In order to become a stockbroker in the United States, a candidate must pass the General Securities Representative Examination (also known as the "Series 7 exam").
In the UK brokers are required to be ASI qualified, this qualification is achieved by passing two exams (Unit 1 Financial regulations & Unit 2 Securities), they must also be FSA registered.
[edit] Services provided
A transaction on a stock exchange must be made between two members of the exchange — an ordinary person may not walk into the New York Stock Exchange (for example), and ask to trade stock. Such an exchange must be done through a broker.
There are three types of stockbroking service.
Execution-only, which means that the broker will only carry out the client's instructions to buy or sell.
Advisory dealing, where the broker advises the client on which shares to buy and sell, but leaves the final decision to the investor.
Discretionary dealing, where the stockbroker ascertains the client's investment objectives and then makes all dealing decisions on the client's behalf.
In addition to actually trading stocks for their clients, stock brokers may also offer advice to their clients on which stocks, mutual funds, etc. to buy.
[edit] History
Philadelphia was the centre of American finance during the first forty years of the new United States. In 1790, the country's first stock exchange was founded there and Chestnut Street was home to the nation's most powerful financial institutions. However, in the 1820s a shift to New York City began and for more than one hundred and fifty years Wall Street has been synonymous with the stock brokerage business. Some sources suggest that historical top-level brokers and a number of other firms rose to prominence over that time, with the top-ranked brokerages in the early 1950s being:[citation needed]
Merrill Lynch
Paine Webber & Company
Morgan Stanley
Goldman Sachs
Bear Stearns
Since the 1980s stockbroking firms have also been allowed to be market makers as long as the appropriate Chinese walls are put in place.
With the advent of automated stockbroking systems on the Internet the client often has no personal contact with his/her stockbroking firm. The stockbroker's system performs all the stockbroking functions: it obtains the best price from the market, executes and settles the trade.
Today, most of the once well-known corporate brand names including mid-sized firms such as Smith Barney have been swallowed up by global financial conglomerates. Only a few firms remain independent, such as Edward Jones Investments, Stifel Nicolaus, Oppenheimer & Co, JP Turner & Company and Raymond James. Discount brokers (such as E*TRADE, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab) have taken a large share of the business by offering highly discounted commissions. Discount brokers may offer limited advisory services, but their primary focus tends to be servicing self directed retail accounts.
[edit] Similar roles
Roles similar to that of a stockbroker include investment advisor, and financial advisor. A stockbroker may or may not be also an investment advisor, and vice versa.
The Certified Financial Planner designation initially offered by the American College in Pennsylvania is considered by many to be the next educational step a stockbroker can take in order to be considered a legitimate and ethical financial consultant. Though not strictly true, it is still vital to assert the authority taken.[citation needed]
[edit] Acting as a principal
Stockbrokers also sometimes or exclusively trade on their own behalf, as a principal, speculating that a share or other financial instrument will increase or decline in price. In such cases the term broker makes little sense and the individuals or firms trading in principal capacity sometimes call themselves dealers, stock traders or simply traders. [A stock broker is just the main part of being a City Trader. Other types of City Trading include working in the Foreign Exchange.
[edit] Transactions by stock brokers in the US and UK
In the US: When acting as an agent, the stockbroker typically charges the client a flat fee and/or a percentage-based commission for undertaking the trade, and the price quoted the client must be the best price available in the market. When acting as a principal, the trade could be with another market participant or one of the stockbroker's clients. When trading in a principal capacity with client, the broker informs the client and charges the client a markup or markdown from the prevailing market price.
In the UK: Stock brokers act the same in the UK as in the US, except that when trading in a principal capacity with a client, the broker is obliged to inform the client and no commission is charged.
Other jurisdictions are thought to have similar rules.
[edit] Brokerage terms
Front office: This is a description of the part of a brokerage firm that is "client facing". The sales staff, brokers and traders are part of the front office. Functions of the front office include acquisition and entry of orders, fulfillment of the orders, and all the regulatory reporting for the orders.
Back office: The back office is where the clearance processing of the trades is done. Transfer of securities and money and the tracking of "failure to deliver" is handled. Securities lending for a brokerage firm, wherein shares of a security that is being sold short are located to ensure they can be delivered, is usually included in the back office as well.
Prime brokerage
Retail broker
Low cost broker
Boutique brokerage
[edit] Explanation of a City Trader's Job
Stock broker: A stock broker would deal with shares. Shares and stocks have the same definition; a share is a section of a company that a stockbroker can buy and sell if he/she has a suitable amount of money. Specifically, a stock is a piece of money – a share of a company – that a few years ago were represented on a document [Now Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets are used to keep the record]. For example, a share can be worth 25p, but can be multiplied by 40 to create the total desired value on the document – in this case it would therefore be worth 1000p. The stockbroker possesses a number of shares; however he or she can choose how many of these he or she wishes to trade, so that perhaps some can be kept for him or her. Keeping an amount is understandable, because stock-broking is a risky business. This is because the prices that shares are worth are constantly increasing and decreasing, depending on how much money the company you are dealing with, is producing. For example, say a stockbroker buys a share from a dealer, for $1, and then sells it to a client for x sum of money. The next day, the price for that same share value, decreases (the company is not producing as much money), so that it’s now worth 50p. The stockbroker had spent $1, however, which was 50p too much: he or she has just lost 50p. That’s how stockbrokers lose money. They then continue trading at what they think are suitable times – when it is unlikely for the price of a share to alter (to start with he or she could buy that share back for 50p and sell it again, to another client).
Foreign Exchange Members: These city traders deal with currencies. Their clients are usually called "market makers" (literally makers of markets: shopkeepers are a common example) and are the people they use to earn money. Currencies are traded, for example: the stock broker can give his/her client $1, and the client can give him/her £1 in return, as long as such a deal was discussed and agreed to (as mentioned previously, the person who makes the final decision as to what the deal is going to be depends on the position of the stockbroker - in Advisory dealing, for example, the investor makes the concluding decision.) In this case the coty trader gains profit (because he/she gains £1, that is worth more than what he/she gave [$1]), but indeed often the market maker does too (that's how they earn their money). For example, it would be perfectly possible for the city trader to hand over £1 and let his/her client give back only $1. N.B: You have to bear in mind that very large sums of money - NOT the example of $1 and £1 above - are exchanged.
Bond-dealers:A bond-dealer is a city trader who lends a sum of money to a stock (section of a company). If a company owns £1,000,000, and this was due to a million bondholders each lending £1 to the stock, than each bondholder lends a bond of £1.
In such ways, city traders trade via market makers, but they are also trading for a group of people - the investors. These are people of a higher status than city traders, for example: chartered accountants. An investor has the right to use money from his brokerage firm if there is a crisis involving him/her losing a sum of money. This doesn't change the fact that city can at the same time be allowing the usual currency/stock deals to take place, enabling them to gain money while providing the investor with money.
You have to bear in mind that these city traders do not have clients at their desk to perform the deal - the Foreign Exchange (for example) keep aware of the various money-exchanges through software on the computer, a particular one being known as "CREST". Other methods of dealing include using the phone. There are other occupations within the title of being a "city trader", but these are the main three, in order of which is most common, the most common being the first in the list.
[edit] Famous stock brokers
Larry "Buster" Crabbe - Actor and former Olympic swimmer, Crabbe became a stockbroker and businessman after a career in film.
Brian Dennehy - An actor, Dennehy worked as a broker for a time at the same firm as Martha Stewart.
Jerry Doyle - Known to m