What are the features to look while selecting a stock market broker?

The most important aspect about a stock broker is his reliability and punctuality in delivering the services. As regards the brokerage charges and commissions levied by the broker it should not be too high and should be reasonable as per the market trends.
Another point which is very important is that the documents presented by the broker (online or physical form) to us should be in a clear form and we should get information about each transaction very clearly showing the commissions and brokerage etc separately. This clarity is not only needed for the day to day understanding of the transactions but also for the tax related issues that may arise in the gains earned in the selling transactions.
It is always better to avoid any cash transactions with the brokers and everything should be paid through cheques or online payments.
A good broker will advise us about the market trends correctly and will not be biased for his brokerage earned through those transactions.
The real test of a broker can be done only in a market-crash situation when most of the brokers are not in a position for making the payments and will tell the investor to wait for some time.
It will be advisable to go through the history and reputation of a particular broker before hiring him for our stock market related work.

The first and foremost factor you should see is the past record and reputation of the broker. You can see the reviews and opinions about the broker you want to choose can be seen on online and see how reliable is the broker. You can also talk to the known people who are doing some trading also. You can also look for any complaints on that particular agency. The volume of the business they are doing and the number of clients they are having will also tell us something about that broker.
The next point we should see is the charges they are charging. Some brokers are full-service brokers and some are discount brokers. The full-service brokers will provide advisory and other values addition services in addition to providing a trading platform. Hence their charges will be on the higher side. Discount brokers will provide you with just a platform for trading. You have to go to any one of them based on your needs.
Some brokers respond very quickly to customer needs but some are not that active. You call a broker on his customer care line if he responds immediately or within a reasonable time. you can think of that broker as a quick responsive broker. Their websites will also give you some idea about their suitability.
Many of the brokers will place the videos of platforms they offer for the traders. Go through those videos and see how friendly they are. Navigation through their platform should be easy for the user.

Now that online dealing and transactions are more used, the main factors a retail investor may consider are as follows:
1. Reputation and reliability
2. Reasonable charges
3. Responsibility and integrity
4. Unbiased suggestions and advice.
5. Easy accessibility for any grievance redressal or service.

These point, at least points 1 to 4 can be ascertained by reading reviews from different sites.

Many brokers even though advertise or promise a lot, being a commercial business they give priority to those who give them more business and hence more revenue. So retail investors may not get high priority service always. One should accept reality to avoid disappointment.

There are certain tips which could be applied in selecting a good broker. Some of the essential points needed to woo the investors are as follows-
1) Careful selection of a broker by going through the Research-
To begin with, we must have undertaken an exercise of getting the feedback of the investors regarding the services of the particular stock broker and the same is not confined to one or two but be based on large number of investors approving him for his prompt services so that they need not go elsewhere for such services.
2) Additional Services - The broker should provide the investors relevant advice regarding the selection of shares and most importantly the exit time of some shares keeping in view of predictions of adverse results due to market fluctuations. Such advice would benefit the investors a lot.
3) Quality of services- The investors must ensure that the website of the broker should be functional uninterruptedly so that the investors get quality services at any point of time.At peak hours, the investors are stuck up with heavy traffic causing dislocation of services. Hence if the broker provides the investors some alternative ways of placing orders during the critical hours, it would be of extreme relief for the investors. The broker should ensure that no extra charges are levied to the investors due to such provisions. This would nurture the ties between the investors and the broker.
4) Dealing with the investors friendly plans providing them host of benefits by way of services of the broker -
Investors at the initial stage might not know everything related to shares right way.However, an excellent broker would arouse interest among the investors and at the same time, he would assist the investors in the right selection of the shares providing the investors the relevant tips in the selection mechanism of right shares for them. The broker should be in a position to alleviate the doubts of the investors so that both the customers and brokers are benefited simultaneously.
5) To look out multiple investment options- The investors should have far sighted vision where they should not remain confined to stock market only but should look for other financial instruments such as mutual funds and other company's deposits available with the same broker so that the investors should not move out for availing such facilities from the other brokers. In that way, they would save timings sticking to the same broker for multiple investment opportunities.

While deciding on a broker one should keep in mind that not be influenced by others however it is necessary to judge the goodwill of a broker from the market point of view, but the final decision should be yours. Moreover, truthfulness and honesty is the main thing in this field. You should also ensure that broker maintains your confidentiality. After checking all this basic information go for other checkings i.e. brokerage charges and speed of processing transactions. You should also read terms and conditions in advance because sometimes brokers serve long pages of terms and conditions that the client signs without reading. These can include harmfulnditions, for example, trading on the client`s behalf without his knowledge. You can also check certain online apps which are providing low-cost and efficient services.