Before you register at a given broker website, make sure to check the requirements for opening an online share trading account with the given broker. Those requirements could potentially specify the amount of initial deposit, which could be up to $10,000. Make sure you can monitor your balance in this account online. What’s of even greater importance is to have absolutely 100% ‘real-time’ market price data offered on the website, as there are websites which have delay and such delays could be costly at times. You should also check which markets you have access to - US exchanges, NYSE (Wall St), NASDA, International markets (Asian and European exchanges and Australian).