Stockbrokers also sometimes or exclusively trade on their own behalf, as a principal, speculating that a share or other financial instrument will increase or decline in price. In such cases the term broker makes little sense and the individuals or firms trading in principal capacity sometimes call themselves dealers, stock traders or simply traders. [A stock broker is just the main part of being a City Trader. Other types of City Trading include working in the Foreign Exchange.

A stock broker would deal with shares. Shares and stocks have the same definition; a share is a section of a company that a stockbroker can buy and sell if he/she has a suitable amount of money. Specifically, a stock is a piece of money – a share of a company – that a few years ago were represented on a document [Now Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets are used to keep the record]. For example, a share can be worth 25p, but can be multiplied by 40 to create the total desired value on the document – in this case it would therefore be worth 1000p. The stockbroker possesses a number of shares; however he or she can choose how many of these he or she wishes to trade, so that perhaps some can be kept for him or her. Keeping an amount is understandable, because stock-broking is a risky business. This is because the prices that shares are worth are constantly increasing and decreasing, depending on how much money the company you are dealing with, is producing. For example, say a stockbroker buys a share from a dealer, for $1, and then sells it to a client for x sum of money. The next day, the price for that same share value, decreases (the company is not producing as much money), so that it’s now worth 50p. The stockbroker had spent $1, however, which was 50p too much: he or she has just lost 50p. That’s how stockbrokers lose money. They then continue trading at what they think are suitable times – when it is unlikely for the price of a share to alter (to start with he or she could buy that share back for 50p and sell it again, to another client)