Brokerage office (broker): what is it and what does it do?

Greetings, dear readers! The number of people wishing to make money on investments is growing every day. Some people ask to share their experience, others believe that there is nothing complicated here and trust their savings to unscrupulous companies.

At best, such investors earn nothing; at worst, they lose everything they had. Don't want to lose your invested funds? Then read the article in which I will tell you what a brokerage company is, how to choose a reliable one and how it will help you make a fortune.

Concept and purpose

Hi all.
Did you know that in 2020 there was a huge surge in brokers opening accounts with them by ordinary citizens. This is due to many obvious and not obvious reasons. A lot of people began to actively scour the Internet with questions about what a brokerage account and the market are. Even a decent drop in the market in March 2020 did not cause everyone to run away from the market in fear. On the contrary, such interest in the market is simply a historical moment to attract clients to the exchange. And if you add aggressive advertising of brokers to this, the effect is multiplied many times over.

In July 2020, the total number of ordinary individuals attracted to the Moscow Exchange has already reached almost 6 million people. In July alone, when market activity is usually reduced, almost 299,000 brokerage accounts were opened.

And analysts are simply confident that the number of individuals attracted to the exchange will only grow until the end of the year. Moreover, deposits in banks are especially unpopular among citizens this year. And in the period April-June, in general, more than 200 banks showed the dynamics of individuals’ funds below 0.

But the influx of brokerage funds in just half a year amounted to 1.5 trillion. rubles And this is approximately the same as for the entire 2019.

1. How to increase your brokerage account from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. Description in the VKontakte group

2. How to increase your brokerage account from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. Description in the group In the telegram channel

A brokerage account is an account for performing various trading operations with various assets in the form of bonds, stocks, options, futures, currencies, etc.

It is impossible for an ordinary person to come to the stock exchange and trade without a broker on the stock exchange. On the stock exchange, such activities can be carried out by special professionals who were carefully selected in advance by the Central Bank.

The Central Bank imposes special requirements on companies that want to carry out brokerage activities. If the applicant complies, he receives a license for both brokerage and depository and dealer activities.

You can always look at the current list of brokers who have received a license on the Central Bank website and feel free to open a brokerage account with them.

List of brokers on the Central Bank website

Of course, among a wide selection of brokers such as banks and management companies, other important analyzes must be carried out. After all, the conditions for servicing a private client with a particular broker may differ significantly from the conditions of another broker.

Well, there is also an interesting opportunity on the same website of the Central Bank: you can look at those brokers whose licenses to carry out brokerage activities have been revoked.

List of brokers whose licenses were revoked by the Central Bank

So, let's figure out how to open a brokerage account for an individual. Moreover, I recently opened a brokerage account with one of the leading brokers in Russia, Finam. Of course, I already have a brokerage account with BCS, but for the project “How to accelerate 50,000 to 100,000 rubles,” I decided to open another brokerage account. Join the project on social networks, it will definitely be useful and interesting for you.

Kinds

Brokerage companies are classified according to their ability to accept and store client funds:

FCM – the company carries out trading using client funds.
IB – the company provides access to the exchange, but does not store clients’ money.

Companies operating in Forex are divided into 3 types depending on the operating algorithm:

NDD broker. They interact with financial market quote providers who provide the broker with the best price. The company's earnings are commission.
STP broker. Similar to NDD, but interacts with large companies participating in the financial market, which gives players a guarantee of complete order processing.
DD broker. Essentially, this is a dealer who does not withdraw the client’s money to the exchange, but conducts transactions within the company. If the player earns money, the money is paid directly by the dealer company, so they are interested in the customer’s loss.

In what format can I use a brokerage account?

The most common way to maintain a brokerage account for an individual is to independently make trading decisions to buy or sell some assets with their own money. It’s clear, I think that the money will be taken from the brokerage account.

And the broker will simply help you technically and legally, automatically, using programs and its services, to carry out these orders. In other words, you will give him orders to do this or that, and he will first check:

Do you have the opportunity to do this (what is important here is the amount of money in the brokerage account, and your previously opened transactions, is it even possible to work with such assets or platforms).
He will take a reward for this, and thus his enterprise, together with all its employees, will flourish.

Important! The broker himself, when trading independently, cannot manage your money or carry out any operations.

What can you say about trust management? This is where the money is transferred to the broker and the manager will work with it. Well, it’s worth knowing that trading on the stock exchange through a broker can only be done with your own personal money, or maybe on a margin: you trade with credit funds.

