I am from overseas (New Zealand) and have only recently started investing in exchanges other than the NZX. My first observation is that the companies available to invest in aren't "household names" to me, so a lot more research is required. I believe this can be both a negative and a positive. Negative because I am not familiar with the emotional aspects of companies (i.e. if it's growing/decreasing in popularity, how well known it is, what things might impact people's views of the company, whether the company has influence...etc). Positive because I'm encouraged to read the news about the companies, look at the financial reports, dig into the metrics such as P/E, P/B, who is buying and selling, and also make my own judgements about future growth without preju