Risk Warning: Your Capital is at Risk.
If you’re eager to start trading on the stock market, it’s critical to choose the right stock broker. You also want to find a trading platform that’s well-suited to your goals.
In this post, we’ll explain how online stock brokers work and what features you should look for. We’ll also give you the details about popular stock trading platforms and why we think they stand out.
In a hurry and looking to start right away? Here’s a quick preview of top online brokers available in that offer stocks and derivative trading instruments:
Disclaimer: Availability subject to regulations.
Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs.
Contents
If you’re interested in learning more about buying and trading stocks in and what various platforms offer, read on.
How Does Online Stock Trading Work?
Stock trading involves buying or selling shares of publicly held companies. When you purchase a stock, you’re buying part-ownership of a large company.
As a part-owner, a share entitles you to a portion of the company’s earnings and assets — e.g., buildings, equipment, intellectual property, etc. The money you pay for a share is used by the company for its operations.
In return, you get a proportionate share of the company’s profits, if any. When a company disburses profits to shareholders, the money is called a dividend.
If you decide that you no longer want to own your share in a company, you can sell your shares at the current market price. If the price at which you sell is higher than the price you paid, then you profit; otherwise, you’ve lost money.
What Is a Brokerage Account?
There are two ways to buy stocks:
- Hire a professional stock broker
- Learn to make trades yourself with a brokerage account
If you hire a professional stock broker, you tell them your financial goals and trust that they’ll make successful trades on your behalf. Most brokers charge a fixed fee or a percentage of your transaction volumes to handle your trades.
If you prefer a self-directed approach to stock trading because of the cost of a professional broker (or for some other reason), you’ll want to find an online broker that allows you to open a brokerage account. Online brokers still charge fees despite a common no-commission structure.
Choosing an Online Stock Trading Platform
There are a variety of stock brokers and trading platforms in , ranging from low-cost budget options to full-service boutique options.
IMPORTANT: CFDs are not available in the USA due to local regulation, and regulated brokers do not accept US citizens or US residents as clients.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74%-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Here’s what you need to think about to find the best option for you.
What New Traders Should Look For
If you’re new to trading in stocks, here are some features to look for when evaluating a stock broker (we will take a closer look at these factors in later sections):
- Commissions & Fees
- Account Minimums
- Charting Tools
- Mobile Accounts
- Demo Accounts
Active Trader Platforms
If you’re an active trader (sometimes called a day trader) seeking to profit off short-term price changes, you’ll want to compare these features:
- Low costs per trade are critical if you make a large number of trades per day.
- High-quality research materials that update frequently will help you stay informed about what the markets are doing.
- Minimum balance requirements are typically high for active traders. Trading platforms offering accounts conducive to day trading will usually require minimum deposits of $25,000+.
Costs of Stock Trading
Many online brokers, such as Robinhood and eToro* don’t charge commissions on stock market trades (*eToro charges US$1-2 commission per stock market trade for users from Australia, Denmark, Finland,
the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden). However, they may offer additional services as add-on costs or charge other fees depending on the type, amount, and timing of your trades.
Your minimum account balance is a source of income for the broker via interest. Depending on the type of account you have, you may see some return on your deposits, but if you do, it’s likely to be significantly less than what the brokerage is earning.
Another source of income for brokers is via arbitrage. Arbitrage allows a broker to execute trades at prices lower than the general public pays.
Brokers also offer a variety of derivative ways to trade stocks like CFDs, ETFs, and mutual funds, which come with other fees, commissions, or spreads.
IMPORTANT: CFDs are not available in the USA due to local regulation, and regulated brokers do not accept US citizens or US residents as clients.
Account Minimums
Most stock brokers require you to maintain a certain level of funds in your account at all times — also known as an account minimum. Account minimums vary.
Some brokers allow you to start with no specific minimum, while others require you to start with a small deposit, like $500.
Consider whether you can afford to keep the required minimum amount of funds when you’re researching brokers.
Mobile Trading Apps
Most brokers offer mobile trading apps that allow you to open and fund accounts, as well as track and make trades via your mobile devices.