I do not advise either beginners or experienced traders to do this. You should still strive to trade with your own money. Well, a very popular area in recent years of interaction between an ordinary individual and a broker has been the opening of an individual investment account.

This type of investment was invented by the state to attract investments to the stock exchange and legalized this activity. When investing on the stock exchange, subject to certain conditions, you will receive guaranteed income through a 13% tax refund. I talk about this in more detail here.

Earnings on a brokerage account

To make money on financial assets on the stock exchange, you need to have certain knowledge and approach transactions in a balanced and calm manner. Otherwise, investing available funds may be associated with serious losses and constant worry.

When purchasing assets, you need to analyze various factors: the financial statements of the issuing company, the global situation in the world, market development prospects, social signals and much more.

The main ways to make money on securities:

Earnings on an increase - purchasing certain financial instruments at a low price and then selling them at a higher price.
Making money on a decline is the purchase of securities on credit from a broker for the purpose of selling at the current price. After the exchange rate falls, the financial instrument is purchased and the transaction is closed. The purchased assets are returned to the intermediary to repay the loan, and the account holder makes a profit due to the difference in value.
Payment of dividends – the company’s net profit received at the end of the reporting period is distributed among shareholders, and the amount of payments depends on the financial result.

If experience and knowledge are not enough to successfully play on the stock exchange, you can transfer your savings to traders for management. In this case, professionals will independently make transactions and receive a percentage of the profits. Be that as it may, it must be remembered that the manager is not responsible for possible losses, and all risks will fall solely on the shoulders of the investor.

Savings account Manage interest from Gazprombank - 6%

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Features of a brokerage account

One of the coolest features is the ability to have multiple brokerage accounts. But don’t confuse it with IIS - here you can only have one, otherwise you definitely won’t get any tax deductions.
Through a brokerage account, you can carry out purchase and sale transactions not only with shares, but also with currencies. Why am I focusing on this? Because you can withdraw currency from a brokerage account to your bank account.
Through almost any broker you can have access to assets not only traded on the Moscow Exchange, but also on the St. Petersburg or even other exchanges.
There are no restrictions on holding a brokerage account.
There are no limits on the amount of money in a brokerage account.
You can deposit or withdraw funds at any time, but there are, of course, some nuances, but minor ones.
The broker is also the tax agent of his client. It is he who calculates the amount of tax on income from trading operations in a brokerage account and transfers it.

Differences between a brokerage account and a deposit

The most important difference is that a brokerage account is definitely not a deposit. After all, the deposit is used to save some of your money with some profit, which only covers or does not cover inflation.

Well, that’s how we usually talk! And here, although the income is small, you are guaranteed to receive it if you do not withdraw the money earlier. And you don’t even have to pay any deposit fees.

But in a brokerage account you can earn money using your own money from trading and dividends. And here, of course, no one will give you a guarantee that you will receive the income you expect. Moreover, you will also have to pay a commission for servicing a brokerage account. Even if you don't have any operations.

This is done in such a clever way to push clients to take active action with trading operations on the exchange.

The investor's profitability can be tens of times greater than the income from the deposit, which will already be registered in advance and you will know it. But in order for you to get such income, you will have to try hard.

But deposits also have a drawback. It turns out that only 1,400,000 rubles can be insured with us. And money on the stock exchange is not insured at all, no amount at all.

If you look at the minimum threshold for opening a deposit, many banks have it. Previously, everyone had a minimum threshold for a brokerage account. But now everything has changed in the market for such services and it is now possible to trade without any threshold amount.

In any case, from 285 companies providing brokerage services, you will definitely find the option you need. Moreover, exchanges, including the most common Moscow Exchange, register such brokers who have received a license from the Central Bank.

And on the Moscow Exchange website you can always see the list of brokers with whom the exchange works.

Brokerage activities

The Law “On the Securities Market” defines brokerage activities as those that involve the execution of civil transactions with securities and/or the conclusion of contracts that are derivative financial instruments. Activities are carried out on behalf of the client, at the expense and on his behalf, or on his own behalf (broker), but still at the expense of the client on the basis of paid contracts.

Thus, brokerage activity is a type of commercial activity of a legal entity in the securities and financial instruments market, which implies trade intermediation (creating connections between buyers and sellers - between investors and issuers or only investors).

