[dpaterso]

Thanks for that input.

I must just tell you that I can (for example) also trade forex, futures, commodities, and metals using the same platform at GCI (for example). Having said that what makes Tradestation so 'special' is the ADDITIONAL information (data feeds) that you get from, as you quite rightly stated, Tradestation Securities (additional information like the NYSE 'tick chart' as I mentioned before). If you read John F. Carters book you'll very quickly see just how 'powerful' having this type of information can be and, in trading stocks and the indices, it's real easy to see how and why 'new traders' get 'raped' by the 'pros' with just this information 'on tap' alone. Unfortuantely, like I said, it comes at a price from what I gather i.e. your MINIMUM BALANCE has to be something like $25 000 at any given time NOT your INITIAL DEPOSIT (not like ALL the other brokers where they have this 'BS' about a minimum initial deposit of let's say $5K but after the deposit you can immediately withdraw $4K. I'm (they're) talking MIMIMUM BALANCE AT ANY GIVEN TIME must be $25K. I think that if you just want to trade forex though it's a lot less but then why bother i.e. that additional 'special' information is not applicable to forex trading I don't think but I stand to be corrected)!!!