Section 1 · Stock Fundamentals
What is a Broker?
The middleman between you and the stock market.
A broker is your gateway to the market.
You cannot walk onto the NYSE floor and buy stocks yourself. You need a broker — a licensed firm that executes trades on your behalf. Today most brokers are apps on your phone. You deposit money, place an order, and the broker routes it to the exchange in milliseconds. Most retail brokers now charge $0 commission.
3 things to know
Popular brokers: TD Ameritrade, Webull, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood.
Commission-free trading became standard after Robinhood launched in 2013.
Momentum traders need a broker with fast executions — milliseconds matter.
Key vocabulary — tap each card
Did you know?
Before 1975, US stock commissions were fixed by law. Trading 100 shares cost the same at every broker. Deregulation sparked a price war that eventually led to $0 commissions today.