Investing in the stock market is as far removed from the image of the dapper city gent in his bowler hat as you can get. These days you can trade shares through your bank, over the phone or the internet.

The first thing you need to do is decide what type of broker you want. If you want help with your investments you might be best suited to a full advisory service, where the broker will look at your individual circumstances and devise a strategy specifically to suit your needs, monitor your investments and make suggestions on buying and selling shares. Some may even buy and sell shares for you without asking for your approval first. This service, known as discretionary broking, is highly tailored and, unsurprisingly, can prove expensive.

These days most people are prepared to do their own research, which, after all, half the fun of investing. If you are in this camp you need to look for an execution only stockbroker.

Execution only means that the broker will simply take your order and execute it for you. These brokers cannot legally offer you any advice on your decisions and to keep costs down usually operate over the phone or the internet.

This does not, however, mean they will not provide you with any tools to help you make the best investment decisions. Many execution only brokers, particularly the larger firms, offer all kinds of research and online tools for everyone from the novice to the real expert.

To a large degree, finding the right broker for you will depend on your individual requirements but there are four factors you should look for: quality of information, speed of execution, markets available and cost. Generally speaking, the better the information on offer, the more you will pay.

Use the London Stock Exchange's Locate a broker service to select a broker to meet your needs.

While telephone and internet services may give you access to instant dealing, completing your deal takes a little longer. By law all share deals have to be 'settled' three days from when they were struck, often known in the trade as T+3.

Deals can be settled so quickly because shares can now be held electronically rather than in paper form. But this form of ownership has its downsides. Your shares are held in a nominee account managed by your broker and the name of the ultimate owner is not known to the company. This means there can be no direct communication between you and the company and you must rely on the broker to pass on annual reports and dividends.

You can still get the certificate if you really want it but you might have to pay an extra fee when you trade and settling your deal might take longer, perhaps 10 days. But this is the only option if you want to hold shares that offer perks.

You can get the best of both worlds by becoming a personal member of CREST. This enables you to maintain a direct link with the company whose shares you own and lets you settle your deals in three days. To become a personal member of CREST you need to be sponsored by a corporate user. A number of stockbrokers offer this service.