Obviously im wrong, so what is it?
Stock brokers are those individuals that are licensed to assist the customers of the firm in meeting their investment needs.
They follow the firm's recommendation in suggesting investment ideas and/or products.
They are to assist investors in finding products to meet their needs. Also they can assist fixed income areas in searching out products for the firm's customers or for other broker/dealers.
Sales reps CAN NOT buy securities themselves and sell them to the clients of the firm,, nor can the sales person buy from the street for the account of the firm with the intention of selling them at a higher price to the clients of the firm
They are employees of the firm although most are not salaried and work strickly on commissions (although most stock brokers that are employees of a bank, are usually paid a salary rather than a commission).
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A broker is an intermediary that connects buyers with sellers. If I want to sell my stock in AT&T and you want to buy it, I would contact my broker and offer to sell it at X dollars. You might put in a bid to buy at Y dollars. The broker would wait until someone was willing to sell it at Y dollars and would execute your trade. Then if someone offered X dollars he would sell my stock.
If no one met our price, our order would go un-executed.
If you wanted the stock and didn't want to wait for someone to drop their ask price, you could enter a "market order" and it would be executed at the lowest available ask price.
Brokers generally contact customers trying to get them to buy and sell in order to generate commission income for the broker. Although a broker may recommend a good stock, most brokers are not experts in picking winners and are more like a salesman than a financial expert. I prefer to deal with an online discount broker and pick my own stocks from those who have rising earnings and dividends.
In simplest terms, a stockbroker is a salesperson that sells (and buys) stocks, without actually owning them.
People who buy and sell shares are investors.
People who consistently buy shares low and sell them high are very good investors- or liars.
I thought i knew what it is, buying shares when the price is low, selling them when the price is high.
Obviously im wrong, so what is it?
