Summary
Why choose to invest through an online stock broker?
There are more and more online stock brokers on the market and their offer is attracting more and more individual customers. Long gone are the days when stock market investors had to be content with placing orders by telephone with their bank, where they held both a current account and investment envelopes, including PEAs and securities accounts.
The offer is now plethoric and one can feel lost when choosing his stock broker. However, the quest for the best broker is not an investor fad and every budding trader should devote themselves to it.
First, it is strongly recommended to opt for an online stock broker accessible everywhere (as long as you have an Internet connection) and all the time (you can place your orders on foreign markets without further stress than your night’s sleep).
Online brokers also offer lower fees than traditional brokers. Remember, however, to look at the pricing of the securities and types of ordering (from the site, the app, by telephone, etc.) that interest you.
In addition, the range of products and services is often much more extensive than what traditional banks and online banks can offer their customers.
Read also: How to buy stocks on the stock market?
What are the advantages compared to an online bank?
In fact, online brokers have this advantage over online banks but also often network banks that they offer accessibility to a very large number of live markets. No need to confine oneself to the French and European markets. The investor can via an online broker easily invest not only in the euro zone but also on the US market, the Canadian market, etc.
Another advantage of online stock brokers: the superiority of the tools made available to investors, including educational ones, and the trading platform. Note, however, that the gap with online banks is tending to narrow and some online banks make it a point of honor to offer an offer of equivalent quality. It is with this in mind that BforBank recently and for the first time launched an offer with the ProRealTime trading platform.
It should also be noted that online brokers tend to diversify their investment offering. Even if the advantage is always with the banks on line which make it possible to cumulate current account, life insurance, bank books, envelopes Stock Exchange, the brokers on line tend to diversify their offer and are not limited any more to the only PEA and securities account. More and more of them are making an incursion into life insurance, which allows them to invest in both a euro fund and unit-linked funds. After Bourse Direct, Binck also launched into this niche.
Finally, for all these reasons, but mainly for the range of products (shares denominated in euros but also shares of other stock exchanges, UCITS and ETFs, structured products, access to SRD, etc.) and services (webinars , demo accounts, points and market analysis, etc.), online brokers regularly occupy the place of best stock broker in the various brokerage awards rewarding brokers on the basis of their tariffs, their service offer, etc
Investors, what can brokers recommend to you?
Online stock brokers provide individual investors with a large number of educational tools allowing them to develop their knowledge. It is indeed not uncommon for an online broker to offer webinars, a sort of online seminar, but also news items on the macroeconomic situation involving various experts, even economists and financial analysts. All these educational and training resources provided to the client by the stockbroker allow the investor to become familiar with the markets.
To improve in trading, online brokers often offer demo accounts to start without risk of loss and familiarize themselves with the tools and markets to trade successfully in the future, but also screeners to facilitate stock-picking in to define several criteria for choosing stocks based in particular on financial ratios or even technical analysis tools allowing access to all kinds of charts and technical indicators.
Online stock brokers, by providing investors with a large number of tools, offer genuine investment support.
Ranking of the best stock brokers
It is very difficult to establish a ranking of the best stock brokers because the best stock broker for you will not necessarily be identical to the best stock broker for your neighbor. Indeed, you must absolutely take into account the financial products and markets on which you are used to trading. An investor who is heavily exposed to American equities will not have the same criteria as another massively invested in French funds and equities. Also take into account your trading habits (number of orders per month, access to the SRD or not, placing orders by internet or by telephone, etc.) as well as your degree of expertise and therefore autonomy. A neophyte will have more interest in choosing an online broker offering webinars, macro-economic updates and training on placing orders than an informed investor who will be more careful to choose a stock broker offering attractive brokerage fees and advanced decision-making offers.
The best stock broker is the one who is able to meet your needs, your desires, all at a fair price.
Read also: In which media to invest in 2020?