Some mobile apps mimic the desktop browser experience exactly while others only allow for minimal interactions with your account. For example, market research, tutorials, and stop-loss or take-profit trade options might be limited with some mobile apps.
Consider your goals and whether the broker’s mobile app will be adequate for your purposes.
Charting Tools
If you’re day trading, charting is a part of the technical analysis you’d do to determine the future performance of a stock based on its past movements. Charts allow you to identify patterns and other technical details that may influence your buying and selling decisions.
Most online brokers offer charting capabilities, but some offer only simple line and candlestick charts while others provide a more detailed analysis with charts like Doji candlesticks or MACD indicators.
How to Open a Brokerage Account
Regardless of which stock broker you choose to work with, the steps required to set up a brokerage account in are fairly similar. You can open an account on the broker’s website or via their mobile app.
- Complete a user profile. In addition to providing basic information about yourself (eg, name, address, phone number), you will need to provide employment and financial information. Depending on the brokerage you work with, this process should take about 10-15 minutes.
- Verify your identity. Typically, a government-issued ID like a passport is required. You’ll need a high-resolution photo of the document and it must show your name, a photo, your date of birth, and the ID’s expiration date.
- Proof of address. You’ll need to prove your residency via documents like bank statements or utility bills.
- Fund your account. Most brokers offer multiple ways to fund your brokerage account — including credit cards, bank wire transfers, and PayPal.
Start With a Practice Account
If you’re not sure if you want to start trading stocks just yet, most brokers offer demo or practice accounts where you can trade with “play money.”
Some brokers like eToro take you through the standard account setup process before giving you access to a demo account.
However, many brokers allow you practice with their online trading platform without signing up for a full account.
Popular Online Stock Brokers Compared
To help you get started, we compared popular online stock brokers head-to-head. We’ll take a look at how much it costs to trade with a given broker, what stock trading instruments they offer, and mobile app details.
eToro
eToro is a multi-asset brokerage company that is known for pioneering “social trading” with CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, any trader can follow and mimic the trades of eToro’s most successful traders.
- No commission stock trading: Yes (except for customers residing in Australia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden where stock investing now incurs a flat fee of US$1-2 per trade)
- Costs: No commissions or account management fees. $5 withdrawal fee. Other fees are applicable when trading in leveraged positions and stock CFDs.
- Account minimum: Initial deposit is $50 (Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Vatican City), $100 (Belgium, Czech Republic, France (including French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte), Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States), $1,000 (French Polynesia, Isle Of Man, Jersey Island, Kuwait, New Zealand, Reunion Island), $2,000 (Bulgaria, Cayman Islands, Croatia, Gibraltar, the Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam), $10,000 Israel; $200 elsewhere, and $500 for wire transfers.
- Stock instruments offered: Stock trading, stock CFDs (not in USA), ETFs, fractional shares.
- Mobile apps: For iOS and Android, you have access to the same browser-based platform as their desktop platform.
Learn more about this broker in our full eToro review.
Note: eToro is a multi-asset platform that offers both trading in stocks and crypto assets, as well as trading CFD assets. eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro. Your capital is at risk.
Trading212
Trading212 is a London-based company that was the first to offer zero-commission stock trading in the UK and Europe. Trading212 also lets you start trading with a practice account without signing up.
- No commission stock trading: Yes
- Costs:
- London Stock Exchange: Stamp Duty Reserve Tax is charged at 0.5% on share purchases. PTM LEVY is charged on purchase and sale. £1 per trade for orders over £10,000.
New York Stock Exchange: Transaction Fee $0.0000207 of the value of the sale order. FINRA fee on stock and ETF sales at $0.000119 x quantity sold; a minimum charge of $0.01.
- London Stock Exchange: Stamp Duty Reserve Tax is charged at 0.5% on share purchases. PTM LEVY is charged on purchase and sale. £1 per trade for orders over £10,000.
- Account minimum: $1 ($10 when using bank wire).
- Stock instruments offered: Stock trading, stock CFDs, ETFs, fractional shares.
- Mobile apps: For iOS and Android.
Learn more about this broker in our full Trading 212 review.