A broker must have a license , which is issued if there are rules for keeping records and reporting on transactions.

In the countries of the post-Soviet space, brokerage activities are regulated by legislation in the field of entrepreneurship. There is no clear and detailed explanation of the features and types of entrepreneurial activity.

Basic conditions for the professional activity of a broker:

The goal is to obtain a positive economic result (in the form of profit, as a rule).
Systematicity of professional activity (the subject performs 2 or more actions in the market during a specific time period).
Positioning in the form of special market entities that operate independently, on the basis of a license from the Federal Commission for Securities Market (it can also inspect and regulate), using their knowledge and skills.
Consolidation of rights and obligations in legislative acts.
Registration as a legal entity.
Independent management of one's own activities.
Interaction with clients based on the concluded agreement and additional documents.

The main functions of a broker: trading financial instruments in organized/unorganized trading platforms, distribution of investment capital and work with investors, participation in the investment process.
A broker can delegate the fulfillment of his obligations only to another broker (if such a possibility is provided for in the contract or it is necessary to protect the interests of the client) with the client’s permission. The brokerage company must fulfill all client requirements honestly and in order of priority: first the clients' transactions, then its dealer transactions.

The broker's income consists of a commission on the amounts for which transactions are concluded; the amount of the commission is necessarily specified in the contract.

Features of brokerage activities:

Responsibility to fulfill all client orders to the highest possible quality, in the order they were received.
In situations where, as a result of a conflict of interest between a broker and a client, the latter has suffered losses, the broker must compensate for the damage.
Client funds are stored in a separate bank account of the broker.
The broker can use the client's funds and provide him with a loan.
The broker has the right to enter into contracts that are derivative financial instruments, as well as securities transactions for qualified investors.
The broker operates all over the world.

How much does the service cost?

All of us who have come to the stock exchange again through some broker must understand that the broker is a non-charitable organization. This is an organization that literally hunts for every person who is over 18 years old and who shows at least some interest in investing and making money on the Internet.

His task is to promise you mountains of gold and invite you to speed up the process of conquering Olympus with his help.

But your task is completely different - you need fewer costs, either from investing or from active trading. You already understand that your money in a brokerage account will not be insured by any insurance company. What does this mean?

That you can let them down and the probability is very high. But in addition to the loss of this money, there are also commissions to the broker, commissions to the exchange, and fees for the depository.

What do I mean by this?

The loss of your capital will depend on your professional skills. The more literate you are, the less money you will lose. And initially, no matter how much you want to, you cannot 100% influence and control it.

But you can initially reduce the costs of servicing your brokerage account from different sides even on the shore.

In addition, you should never forget about the main principle of tariffs, which any broker presents in its tariff line under different sauces:

The larger the investment amount and the more often your transactions occur, the lower your commission.

It is beneficial for the broker that your account is large and that you trade more often.

You benefit from exactly the opposite: trading less, paying less commission, and putting your account at less risk of losing money from trading operations.

An ordinary ordinary investor needs to look for tariffs from leading brokers that suit his trading style. And here you don’t have to look at your neighbor or friend and take exactly the same tariffs.

How to open a brokerage account

A few years ago, a brokerage account was not difficult, but more troublesome to open. Now this procedure takes about 10-15 minutes for most brokers.

The steps are quite simple and if they are generally described, they are as follows:

Go to the official website of the broker you need
Apply for opening a brokerage account.
Generate a login and password to log into your personal account.
Enter all confidential data, including screenshots of your passport, TIN, place of registration.
Wait for confirmation of the correctness of the entered data by the broker’s specialists
Sign a brokerage agreement
Deposit funds into a brokerage account by transfer from a bank card or from an account (you can also at the broker’s office, or using the details)
Choose the software through which you will trade. Now the “trick” of brokers is to provide the opportunity to trade and invest through a smartphone application. (Each broker has its own application. They spare no money on this, since they capture untapped clients who, under other circumstances, would never bother to trade on the exchange.)

The VTB broker has the “VTB Investments” application

At the broker Tinkoff-Tinkoff Investments

The broker is Sberbank-Sberbank Investor.

Understand the program through which you will trade.
Learn to calculate risks and entry volumes.
Learn trading strategies for trading.
You start trading.

The trading programs themselves are quite simple. You can basically work with anyone. I only work with Quik. And I won’t change this program for anything else yet.

