The choice of the best stock broker can pave way to a difficult task if you are not aware on what you need. Once again this is going to evolve upon the type of investment you are consider as sometimes it can be the best demat account for intraday trading. A broker is a firm or an individual who is going to buy or sell shares on your behalf. Of late securities are held in electronic form that reduces the chances of theft or them getting damaged during the course of transit. The mere fact if you are thinking of a stock broker means that you might need someone to help you buy or sell shares in a stock market.
In order to obtain a license all stock brokers are required to pass a couple of tests. Any stock broker who might have gone on to clear the test would confirm the difficulty of clearing such tests. In any case brokers do have some degree of exposure to finance or the stock markets. Some of them possess a bachelor’s degree whereas others tend to have advanced degrees.
There does exist a difference in the roles and responsibilities of a stock broker and a stock analyst. In case of the latter it is more about analyzing a stock and give out a suggestion whether a stock needs to be purchased within a given time frame or not. On the other hand, a stock broker is simply going to buy or sell stocks based on your instructions.
You also need to be aware that most stock brokers earning incomes from the stocks you trade via commissions. This is generated the moment you go on to buy or sell a stock. The broker is liable to avail a percentage of this fee, but sometimes a broker charges a flat fee on the transaction. The same time you need to be aware that there is more than a single type of broker in the market. No general categories are bound to exist as you might find the full time brokers and the discount brokers are the common names doing the rounds. Both of them do have their own set of pros along with cons. But the difference does arise from the type of service along with the commission you end up paying both the type of brokers.
With a full time, broker there is bound to more services in the form of investment advice along with market research. The discount brokers are merely going to execute the trades that you might have asked. Considering these facts, the biggest decision that you need to take is whether to opt for a full time broker or a discount broker. This would again depend upon what your investment objectives are in the first place. If you have some idea on how the stock market operates then a discount broker would suffice and if any form of assistance is needed looking for a full time broker.