There are always pros and cons in investing online for yourself. Please take into consideration the following pros and cons and Answer the questions at the end.
Pros:
Personal Control (Cut out the Middle Man)
Costs (Cut out the Middle Man and related Fee for advise which reduces returns)
Research tools available through discount broker accounts
No Financial Minimums: Personal brokers usually prefer to work with clients who have several thousands of dollars to invest. For those of us who do not have that kind of cash lying around, online trading is great. You can start buying penny stocks with less than $100
Availability: Online brokerages never close, which allows individual investors constant access to their accounts.
Convenience: Online investors can perform transactions anywhere with Internet access, while traditional brokers may require at least one visit.
Service: With online brokers, individuals can set stop orders and other important triggers to kick in automatically, preventing potentially huge losses.
Cons:
Little support: Many online investors buy with little experience or knowledge of the stock market. Online investors don't have a professional to help talk them out of foolhardy decisions.
Overbuying: Trading stocks online is fun and cheap, but frequent trading is not good for long-term growth and transaction fees can pile up quickly.
Security issues: Although online trading firms work very hard to keep customer data safe, there is still a small risk from hackers of phishing – replica sites of genuine investment sites set up to steal investor an individual's private data.
Low Investment/Financial Literacy increases a traders risk of loss; traders can reduce their risk of loss by taking investment and trading classes and training focused on learning how the market works and how to use the many investment tools that are freely available to help you choose the right stocks for your style of trading.
Given the Pros and Cons of using the internet as an investment tool? Do you feel the Pros outweigh the Cons in Internet investing? Why?