Low Cost Broker Article Index for
Low
Website Links For
Low
 

Information About

Low Cost Broker




a Discount Broker age which functions in a similar way to a
Dividend Reinvestment Program .
ShareBuilder , BUYandHOLD , and FOLIOfn
are the better known examples of such low cost brokers.

Low cost brokers are generally less expensive for an investor who invests
in small amounts (say, fixed dollar amounts) and who is not particular that
the stock trade must happen in real time.

Low cost brokers execute orders only a few times a day by aggregating
orders from a large number of small investors into one or more
Block Trade s which are made at certain specific times
during the day. Such block trades are also sometimes referred to as
Window Trade s. Window trades help lower costs in two ways:
  • By matching buy and sell orders within the firms order book the overall quantity of stock to be traded can be reduced thus reducing commissions.

  • The broker can split the bid-ask spread with the investor when matching buy and sell orders - a win-win situation in most cases


Since investor money is pooled before stocks are bought or sold, it enables
investors to contribute small amounts of cash using which fractional shares
of specific stocks can be purchased. This is usually not possible with a
regular Stock Broker .

Low cost brokers also provide real-time trades but these are usually (but
not necessarily) charged a higher commission.


External links



These following are a set of (maybe outdated) news item links regarding
the low cost brokers mentioned above: