As important as it is to choose the right stocks, it is equally as important to choose the right penny stock broker to carry out your investing activity.
What Is a Penny Stock Broker?
A penny stock broker is an individual or on online platform used by a trader to engage in the buying and selling of penny stocks. There are as many stock brokers out there as there are penny stocks. Well, maybe not exactly, but it sure does feel like it. Their main purpose is to provide a means to facilitate the process of trading stocks.
Your broker can also act as an advisor in certain situations and therefore can have an impact on your trading decisions. Ultimately, each penny stock broker is unique with its own advantages and offerings. What is important is to do your research to select the best broker to fit your needs.
What To Look For In a Penny Stock Broker?
A penny stock can offer two ways of making trades. They can either have traders call in to place their buy and sell orders with a live broker or they can use the broker's online trading platform. Almost all brokers today offer an online trading platform of which most traders have become accustomed to using. Having a fast, easy and secure means to placing trades is a significant asset when looking for a broker. While the call and trade approach does offer the convenience of speaking to another person to place a trade, lengthy waiting times can affect trading prices and significantly impact returns. Additionally, brokers sometimes charge for the ability to speak to a person, the fee commonly built into the transaction cost. For the most part, using do-it-yourself options online are a preferential choice for conducting trades.
The fee structure is another important concern when choosing a broker. Fee structures can vary from broker to broker. Choosing the right fee structure is dependant on the nature of your trading activity. A flat commission charged off of each buy and sell transaction or a charge on each individual share purchased are two common fee structures. If you commonly purchase penny stocks at very cheap prices per share, you may want to avoid the per-share fee structure as it can render it difficult to make a profit. Buying a penny stock at $0.20 per share with a $0.05 per share transaction fee can eat away at your profit margin. When choosing a broker, it is also important to consider minimum opening balances, withdrawal, inactivity, maintenance and potential hidden fees.
Finding A Penny Stock Broker
Before you can begin to trade penny stocks, you must find the right broker and fits your strategy. There is no one size fits all when it comes to choosing your stock broker and the process often requires lots of tedious research. Websites such a stockbrokers.com are often a good place to start as they offer tools to evaluate and compare among the many available brokers.
Some of the more popular stock brokers include:
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