I find myself wanting to get into the bitcoin speculation game, if only nominally with some small denomination (say 0.1 BTC or something). Can anybody else speak to or give advice on getting over the creepiness factor of finding and using an exchange? Are some more reputable than others? Places like MtGox don't inspire confidence and the physical location of many exchanges gives me concerns about them in the event of some kind of dispute.
I feel like if I were to do business with an exchange, I'd need to start a whole new bank account just to do it to keep my real account info hidden away from exchanges and potential bad actors. Is this a completely irrational feeling to have?
If you want to keep things simple and maintain your privacy, you should check out services like BitQuick (http://www.bitquick.co) and Blue Sky Traders (http://ok2yri46aaptiu2d.onion). These services allow you to buy bitcoins by simply depositing cash into someone else's bank account. No ID required or anything. There's another similar service called http://www.cashintocoins.com, but I don't have any experience with them and they're apparently having issues with their SSL certificate right now.
Even if you do want to use an exchange in order to rapidly trade your coins and profit from price dips, depositing coins into an exchange is a lot easier and possibly more anonymous than depositing dollars.
Then if you decide to sell the coins, you can move them off the exchange and offer them on localbitcoins.com for physical cash.
MtGox is having its troubles right now. I've used CampBX and Coinbase reliably without any problems about a year ago. I can't speak to the withdrawal process though, other than to say I wouldn't do it through MtGox anytime soon.
There's enough liquidity in the top exchanges that discrepancies in sell-prices from one exchange to another are indicative of people's trust in being able to withdraw their money from that particular exchange.
You'll have to evaluate which exchange you want to use for each of these three actions:
1) buying
2) holding (exchanges are targets for hackers whereas with a private wallet you can be hacked, or you can be virused, or you can lose it of your own fault)
I'd recommend LocalBitcoins. Had a transaction completed within 15 minutes of my first visit. No hoops to jump through and there's a feedback and escrow system in place. Maybe a less lucrative option in the US where you've got more choice.
All the legitimate exchanges require identity verification (passport etc.). If you want to trade without revealing your identity you'll have a difficult time, but you can try localbitcoins.com for trading in person.
I feel like if I were to do business with an exchange, I'd need to start a whole new bank account just to do it to keep my real account info hidden away from exchanges and potential bad actors. Is this a completely irrational feeling to have?