Now many brokers have the opportunity to trade using this program if it is installed on your computer and connected to the broker's server using generated secret keys. You can also trade through any browser by logging in using your username and password with confirmation via SMS to your phone.

Instructions for setting up and installing Quik are available on my website in the Quik section, or more detailed materials are freely available in my Trading School.

What is a brokerage company

A brokerage company is an intermediary firm that acts on the stock exchange and represents the interests of market participants. Transactions are carried out using the customer’s funds in accordance with the terms of the contract. In addition to intermediary activities, the company provides information support to investors.

The intermediary gives both buyers and sellers of assets the opportunity to make money on the financial market. The services of brokerage firms can be used by both traders and large financial companies. Naturally, the intermediary himself makes money on transactions, and the more clients use her services, the higher his income.

Functions

A broker is an indispensable participant in trading processes in the financial assets market, and the functions of firms are expanding every year:

Conducts trading transactions on the financial market at the expense of the customer and on his behalf.
Represents the client's interests in civil transactions.
Provides information support about the situation on trading platforms, notifying about quotes and trading modes.
Provides information about other market participants, forming the right decision for the client to conduct a transaction.
Lending to clients for margin transactions.
Providing information and educational services (training, training, electronic courses).
Storage and protection of customer data.
Formation of a technical base for conducting transactions on the stock exchange.

It is obvious that firms carry out broader activities than just intermediation. Without a broker, the financial market itself would not exist.

How does it work

You can understand why the exchange exists thanks to intermediaries by considering the principles of its operation. Let's simulate a simple situation: an exchange participant wants to buy or sell assets. But exchange trading takes place only with large representatives.

The brokerage company represents the interests of a large number of clients. The asset provider makes only one purchase and sale transaction with the intermediary, and he already distributes the assets among his clients in accordance with the terms of the contract.

At first glance, everything is simple, but in reality, financial transactions are carried out at high speeds in a few seconds. The broker allows you not to limit the scope of investment, but to participate in any trades that can bring in money.

What does he earn from?

The brokerage company's earnings are the commission that all market participants pay, regardless of whether they sell or buy assets. The commission is debited automatically, that is, the intermediary will receive a reward regardless of whether his client earns money.

Although the more the client earns, the higher the likelihood of his further participation in the auction. The income of a brokerage company directly depends on the number of transactions. Brokerage organizations efficiently process information on the stock exchange and constantly improve their equipment and work techniques.

Although the commission of a brokerage company is not high in numerical value, millions and billions of dollars of transactions are carried out on the exchange every day, which makes the commission quite significant.

Expert opinion

Vladimir Silchenko

Private investor, entrepreneur and blog author

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For example, Otkritie sets the price for transactions on the Forex currency market at 0.01%. With the current tariff and a transaction worth $1,000,000, the broker will earn $10,000.

Regulation of activities in Russia

Brokerage activities in Russia are licensed by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and regulated by Federal Law No. 39 “On the Securities Market”. The broker, as a professional participant in the exchange, is responsible for conducting trades, accounting for securities and settling transactions.

The conditions for issuing a license are very strict, so companies that for one reason or another have not received a license are registered through offshore companies. The registration bypass makes it possible to trade only on the Forex market.

Thus, brokers are divided into the following categories:

Stock – those who have access to regulated markets (Moscow Exchange).
Forex brokers with access only to the unregulated Forex market.

Which companies to interact with is up to you, but I recommend trading with the help of licensed brokers. You can verify the availability of supporting documents on the official website of the Bank of Russia.

Risk Notice

When deciding to trade on stock exchanges, you need to assess your willingness to take risks. I do not recommend investing borrowed or credit funds; invest only free money or savings. Market prices change regularly, and even a small change can significantly increase your capital or, conversely, bankrupt you.

A risk declaration is included in the agreement concluded with the brokerage company. It states that the intermediary is not liable for possible losses and provides notice of the possibility of such losses.

Advantages and disadvantages

I don’t really see such obvious advantages of opening a brokerage account. If you are thinking about opening such an account and doing nothing, then it is better not to open it.

Simply depositing money into an account will not work either, because most brokers try to charge some kind of monthly subscription fees for such an account, even if there have been no transactions in a month. But even if you find a broker who does not charge such subscription fees, he will still try to reach you in one way or another to increase your activity in operations. And believe me, the guys working there are very savvy in such matters, who can inspire even a super cautious client. At a minimum, they will force you to work with bonds and ETFs.

