Types and options for accounts may also vary, depending on the type of brokerage. What will suit you best really depends on what kind of investments you want to do or what kind of account suits you best. Common types include: Individual Brokerage Accounts-the ordinary type of account applied to buying and selling the stocks. Retirement accounts include IRAs, such as the traditional and Roth IRA.

Margin accounts- That's just a fancy way of saying you can borrow from the broker to buy more shares. Fine, enough about those account types, though. A much, much wider range of fundamental differences between brokerages exist in their investment options. For example, some will have stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs, while others may have option, futures, or even cryptos.