Stock trading at a glance
Buying and selling stocks is probably the most common form of investment and given the explosion in the number of online brokers over the past years, nearly everyone can invest in stocks. You don't need a large amount of money to start investing in a company; everyday investors do it with $100 or less.
FBS clients can only trade stock CFDs; actual stocks are not available. CFDs (short for contract for difference) are derivative products. If you buy a CFD, you speculate on price movements without buying the actual asset or commodity (stocks, gold etc). For example, if you buy a Tesla share CFD and Tesla’s share price goes up, so will the value of your CFD.
If this is the first time you're considering opening a CFD position, we recommend you check out our expert guide to CFD trading. Just like with regular stocks, you will need to open an account at FBS, top it up, select the CFD(s) you want to buy, purchase them, review your positions on a regular basis, and eventually sell them.
Disclaimer: 75.2% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
CFDs can be a good idea for short-term traders, but remember that these financial instruments have many drawbacks. For instance, you'll need to pay the broker a financing charge as long as you hold the CFD. This fee could add up to a significant amount if you hold the CFD for several weeks.
Take a look at our ranking of the best discount brokers if you want to trade real stocks instead of CFDs.
If you're an American investor, we have a page dedicated to the best stock brokers in the US.
European stock traders may find our updated list of the best stock brokers in Europe handy.
For other countries, check out our broker finder tool for a personal recommendation.
FBS stocks: an in-depth guide to stock trading
What stocks can you trade at FBS?
At FBS, you have access to 98 stock CFDs.
| FBS | Admirals (Admiral Markets) | XM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of stock CFDs available | 98 | 3,445 | 1,261 |
FBS stocks: an in-depth guide to stock trading
Trading costs at FBS
Trading stocks comes with a range of brokerage fees, which can be divided into trading and non-trading fees. Trading fees are directly tied to a trade and usually include commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees. Non-trading fees are charges not directly related to trading, such as withdrawal fees or inactivity fees. When you are trading stocks, the most important fees are commissions. For a more detailed breakdown of costs related to investing, check out our in-depth guide to brokerage fees.
In order to calculate CFD fees, we compared brokers by calculating all the fees of a typical trade for selected products. We chose popular instruments that best reflect CFD trading fees:
- Stock CFDs: Apple and Vodafone (UK)
- Stock index CFDs: the S&P500 index (SPX) and the EURO STOXX 50 index
We calculated these simulated trades using a leveraged CFD position, which we held for a week before selling it. The following table contains the most important charges we incurred.
We opened a $2,000 position or the EUR/GBP equivalent. The leverage we used was 20:1 for stock index CFDs and 5:1 for stock CFDs. These catch-all benchmark fees include spreads, commissions and financing costs for all brokers.
| FBS | Admirals (Admiral Markets) | XM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple stock CFD | $5.3 | $4.6 | $6.7 |
| Vodafone stock CFD | $4.2 | $13.0 | $2.3 |
| S&P 500 index CFD | $1.6 | $2.3 | $2.5 |
| Europe 50 index CFD | $2.3 | $1.6 | $3.1 |
Now let's take a look at non-trading fees. Most online brokers don't charge an account fee, nor deposit fees, but inactivity fees and withdrawal fees are more common.
| FBS | Admirals (Admiral Markets) | XM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account fee | No | No | No |
| Inactivity fee | No | Yes | Yes |
| Deposit fee | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 | $0 | $0 |
FBS stocks: an in-depth guide to stock trading
Minimum deposit for trading stocks at FBS
The minimum deposit to open a brokerage account with FBS is $1.07. You can see in the table below how this amount stacks up against the closest competitors of FBS.
| FBS | Admirals (Admiral Markets) | XM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $1.07 | $100 | $5 |
FBS stocks: an in-depth guide to stock trading
Bottom line
While buying stocks and ETFs may prove one of the best long-term investments, it also carries a number of risks. In addition to unpredictable market movements, the most common risks include choosing the wrong broker, not diversifying your portfolio and investing in lousy stocks. To avoid some of these pitfalls, check out our guide about managing risks related to trading stocks.
We recommend only quality brokers, so you can be sure that none of the online brokers listed here are scams. In order to be sure, we check roughly 20 safety-related criteria, such as regulation, investor protection amount and the transparency of the broker's financials. Lastly, at least one top-tier financial authority regulates all the brokers you can find on BrokerChooser.
If you want to read our full review of FBS, including fees, deposit options and platform reviews (like web and desktop), visit FBS review.
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