Fifteen years ago in wasn’t possible to buy stocks online, but that has all changed. Over that time period many online discount brokers appeared, making it much easier and less expensive to buy stocks online. TD Ameritrade, Zecco and Scottrade are the ones that I’ve used over the years. There are a few others that offer great fees, but not many.
Years ago when investors wanted to buy or sell stocks, they would call their broker. The broker takes the order and will charge a hefty sum as a commission fee. In many cases, brokers would charge 2% of the total order which in turn cuts into your profits or adds to your losses.
Back then, brokers would also call their clients up to get them to invest in other areas (real estate, bonds, etc.). Yes I agree to diversify your portfolio, but in the case of these recommendations, the broker would actually make a higher commission for the trade.
To buy stocks online these days is so easy. I currently use TD Ameritrade and am quite happy with their website, online tools as well as their service. I don’t use their customer service very much since I’ve never had a problem, but I have talked to their investment advisers who have been a source of stock buying tips. Of course you can use any one of these websites you want, but each one have different rates than the other. One of two of them have minimum balance requirements and quite few of them will give a certain amount of free trades per month. Look into each one of them and see which one is right for you and and your trading patterns.
Either way you look at it, it’s definitely a lot easier these days to buy stocks online than it was years ago using a phone and a stock broker.