Usually, when brokers attract new clients to the exchange, they position the opening of a brokerage account with a super opportunity: to increase their savings. This is something similar to a deposit, but there you get practically nothing from deposits, but here every attracted client has a chance to become a millionaire, even with a small account.

Important! It's true that you can become a millionaire through a brokerage account. It's not true that everyone has a chance.

If you analyze any advertising on the Internet, especially in 2020, then for some reason they rely on the importance of owning shares of Russian and foreign companies.

So what does this mean for the average ordinary investor?

Well, it’s unlikely that a newcomer who comes to the stock exchange will have enough money to become a full-fledged co-owner of some large company. And it is unlikely that he will create a stable passive source of income for himself.

What does it matter if a person owns shares of Apple?

What's the catch? What's the hype?

It's simple. We need new clients and new streams of rewards for the broker, and the exchange commission for providing its services.

But not everything is so simple! You will have to plow a lot and even then plow when you have already figured out some direction.

Opening a brokerage account will most likely bring more disadvantages and bitterness into your life if you are not ready for serious training and complete removal from “advertising nonsense” and scammers on the Internet.

But with all this, it is an excellent alternative to a deposit in any bank.

And even an IIS with its excellent tax deductions is, first of all, a risk of losing your money in a brokerage account and the risk of the state demanding that you return deductions previously paid to you if you violate the terms of maintaining an IIS,

Not a single broker, not even a stock exchange, much less a manager, can guarantee you any kind of stable profitability. And you won't even have insurance against losing money in your brokerage account during your trading operations with any assets.

No one will ever insure such activities.

But money on a bank deposit is insured. Do you feel the difference?

Well, by the way, the revocation of licenses from brokers also happens. This doesn't happen often, but it does happen. And the risk of your money lying in a brokerage account is significant in such a case.

The situation is much simpler if you are a long-term investor and hold shares of companies. Records indicating that you are the owner of the shares are kept in the depository, which means that the bankruptcy of the broker will not affect your owner status.

Well, when choosing a broker, you can easily succumb to the broker’s persuasion and sweet offers about additional services in the form of analytics, some kind of trading robots. Of course, these will not be free services.

Therefore, the choice of a broker, the choice of its services, and tariffs must be approached very competently. As an example, my analysis of brokers can help you.

Where is the best place to open a brokerage account?

Where to open a brokerage account is entirely your decision. It must be conscious and deliberate. And it will depend on where you want to trade, what you want to trade. In my analysis, using a personal example, I tell you how I chose a broker. And by the way, with this broker I am leading the project “How to accelerate 50,000 to 100,000 rubles on the stock exchange.”

1. How to increase your brokerage account from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. Description in the VKontakte group

2. How to increase your brokerage account from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. Description in the group In the telegram channel

Brokerage services: what you need to know

Before concluding an agreement with a broker and starting trading, you must carefully study all the nuances of the activity and its legal regulation.

Service contract

Starting trading is quite simple: you just need to choose a broker and enter into an agreement with him (in paper or online format). To be able to conclude an agreement and exercise the right to make transactions on the stock exchange, you need to provide the following documents: passport and TIN certificate. Broker specialists will fill out documents (forms and contracts, as a rule).

Before signing the contract, it is advisable to print it out and read it carefully, paying attention to all the main points and checking your own personal data. Brokers often provide contracts in the public domain on the Internet - in this case, you can read everything in advance, clarify issues of interest, and only after that enter into an agreement and open an account with the broker ⇒.

On the application of the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation to the agreement

The legal nature of a brokerage service agreement is quite complex. According to the current Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a brokerage agreement can be a special case of intermediary agreements: commission, agency, assignment. One way or another, the intermediary nature of the agreement is beyond doubt - the broker provides legal services to the client precisely as an intermediary.

The subject of the agreement is not limited solely to the broker’s activities regarding the conclusion of civil transactions for and on behalf of the client (as well as at his expense).

The broker also provides actual services for the storage, use, and accounting of client funds, provides advice, acts as an underwriter in the process of placing equity securities, etc.

Thus, it is reasonable to apply to an agreement on brokerage services the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regarding an agency agreement - this is the only example of an agreement understandable to the Russian legal order, the subject of which is the provision of both actual and legal services. On the other hand, courts usually recognize a brokerage service agreement as a type of commission agreement.

