Okay so you have gathered up some funds?
And done your research??
Good – now in order to buy a share you are going to need a Stockbroker. Here I hope to help you in the task of Picking a Stockbroker
For the purposes of this post I will only be discussing Execution Only stockbrokers. This means that they just simply do what they are told. If you tell them to buy the biggest load of Mumbo Jumbo (aka Rubbish) that is exactly what they will do. Thank you kindly sir!
My first stockbroker when I started out was an old style Stockbroker in a local town that I called on the phone and told buy x quantity of such and such a share and that was simple enough but not very fast. So this was a Telephone only broker – I don’t think that is what you will want unless of course you don’t have internet access which of course is possible you may be living on a desert Island for all I know!!
Now we have real time prices and want to buy in an instant – we see the right price and with a few clicks we can buy the shares ourselves through an online broker.
If you don’t have a broker yet you need to find one – search online for Online Stockbrokers and find one that you are comfortable with and apply for an account online.
Here are some things to check when Picking a Stockbroker:
- What commission do they charge per trade?
- Do they have telephone support?
- Is there an admin fee? Quarterly or annually?
- Are they authorised and regulated by the FCA?
- Is there a fee for withdrawing money?
- How can you fund your account?
I use ii otherwise known as Interactive Investor who are reputable and reliable in my experience but other examples are Halifax, TD Direct Investing and IG to name but a few.
Although I am not recommending it and don’t get any commission unfortunately, I have found ii to be good. If you do have a reason to call them at least their call centres are based in the UK and it is unusual to have to wait very long to get talking to a human!
You shouldn’t have to pay more than £7.99 per trade and usual the charge per trade will drop the more you trade, just like buying in bulk.
You may also want to check that they offer some different trade types apart from the standard “Quote and Deal” Buy and Sell orders. Other types include Limit Orders, Stop orders, Trailing Stop Orders,
It is worth shopping around before you commit to a stockbroker because more than likely you will stay with the same one for years to come if they don’t do something to really annoy you!
Let me know what you think or any questions just comment below!
