An online broker is a trading provider that allows its clients to open and close positions using a digital platform.
Before the internet became ubiquitous, individual investors would either have to place orders over the phone or allow their broker to place trades on their behalf.
Online brokers allow for much greater control over trades, executing them far faster than was possible over the phone and enabling individual traders to manage multiple positions at once. This has opened financial trading up to more people than ever before, via execution-only brokers that offer online trading with lower costs than an advisory or discretionary service.
