Welcome back!
I was looking around for a speaker for our next online stock trading meeting, when I ran across Hillary, a friend of my sister, who had worked for a real brokerage company. I asked her if she would like to speak, and she said yes, even though it was so early in the morning.
Hillary entered the meeting dressed in a business suit. Even though she was no longer working for the brokerage company, she wanted to present a business like appearance.
She began the talk by repeating some of the things we discussed the other week; namely that any investors do their best to ensure the brokerage company is solid financially, and secondly, that they have a good operations record.
Then she added some additional things about online stock trading.
Be sure to look into the privacy policy of the firm. They are different. You don’t want your private information spread all over the place, and some less than stellar firms do sell information, or make you think that you have opted out, but really haven’t. The message was, to be careful.
Always make sure you know the commissions and transaction fees. They can vary a lot between companies. Know how and when they can change, too.
A third thing is to make sure that the company has not gotten in trouble. You can check this through your local securities division, where you can also confirm registration status. Complaints can also be filed here, if ne-cessary.
Hillary promised to return and provide some basic stock research information for those who needed it, and to talk in depth with the more experienced traders, like John. She also agreed to cover online options trading.