It is also worth noting that the broker agreement is a consensual, bilateral, compensated transaction. Bilateral - because there are two parties involved (broker and client), compensated - on the basis of paragraph 1 of Article 3 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Securities Market” and by virtue of the presumption of compensation for contracts (paragraph 3 of Article 423 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Due to the fact that the legislator does not connect the moment of concluding an agreement with the transfer of a thing or the commission of any actions, by virtue of the presumption of Article 433 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the agreement is considered consensual.

As for the nature of the relationship between the parties, the agreement refers to fiduciary (personal trust) transactions, which is not entirely true, because usually this type of relationship is typical for individuals. Therefore, the relationship between the client and the broker by legal nature (in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 184 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the mentioned law on securities) should be considered a commercial representation, which excludes the fiduciary nature.

It is worth mentioning that the agreement on brokerage services is not subject to the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regarding public contracts (Article 426). This approach is the result of legal uncertainty about the special status of the consumer of financial services.

In most cases, signing a brokerage agreement by a client involves a set of documents indicating regulations, tariffs, declarations and other standard forms (8-12 documents, as a rule). The client signs an application for accession to the agreement, which is considered an accession agreement under Article 428 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The agreement is one of the organizational ones, therefore the provisions of Article 429.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regarding the framework agreement apply to it (the conditions can be specified by the trader as part of the instructions to the broker regarding the execution of transactions).

The broker can give the client a loan in cash and securities, the procedure and conditions of the procedure are prescribed in the contract. Such a transaction is considered a mixed agreement and, in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 423 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, relations between the two parties in the field of margin transactions are regulated by the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on a loan agreement and pledge of securities.

Agency agreement: characteristics

When considering an agency agreement, it is necessary to pay attention to several basic nuances. First of all, these are definitions: under this agreement, the client is called the principal, the broker is called the agent. The client gives the broker a power of attorney to carry out the actions described in the document.

An agency agreement can be either a commission or an assignment agreement. If a broker buys and sells a financial instrument or securities on behalf of a client (and at his expense), then the client becomes obligated and the agency agreement becomes a mandate agreement. When a broker buys and sells on his own behalf (but at the expense of the client), he becomes obligated and we are talking about a commission agreement.

In terms of internal content, the agency agreement in question is a special legal combination of two types of agreement: commission and assignment.

The broker is considered the main trading intermediary on the exchange, providing a link between the market and private clients. The broker provides clients with a wide range of services, which are determined separately in each specific case.

Types of brokerage accounts

Brokerage accounts can be either own (company funds) or client accounts (client funds).

Types of client accounts:

Trust funds - they contain money that the broker can dispose of at his own discretion, which is regulated by the management agreement.
Cash – funds for paying for goods/instruments that the client purchases through a broker.
Margin – funds to pay for client transactions that were raised through a loan from a broker.

What you need to pay attention to in an agreement with a broker

Before the act of signing the contract is completed, you need to carefully study all the points and pay attention to clarifying every unclear issue.

Key points when signing a brokerage agreement:

The status of the company is the availability of licenses and all permits.
How long the company has existed, reputation, reviews from real clients on independent platforms, communities, forums. Review of legal proceedings.

On this site you can see reviews of forex brokerage companies in the RATING of brokers ⇒

The tariff plan and its adequacy - commissions that are too low, for example, may indicate fraudulent schemes or hidden payments.

Availability of suitable methods for depositing/withdrawing funds into accounts.
List of tools with which work is carried out.
The procedure for paying taxes from foreign clients - as a rule, the broker does not deal with this, but the client needs to know about all the features.
The waiting period for dividends (execution of an order, the shorter the better) after the conclusion of the transaction.
Customer service format (in person or remotely), support service work.
The measure of responsibility of the parties is the specifics of recording losses (in the event of a loss, the trader loses only funds from the account or property too).
The procedure for challenging the actions of a broker is important if you have to go to court.
The reasons for possible blocking of a trading account are controlled and justified.
Conditions for carrying out trade transactions - are there any restrictions, what are the regulations.
The conditions for executing pending orders are exclusively when the price touches and nothing else.
Force majeure clause – the contract must clearly indicate the list of situations.
All direct terms of the contract - amounts, commissions, etc.

It is advisable to find several more documents from other companies before signing the contract - compare, analyze, and clarify unclear points. The broker is obliged to explain and show everything, but if not, this should be a signal of reluctance to conduct honest and transparent work.