Retail broker - Definition and Overview

A retail broker is a brokerage firm that caters to the average investor or, in other words, the retail sector of investors - as oppose to the institutional sector of investors.

Both discount and full-service firms are retail brokers. 99.9% of all brokers who advertise on TV are retail brokers.

The J.D. Power Consumer Center (http://www.jdpower.com/cc/index.html) has a list (http://www.jdpower.com/cc/finance/index.jsp) of quality discount (http://www.jdpower.com/cc/finance/jdpa_ratings/OnlineInvesting.jsp) and full-service (http://www.jdpower.com/cc/finance/jdpa_ratings/FullServiceInvesting.jsp) brokerage firms.