Setting up a brokerage account and a chance at investing definitely does seem quite interesting and full of opportunities. However, it is very important to make the right choice while choosing your brokerage firm. While the right brokerage firm can provide you with well informed, expert advice, the wrong choice can lead to huge, unfortunate losses. Here are some of the popular brokerage firms you can rely upon:

• TD Ameritrade charges a trade commission of around $6.95 per trade and needs no minimum balance in the account.

The firm is known to offer one of the best customer services which are available along with an advanced trading platform.

Charles Schwab charges a trade commission of around $4.95 per trade. The reduced commission price of Charles Schwab made it a strong competition to its peers. However, it does require you to maintain a minimum account balance of $1000. The customer service provided is commendable as well.

E*Trade charges a trade commission of around $6.95 per trade and needs a minimum account balance of $500. This is a great choice if you are exploring areas apart from stock trading. You will be open to choose from a wide variety of investment products ranging from ETFs, mutual funds, and stocks to bonds, futures, and options trading.

OptionsXpress charges a trade commission of around $4.95 per trade and needs no minimum account balance. The services provided by this firm are quite similar to the ones provided by E*Trade. You can compare the services and the trading costs as it will help you make an informed choice.

Merrill Edge and Fidelity Investments also are popular choices for brokerage firms. They charge a trade commission of around $6.95 and $4.95, respectively. Merrill Edge requires no account balance while the latter needs an account minimum of around $2,500. They are known for their wide range of research, analysis, and accuracy.

A reasonable choice can be made on the basis of one’s requirements. Vigorous comparisons of various brokerage firms available in the market will help in making a choice that would be tailor-made to suit you.