Discount online brokerage

Is it good choice for online stock market trading broker ?

When trader needs broker one obvious choice is some discount online brokerage firm.

But sometimes you can hear that it is better to have full service broker. So what is better ?

Full service broker is company which offers execution services but also several "value added" services like analysis, opinions. And therefore fees charged by such company for trades are higher, like over 100 USD per trade.

Trader does not need any value added services. Most of analysis and trade decisions are prepared by trader himself. So what really matters is quality of execution.

Discount stock broker

Discount online brokerage firm is good option for private trading. Such discount stock brokerage is orientated only to execution of trade orders provided by clients. Good discount stock brokerage should execute trades in seconds and provide good fills (good price) without big slippage.

There is also very good if discount online brokerage firm offers direct access to several different exchanges . It means that trader could route his order to specific exchange or ECN. This feature is very important if you are looking for day trading stock broker. But it is also very useful for swing and position trading.

Although I think that value of commissions is not most important issue (good execution is primary goal) , standard basic fee for trade should not exceed 15USD. For traders who trade small amount of shares per trade (up to 500 pcs) it is also good possibility to check per share fees.

Online discount stock brokers

I have not mentioned it above but stock broker firms should offer stock trading online through Internet. They should offer good online software for stock trading.


Personal note

I used several different discount stock brokerage firms during my trading career.

Now I use two of them for my professional stock trading. They offer very good services , have excellent execution and their fees are reasonable.

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