There are many different brokers online, but I would suggest taking a good look first at some of the larger, more well-known ones. They are often this way for a reason, and have years under their belt of building a good reputation for themselves. Also, be on the lookout for deals. Often times brokers will offer you a certain amount of free trades when you start out, some will give you cash when you open an account with a certain amount of money, and others simply have cheaper rates per trade than the rest of the bunch.

Make sure you look into things such as extra fees. Some brokers will charge inactivity fees if you don’t place a trade within a certain amount of time. Get an idea first of how often you intend to be buying stocks, and then make this decision based on that. A couple of the more well-known brokers are:

Ameritrade

Scott Trade

E-trade

Of course that list is far, far from all-inclusive, but should give you a good starting point if buying stocks is something that you think you will be taking seriously.

Make Sure You Know What You Are Doing

My last bit of advice would be that. Before you go and invest your life savings into opening an account, thinking that buying stocks is what will take you to retirement ten times earlier than you originally planned, make sure you learn the ropes. Make sure you know everything about your broker, what they allow and don’t allow, and also make sure you are constantly learning about the stock market. It is constantly changing, and things that worked ten years ago might not work today. There are countless books available to you to teach you both the basics and finer, more advanced points of stock trading. Take advantage!