are you an active or passive investor are you looking to focus only on mutual funds etfs stocks bonds other securities or a combination of all the above do you mainly plan on making basic market orders or do you want more advanced order types 
some brokers focus on different types of investors one might have features that appeal to buy and hold investors who mostly want to buy mutual funds and etfs others will have features that appeal to frequent traders and people who are interested in things like options once you ve considered your needs you can compare different brokers to see what they offer and how those services align with what you re looking for 