What is the best online brokerage for a beginner?

Scottrade is definitely the cheapest online brokerage, unlike their competitors they have no account maintenance fees and no account minimums. they charge a flat $7 per trade which is extremely reasonable comparative, plus they also have the lowest initial deposit at $500, once deposited you can start trading. Use promo code TJFV1118 at sign up and you will receive free trades, works 100% of the time.

the site is pretty straight forward, easy to start trading the same day you sign up

they also have a lot of local branches to help whenever needed and also put on free seminars

Schwab & Fidelity beyond a shadow of a doubt. eTrade is mediocre (people that like eTrade tend to be people that don't know anything else). Scottrade is better & cheaper... but not great.

If the minimum opening amount is the issue, use Scottrade & in a year or two... switch to a better broker.

Thought: Looking at brokers before you understand the basics is a little backward. If you don't know the basics.... you'll make some costly "newbie" mistakes. Read some books on investing or trading.

Most important: Don't do penny stocks (any stock under $5) for at least 3-5 years... Get the needed experience first with higher priced stocks.

The major discount brokerages such as Scottrade, E-trade, Ameritrade, Schwab and Fidelity all have good educational sections to teach you about the basics of trading. Most of them also have adequate customer service.

Go to the website of SMARTMONEY; they have an article that ranks the various Discount Brokerages over several categories, such as customer service, products, commissions, etc. You will find it quite useful.

All of the discount brokerages have much to offer a beginner and more experienced hands, too. However, take it from this old professor---you may find expenses run higher than they seem at the moment...so why not give yourself more time to adjust to your new (collegiate) world? Meanwhile, you're free to explore potential investment sectors for future consideration.

Len

First of all, figure out how you want to trade. Do you want to day trade? Are you in it for the short haul? Or are you in it for the long haul? The broker I use, works for me because I'm in it for the long haul. Check out http://www.mystockfund.com/ Also checkout all the different ways you can invest I use unlimited buys for 9.90/month. I think it's still called diversified. You can even buy fractional shares. Just buy the ones that are on their list in auto invest schedule. The only time it hurts is selling, because they charge 12.99 to sell real time market. Just take a look and read everything on the site.

You can make money in binary options only if you treat it as a real form of investing. Learn here https://tr.im/8YU3W

This means learning how it works, learning how to read charts and learning how you can make accurate predictions. All these are not that difficult but it takes some time. If you treat it as gambling and just make random predictions then you will obviously not win.

You mean college grant money and invest it, a newbie....Bad Idea