It’s no mystery that the stock market is tough to beat. But for those with the time and desire, it can be a great source of income. Luckily, there are many ways to invest in stocks without risking your livelihood.
One of these methods is through online brokerage accounts – an often-overlooked option which offers plenty of benefits for both novice and experienced investors alike.
Read on to find out more about this type of account, what you need to get started, how they work, who should use them and much more!
Benefits of an Online Brokerage Account:
- Anyone can open one. You don’t require to have a lot of money or knowledge about investing in stocks.
- You’re in control – you never give up ownership, which means you always retain some degree of power and freedom over your portfolio.
- Online brokerage accounts are available with many different features such as research tools, education resources and even personalized portfolios that automatically manage your investments for you based on what the account creator’s goals are (think 401k plans). This makes it easy to invest without having any financial expertise at all!
- It may seem like online brokerages offer less security than other options but this is not true. An individual investor has the same protections as someone with a traditional account. Plus, there are also various levels of protection that you can choose from when signing up for an online brokerage by selecting one of the financial institutions listed below.
- Online brokerages have many advantages over their brick-and-mortar counterparts such as lower fees (sometimes even free!), 24/hr availability, greater convenience and much more!
What You Need to Get Started:
- An email address or username – all accounts require this information and it’s easy to generate a new one if you don’t previously have another type of digital identity set up on any other site or service.
- A computer with internet access – just about anyone these days has both so this shouldn’t be too difficult to get.
- Money! This may appear like an addressed but it’s important to remember that you need money in order for an online brokerage account to work and investing isn’t free – there are many costs associated with taking part which we’ll discuss later on this page.
A financial institution: while not required, most investors choose one of the following institutions because they allow some of the largest deals around when it comes to fees (they can range anywhere from $0-$15 per trade!), security measures and other features such as research tools or education resources: Tickmill.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that there are a lot of options out there, so it’s important to do your analysis and obtain the brokerage account that best meets your needs. We hope this guide has helped you understand what these accounts entail and given you some insight into which one might be right for you.
If not, we have plenty more resources on our website where you can learn even more about how brokerages work before making any decisions! You now know how to find the right brokerage account for you.