The ramifications of brokerage are many, but the central concern of every good house is the service it provides its customers. Not just its rich customers, either.

Read the ads. Analyze the educational and promotional literature brokerage houses are putting out, and you will see that much of it is directed at the small investor. Have no fear that you will get a cold eye or a second-class treatment because you have only a few hundred dollars to invest, or simply want to start a $40-a-month Investment Plan. These days, everyone is welcome.

Be frank with your broker. The more you can tell him about your circumstances and objectives, the sounder his advice will be. There are more than a thousand stocks listed on the Big Board alone. Their prices differ, their yields differ, the reasons for buying any one of them will differ.

Your broker can help you narrow the choice more sensibly if he has an idea of your income range or tax bracket, how much you can invest, how frequently, whether you have other stocks and, if so, which ones, and whether you are looking for income, growth, diversity, or simply playing hunches.

Do not worry about being high-pressured. The decisions are all yours. There is no need to buy anything or any amount you can't afford or don't want. Many brokerage firms are paying their representatives salaries, rather than commissions, to eliminate the possibility of personal involvement in whether you buy or not. So, listen carefully, and then make up your own mind.

Opening an Account

If you have shopped around a bit and satisfied yourself that one brokerage house is both reputable and pleasant to do business with, you are ready to open an account.

This costs you nothing. It is rather like opening a charge account at a department store. The broker simply needs to know who you are and what your credit is, so that he may be sure you can pay for the goods you order. And promptly.

Unlike the department store, the brokerage will not send you a monthly bill. "Regular way" transactions, the kind you will meet up with most often, require that stock bought be paid for, or stock sold be delivered, within four business days.

Accordingly, the representative will want your name, address, and phone number, the name of the place where you work, and some references. Usually, the name of your bank and some of your charge accounts around town will do.

There are several kinds of accounts available to you. The basic one is the cash account which establishes you as a bona fide customer able to buy or sell. Joint accounts may be opened by a husband and wife. Like a joint checking account in a bank, this gives the partner who survives the other the right of access to the account without waiting for an estate settlement. Investors unrelated to each other who wish to invest co-operatively may also open a joint account.

Margin accounts are an extension of the cash account which permit the customer to buy on margin. Since these mean the broker is willing to loan you part of the purchase price of your securities, the credit investigation is somewhat more searching.

Discretionary accounts may also be set up in special circumstances. This means giving your broker a power of attorney to decide when and what you should buy or sell.

A relatively new development permissible in 23 states, enables you to buy stocks for minors, you serving as custodian. It removes the necessity of establishing a trust, often an elaborate and expensive procedure, as was formerly the case, or, even more awkwardly, getting a court order appointing yourself your own child's guardian.

Commissions

The broker's commission is exacted on both sides of each transaction. The buyer pays his broker, the seller his. In addition, the seller pays a Federal transfer tax, a state transfer tax in New York, Florida, South Carolina and Texas, and a Securities and Exchange Commission registration fee In 1958, by a vote of a majority of the members, commissions on the New York Stock Exchange were raised,on the ground that the costs of the broker's research, accounting,and other services were not being met by existing commissions.

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