The Investor Diary Entry #32: April 26, 2023
Searching for top stock broker firms is considered in our opinion the third step of creating a system for yourself where you can generate an income and start saving money, Educate yourself about investment, and now it is time to find a stock broker company.
It seems that in this entry I am on the verge of creating a business model for generating money and increasing worth. This is very exciting.
Before we move ahead and talk about stock brokers, let us first refer to the articles where I described the first two steps.
- Saving from your income and generating an income in case it is currently not sufficient to make any savings.
- Educate yourself about investment before touching your hard-earned money.
Remember those are not steps that are done within a couple of days. This is a journey into creating wealth. One needs to give respect to and value each of these steps. They are more like phases than short steps.
When it comes to matters of money, one needs to know how to create a healthy relationship with money to be able to create wealth. This is why in one of our entries The book Psychology of Money was our recommendation to be the first thing to read.
I read the Psychology of Money and went half-way into reading the following book, but I realized I need to go back and read it one more time.
This was a long introduction, but I needed to hear myself saying those words, and for anyone reading this public diary should understand that before going ahead and search for a broker, those phases are of extreme importance.
Top Stock Broker Companies
In my opinion there is no such thing as top stock broker companies. The top stock broker company is one that is reliable and satisfies my investment needs.
My broker is one of the top stock brokers in the world but I wouldn’t mention this broker to anyone. It satisfies only one aspect of my needs, but it is a crucial aspect.
My broker is the only broker that I found that allows accounts from my country of residence. Other than that, there platform is a very confusing one.
Recommending A Stock Broker
You can see on the right-hand side of this website, there is a banner for one of the brokers which is called Firstrade. I included this broker because I found a few interesting features in this broker, and for convenience purposes for the readers of this diary.
Yes, I will get an affiliate commission if one opens an account with them, this is part of my online business activity, but the truth should be told. At the end of the day I am not a salesman, I am one who would like to see myself and others able to create wealth and live a comfortable life, and as much as I would like others to be honest with me, it is my duty to be honest with all the people that I interact with.
The main features that drew my attention to Firstrade is that it is one of the reliable stock brokers around. It is also one of the very few that allows international accounts from a very good number of countries. It is a simple platform and not a very sophisticated one.
In my one the main disadvantage of this broker is that it gives investment access only the US market. For people who are also interested in things like Forex or Crypto; unfortunately, Firstrade deals mainly with stocks and bonds.
In my opinion a long term investor, is not a trader; therefore, does not need a lot of tools within a platform to create a long term decision.
To study and analyze stocks, I am trying a platform that has a great potential that helps one scan stocks, read financials, get analyst estimates, allows to create your own assumptions to decide the value of the company, and many educational material that is practical and to the point.
Once things are ready, I will talk about it in more detail and give The Investor Diary reader the links to check it out.
Deciding On A Broker
Every decision in life needs to be an educated decision. We make our own research, we read a lot of reviews. We read others’ comparisons between different brokers, and we make our own comparison based on the things that we need to have our broker have.
Another rule of thumb in decision-making is the fact that it is almost always that we need to make trade-offs. If we get all of our needs satisfied in one place then that is the ideal scenario, but it is seldom that we encounter such a scenario.
Decide on the things that you cannot do without. In my example, I must have a broker that allows accounts from my country of residence. If I remember correctly, it was the only broker that allows such international accounts. Therefore, I really didn’t have any other broker to compare it to. There was another feature that was important for me is that it allows for buying fractional stocks. If this broker didn’t have that feature, I might have postponed the whole investment journey until a time when I found a broker that allowed international
There was another feature that was important for me is that it allows for buying fractional stocks. If this broker didn’t have that feature I might have postponed the whole investment journey until a time when a broker allowed international accounts from my country of residence and allows buying fractional stocks.
The irony here is that I don’t buy fractional stocks anymore, and I found a way not to buy fractional stocks, but at the beginning of my investment journey that was what I wanted based on my understanding at that time.
What Do You Think?
It does not matter what I think who is the top stock broker firms are. What matters is who you think what is the best stock broker that can satisfy your brokerage and investment needs.
Therefore, what one needs to do as the first step in search for a stock broker is to list down the important features that you need to have in the stock broker of your choice.
If you are totally new to this and don’t know what stock brokers offer in the first place, then what you need to do is search for a list of reliable stock brokers and read what each one has to offer. Make a list of the features that got your interest.
Once you think your list of preferred features is complete, go and find the broker that best provides those features.
Conclusion
The world of investing is risky; therefore, treat anything you read and hear as educational material. This diary in my opinion does not rise to the level of educational material. I am writing this diary for my own progress and I am making it public for awareness purposes.
Once you feel that you read and heard enough, now it is time to make your own mind, and make your own decisions. This works in investment and in every other aspect of our lives.
Firstrade is a stock broker that you can start your reading with, if you found that it is the one that best suits your needs, then you found what you are looking for, if not then you need to keep searching.
The Investor
Wednesday 26 April 2023
About The Author
I started to look into individual stocks in January 2022. I created this diary initially for myself to track my investing progress, and second as a place that I can share my ideas publicly hoping that others will share their ideas and learn from each other, and lastly as an online business where some links that I share are affiliate links, and if anybody bought anything by clicking those links I will get a commission based on that successful sale, which of course will not affect the price that you are buying the product or service at.
For a more detailed information on my affiliate disclosure please refer to the Full Affiliate Disclosure page, and if you are interested in building your own online business you can check this post here.
Furthermore, this site is in no way or form is giving any financial or investing advice, nor it is encouraging or discouraging people to buy or sell any financial instrument. This is a personal diary in which I track my own progress and share for informational, educational and entertainment purposes.