Robinhood
California-based Robinhood was founded by two Stanford graduates and became one of the breakthrough mobile stock trading platforms for US customers. Robinhood offers a free demo account.
- No commission stock trading: Yes
- Costs: No commissions or account management fees, trading activity fee of $0.000119 per share on equities, ADRs fee on selected foreign stocks of $0.01 – $0.03 per share, regulatory SEC fee of $22.10 per $1,000,000. Gold accounts have a monthly fee.
- Account minimum: No minimum deposit
- Stock instruments offered: Stock trading, ETFs, stock options
- Mobile apps: iOS and Android, responsive web platform on mobile browsers
Visit Robinhood.com to learn more.
Note: Like many of the broker services on this page, we are an affiliate partner of Robinhood and may receive compensation from their links.
Markets.com: Award-Winning Customer Service
Markets.com is a UK-based broker that offers share dealing worldwide via their Marketsi platform. They offer zero commissions for the first three months of shares dealing and a free demo account with no expiry.
- No commission stock trading: Only for the first three months.
- Costs: Flat fee for share trading. Custody fees (minimum €5 – €10/month), currency conversion fee of 0.5% – 1.0%. Some stocks have additional fees (eg, depository receipt fee on US stocks). Commissions after three months:
- EU Shares = 0.1% (min €10)
- UK Shares = 0.1% (min £8)
- US Shares = 2¢ (min $15)
- AU Shares = 0.1% (min A$10)
- Account minimum: $250
- Stock instruments offered: 7,000+ stocks, 16 exchanges.
- Mobile apps: For iOS and Android and MetaTrader 4/5.
Learn more about this broker in our full Markets.com review.
The choice of a stock broker can greatly impact your trading experience, both in terms of general usage and overall fees assessed as you make trades.
Learn more with our commodities trading guide and generic broker guide.
FAQs
What’s the difference between stock trading vs investing in stocks?
The difference between trading stocks and investing in them is risk and how long you’ll wait for your money to earn a profit. Stock trading is most often short-term while investing is long-term speculation. Both trading and investing are speculative and carry risk.
Stock trading as a short-run for profit may focus on stock prices and patterns. Investors speculate on a stock’s long-term profitability, similar to investing in IRAs or mutual funds.
What’s the best online stock broker for beginners?
The best online stock broker depends on your needs. Look for rich educational materials as well as demo accounts where you can practice making trades without requiring real funds. For example, eToro lets you copy the trades of more experienced traders to help you get started.
Can you buy stocks online without a broker?
You can buy stocks online without going through a broker. To do so, you can take advantage of services like direct stock plans and dividend reinvestment plans. Direct stock and dividend plans may be preferred by traders who trade on a small number of companies, though they require research and diligence.
What is a robo-advisor?
A robo-advisor is a bot that assists you with your trading decisions. You provide it with information about yourself (eg, what your trading goals are, what your risk tolerance is, etc.) and the robo-advisor presents you with advice and trades it thinks are suitable for you. You can think of a robo-advisor as a cheap alternative to a real financial planner.
What’s the difference between TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, eTrade, and Interactive Brokers?
Like our favorite brokers listed above, all of these online brokers except Interactive Brokers offer no-commission stock trading (though other fees apply). TD Ameritrade has multiple trading platforms and offers free advice from elite stock market professionals. Fidelity features stock scoring, equity trading, and the option to buy fractional shares. Charles Schwab sells fractional shares too, grades stocks as A-F, and offers a gain/loss analyzer. Stock trading with Interactive Brokers costs $0.005/share but traders can earn interest on shares by loaning them to traders who short.
What are exchange-traded funds (ETFs)?
An exchange-traded fund is a security that consists of a set of multiple other securities, including stocks. They often track indices, like the S&P 500 Index, and can be traded similar to other instruments. ETFs are low in cost compared to purchasing individual stocks, but these funds are derivatives so you do not own the stocks you trade.
What is stock options trading?
Options are contracts that give you the opportunity (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a share of stock on or before the date specified on the contract. Typically, one stock option represents 100 shares of a given stock. Stock options trading allows you to speculate on stocks or hedge risks. Some brokers specialize in options.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74%-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.