The Stock Market

• The stock market is chaotic array of individuals, corporations and firms that are organized around other commercial entities like stock exchanges but conduct an increasing amount of business online, all somewhat regulated by the government and some industry organizations. Parts of the market are open to anyone and other parts require a list of qualifications, licenses and registrations -- for example, trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The stock market is more like an open-air market with some permanent stalls and a constantly changing crowd than, say, a supermarket, where everything is run by management and displayed in an organized fashion.
  
  

Brokers

• Brokers are the middlemen or agents that can operate on multiple levels of the market. The Securities and Exchange Commission defines a broker as anyone who buys or sells stock for someone else's account. Brokers have the requisite training, registration and licenses, as well as equipment, to conduct business quickly and efficiently. They also have more knowledge of the market than most private investors and more time to analyze trends than most of their clientele.
  
  

Full-Service

• Full-service brokers sell stock to clients and take large commissions, and they usually offer or sell advice and analysis as well. People with brokerage accounts at big name investment banks and financial services firms buy their stock through full-service brokers. People who buy stock through these brokers usually want the advice, analysis and sales pitches that come with high commissions and teams of young researchers working around the clock, and many clients also like the face-to-face interaction and service that come with large Manhattan offices and internationally known firms.
  
  

Online Brokerage Accounts

• Increasing numbers of private investors use online brokerage accounts. While most investors using online accounts look over quotes and headlines and place orders without ever seeing, hearing or smelling a broker, these trades are conducted through brokers as well. Even though these systems employ brokers simply to authorize and push sales through, not to spend time with individual clients, all of those sales are through actual brokers.