Why Online Stockbrokers?

What if you had access to the same charts and graphs, market news and analyst reports that professional brokers have? No one cares more about your investment portfolio than you do, and now you can be a shrewd, educated trader. A good online stock trading service provides you with everything you need to make smart investments.

Online stockbrokers provide an array of investment options, so you can diversify your portfolio and create accounts that fit you and your financial goals. Invest in and trade stocks, options, mutual funds, exchange–traded funds and various fixed–income securities including bonds and CDs. Deposit your investments in an IRA or set your children up for success with an education savings plan.

Stock trading services provide a variety tools to help you effectively buy and sell securities. A few of these features include alerts, watch lists, third-party analyst reports, option chains, investment calculators and virtual trading. Many also offer education services so you can learn the basics or advance your skills, such as webinars, newsletters, blogs, seminars, forums, glossaries and definitions, and much more. Stock trading can be confusing and intimidating, but good research and educational resources can help you build the knowledge you need to trade with confidence.

In this site, you’ll find articles on investing and comprehensive reviews on online stockbrokers that will help you make an informed decision on which broker is right for you. At TopTenREVIEWS, We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™

What to Look for in an Online Stockbroker

An online stockbroker should provide you, the investor, with all the resources you need to make educated financial decisions and buy and sell investments using a variety of strategies. Some of these resources include educational materials, real–time charts, streaming news, various high–quality tools and a user–friendly trading platform. New to this review, we added cell phone features. Many services do not yet have cell phone support, but many are adding these features in reaction to the increasing consumer demand for it.

For the purpose of this review we looked for services that provide good tools for choosing stock coupled with a competitive trade rate. Although many day traders may not need all of the research tools provided by these services we rewarded those that did since this type of information is perfect for trading novices and experienced traders can appreciate having all of the information in one place. We also looked for above average and responsive customer support.

Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate online stock trading.

Fees/Commissions
Fees and commissions can add up quickly and many services also require additional fees for all kinds of things from transfer fees to check request fees. We compared a variety of fees commonly charged by these types of services; however, some online brokers have a tiered commission schedule based on balance or trade volume.

Investments Offered
Most online stock trading services offer the basics such as stock, options, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Many services also offer access to a variety of international markets as well as investment services or packages for retirement and education saving.

Trading/Investment Tools
Online brokers that offer practical tools such as investment calculators, analyst reports, cell phone alerts and useful charts, chains or graphs can help investor make smart buying and selling choices. Since buying/selling stock can be daunting, we feel that good information is vital.

Ease of Use
Investors come from all lifestyles; a superb service accommodates everyone regardless of their knowledge of computers, the Internet or trading online. Accommodations may include a navigational website, in–depth tutorials or one–on–one training.

Support/Customer Service
Trading is complicated and risky, it is extremely important that online stock trading services provide good and immediate customer service by telephone, email, instant and chat and more.

To read the review on optionsXpress, the online stock trading service our reviewers ranked #1, click here.