If you're looking for a stockbroker, you have four distinct choices: full service, discount, online and online deep discount.

What mainly differentiates them is the advice they provide and the cost to do transactions.

In concept, full service brokers will call with stock ideas and support this advice with reports from the firm's research department.

Most discount firms do much less of this, and deep discounters generally provide little more than cheap trades. That's fine if you make your own investment decisions.

Here's the good news: The brokerage world is wising up to the fact that the cost of trade execution is very important to most investors. So now you may be able to have both of these kinds of commission arrangements in one account at one firm.

Many full service brokers are quickly coming around to the fact that they need an online component and the need to charge you lower commissions when you use it.

Sometimes you really can have the best of both worlds.

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