• a full advisory service is suitable if you want to take a back seat and let the broker devise a bespoke strategy for you based on your circumstances and the levels of risk you are willing to expose your capital to. He/she will then monitor your holdings and make suggestions on what to invest in.
• If you wish to make your own investment decisions based on your own research then you will need an execution only broker. This means that the broker's only function is to take your order and execute it at a time that you specify.

 
Whichever option you choose you will likely need to fund your account using either a debit/credit card or bank transfer although some brokers may still require a cheque.

Clearly if you opt for a full advisory service then you could buy shares simply by agreeing with your brokers suggestions. In fact some brokers may buy and sell shares without directly asking you if this has been stipulated in the initial contract or agreement.

If you choose to go it alone then to buy a share you will need to go through the following process:

1. Contact your execute only broker - this is most commonly done either via a phone conversation or through the use of an online interface.
2. First you will need to inform the broker of the company you wish to buy shares in. This should be done by quoting the company symbol which will be 2,3 or 4 letters long. For example if I wanted to buy shares in Tesco I would quote TSCO.L
3. The other information you will need to hand is the exact number of shares you wish to buy. To work this out take the capital you wish to invest and divde it by the share price (always work in the pence to ensure you end up with the correct amount).
4. The broker should confirm your transaction with you before the execution so take this opportunity to make sure everything is in order.
5. The broker will then execute the trade and you will have just bought some shares.
   
   

There is a slight variation on this process if you do not want the trade to happen straight away. Some brokers will offer what is known as a limit order whereby the trade is executed only when a share price falls to a specified level. To buy shares in this way, at step 3 you not only tell your broker how many shares to buy but also at what price to buy them.