MONEY OBEDIENCE

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A broker is a person or company that provides you access to financial markets. A broker helps you, the client, to buy and sell financial instruments like stocks, bonds, stock funds, bond funds, and money market funds. Your broker will charge you a commission for this service. This commission depends on the level of service a broker gives you.

There are two major classes of brokers: full-service brokers and discount brokers. As the name indicates, a full-service broker provides you with more service than a discount broker. For example, additional service may mean access to all financial research a broker produces. This is especially helpful for clients who are interested in special or specific financial topics and financial markets.

On the other hand, a discount broker gives you only access to financial markets, but the distinction between a discount broker and a full-service broker is more and more blurred these days. Most discount brokers now offer additional service that goes beyond the basics of giving you access to financial markets.

Discount brokers will often also give you general advice on how to save your money for the long-term. Some even provide basic company research and market research. This additional service is usually very helpful to most clients. However, the downside to this additional service provided by many discount brokers is that you do not get as much of a discount on commissions as in days gone by.

For more information about discount brokers and for links to some discount brokers, please refer to the following links.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_broker
www.schwab.com
www.tdameritrade.com/welcome1.html
www.fidelity.com
us.etrade.com/e/t/home
www.scottrade.com
www.zecco.com
www.firstrade.com
www.marsco.com