amount of orders you place.
- Choose a trusted broker to invest in the stock market
There is no doubt that brokerage fees are a decisive aspect in choosing your stock broker. However, you have to be careful because it involves entrusting your savings to a given person. Many online brokers working in tax havens offer competitive rates behind which there can be huge drawbacks. Most offer few financial guarantees.
- Take into account the availability of the online broker to invest peacefully in the stock market
You must log on to your broker’s site, ETFinance, at different time intervals during the day to make sure it works. During periods of high market influx (depending on your market), analyze the loading time of the data and browse the different links in order to be clear on the accessibility of the site.