What brokerages do you recommend for new traders and why? I've read ib is too difficult to use although commissions are low.
whatever the platform, commit to being great at trading. if your commitment is lacking, then you will likely lose money. i say commitment because if a person is not willing to invest the time to learn how to use a platform effectively (not mastery, just master what you need to learn), then they put themselves at a significant disadvantage. You need all the little advantages you can get to perform on this stage. to use the old adage... you don't want to bring a knife to a gun fight (or however it goes)What brokerages do you recommend for new traders and why? I've read ib is too difficult to use although commissions are low.
Absolutely all depends on how and what you want to trade . How much money you want to fund account with. Will it be 25K or more ? If you are daytrader and you have over 25K i would go with speedtrader pro. That was my first real daytrading account http://speedtraderpro.com/about/why-speedtrader-pro/ Now i use Centerpoint securities.
It can be whatever it needs to be. 25k to 50 maybe to get started.
Yup definitely I would start with paper acct for first couple of months minimum
What brokerages do you recommend for new traders and why? I've read ib is too difficult to use although commissions are low.