Stocks...

[Wren57]

Originally posted by 94_AcCoRd_EX

I'm looking to trade online. The larger firms seem to have minimum starting balance requirements, but there are a couple of local full featured internet (and they also have offices) companies. Are there downsides to using one of them?

Good to see you are investing, you wont regret it (if you pick the good companies, anyways )... anyways, there are downsides to local internet brokerages. First of all, make sure they are established enough and keep good books, you don't want your stock holdings to get jumbled up in a poorly managed firm... also check their commisions and execution times, and see how hard they try to get you a low price on market orders... if everything checks out, I say go with the local guys, keeping cash in your isolated economy is good on a small scale