An execution-only broker carries out the orders you place and offers no view on whether you should place them. Research on the platform, a signals feed, a friendly call from an account manager — none of it is a personal recommendation, and the client agreement almost always says so in plain words. The distinction matters most when something goes wrong: a complaint that a trade was unsuitable stands on very different ground against an advisory firm than against an execution-only one.
Execution-only is not the absence of obligations. The broker still owes best execution, still has to categorise you as a retail or professional client, and under several regimes must run an appropriateness test before giving access to leveraged products. What it removes is any duty to judge whether a particular trade suits you. If someone at the firm is telling you what to trade, that is worth reconciling with the agreement you signed.
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Guide
How Execution Models Work: ECN, STP and Market Maker
Market maker, STP and ECN describe where the other side of a trade comes from — and what each model changes about spreads, requotes and order handling.