Dealers and Brokers

Investors typically employ the services of dealers and brokers to execute the purchase and sale of securities. Some of these brokers are considered full-service brokers.

Full-service brokers provide a wide variety of services for the investor, including the provision of investment advice.

Other firms are considered discount brokers. Discount brokers basically provide the single service of executing the buy and sell orders of investors.

For mutual fund transactions the investor can deal directly with the mutual fund. Thus, the investor need not use the services of a broker or a dealer for these types of transactions.

Even in these instances, however, an investor may seek the advice of a financial adviser to determine which mutual fund to buy or whether to sell fund shares.