By Gillian Bullock

There are plenty of books around about investing and the sharemarket and lots more about shares and funds and where to put your money. There are very few however about sharebrokers or stockbrokers.

These exalted individuals and what they actually do continues to be a total mystery to most people, even many of those who feel quite comfortable talking about shares and investments.

This book does an excellent job of taking away all that obscurity and giving a human face to the age-old profession. As well as a brief history of the profession there is a chapter chronicling a day in the life of a modern "private client adviser" who works for Macquarie Equities in Sydney.

The book describes the range of services offered by different types of brokers and the paperwork and responsibilities involved in trading shares. There is a glossary that helps decipher the terminology and acronyms that can be so alienating when you don't have the foggiest what they mean.