Man, people are just mean these days.... lol A direct access broker is necessary for active trading. Most here (all maybe?) will use some sort of DA broker. I believe IB is what the majority use, but check out the "brokers" link at the top of this page for reviews and more info. A full service broker is sort of a thing of the past, if you ask me. I don't trust my money to anyone but me. It mostly depends on the amount of trading you want to do. Scotttrade or something like that may work (I have no experience with them) if you are doing one or two trades a week, and more on the investing side of things. Paper trading is trading in a simulated account, with fake money. It's what a lot of people recommend you do to get comfortable with new software, and generalities about how the market works. It's not indicitive of what your real performance will be like, however. Hope that helps! TNG
It depends what you're looking for. Some people need their hand to be held while making decisions and buying. They make very few transactions, and for that a more traditional, albeit online, broker will do. Such as Charles Schwaab, etc. The most popular nowadays are probably deep discount brokers. Online websites that have 5-10 dollar commissions a trade and provide you with a myriad of tools to do research, analysis, and put in orders. Brokers in this category include eTrade, TD Ameritrade, thinkorswim, optionsxpress, etc. A step up from that is direct access brokerages. Give you the best fills on orders and are for professional traders. Sites like interactive brokers. It's not bad to learn on a deep discount site. Starting out you probably won't want to delve into things like forex or futures right away, just buy and sell equities. Deep discount sites like TD Ameritrade are pretty good, you'll learn quickly and there are help features on the site that explain many things. If you go to a direct access brokerage it's probably easier to get confused by the terminology and wealth of information.
thanks, that does help. Fxcm also has the same type of simulation to get the feel for it. What about things like Ameritrade?
Don't have or know anyone with experience with it. It depends on your needs, but I'd seriously look into a direct access platform like IB or MB Trader or Redi plus or something. That's just my opinion, however. TNG
Yes, I know forex is currency. I am just stating that they have the same type of simulated program. Some people like stocks better and some like forex.
Personally, if I were beginning I would look into eTrade, TD Ameritrade, etc. Sure the commish is more than at IB, but it's a lot easier to learn on if you just want to buy and sell equities. The online platform and interface is much easier. IB is good, but it's a stand-alone platform that could be daunting for first-timers. One benefit IB has though is paper trading, but you need to have an account there first (at least 5k to open). You can open an account at Ameritrade for 2k. Would not recommend forex for you. Without a good understanding of leverage and margin in forex, you would lose your money faster. Nothing against the instrument itself though, trades the same as equities and will have trends when equities don't.
if you are just starting, better to go thru a broker. but if you already have been investing and trading for a while, I think you get much better commission fees (very low) by doing it yourself online. nowadays the services are very good unlike 10yrs ago when we used to have the brokers (Etrade, Schwab etc) going down for a day or two http://lauristonletter.blogspot.com/