Lincoln is an investor and content marketer. He has worked for financial advisors, institutional investors, and a publicly-traded fintech company. Lincoln holds degrees in Finance, Economics, and Accounting.
Looking to start day trading but don’t know where to start?
After reviewing a few dozen brokers and being an active trader for the last 7 years, I’ve compiled a list of the best trading platforms for beginners.
All of them offer low-fee access to stock and ETF trading, but some offer much more.
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The 7 Best Trading Platforms for Beginners in 2024:
1. Fidelity: The Overall Best Trading Platform for Beginners
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, fixed income
- Minimum deposit: $0
Fidelity is one of the largest brokers in the U.S. and offers access to a wide range of investment options, as well as a huge library of educational content aimed at new traders.
Fidelity offers commission-free stock and ETF trading, and both a standard and advanced trading platform.
Beginners can ramp up their trading skills through built-in training videos and even full online courses, showing you how to place trade, create a trading strategy, and use the Fidelity Trading tools.
Almost every trading tool Fidelity offers has introductory videos on which buttons to click and how to actually use the tool, which is very helpful to new traders.
You can trade stocks, options, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), initial public offerings (IPOs), and even precious metals (gold, silver, etc.). And the fees are on par with most other major brokers in the industry.
The Fidelity mobile app is very well designed, allowing you to place simple trades quickly.
And once you graduate to more advanced trading strategies, the Active Trader Pro platform is available both as a desktop and mobile app, with all of the charting and trading tools an experienced trader would expect.
Simply put, Fidelity is the best day trading platform for beginners.
Bottom Line: Fidelity has it all, and gives beginners a great “on-ramp” into day trading. No matter your level of experience, Fidelity will meet your trading needs.
2. TradeStation: The Best Trading Platform for Active Traders
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, options, futures, futures options, mutual funds, bonds, cryptocurrency
- Minimum deposit: $0 for standard accounts, $2,000 for margin accounts
TradeStation is one of the best trading platforms on the planet, with world-class trading tools, low fees and margin rates, as well as deep research on almost every asset class available.
TradeStation is built for day traders, but also helps new traders learn the ropes by offering tons of step-by-step tutorials on how to use the platform.
TradeStation offers access to stocks, ETFs, options, futures, futures options, fixed income, and cryptocurrency trading, as well as international markets and commodities. Fees are competitive, especially with options trading (at $0.60 per contract), and cryptocurrency trading (as low as 0.11% fee, and stablecoin trading is free).
If you are new to trading, TradeStation might feel overwhelming, but they offer a trading simulator, letting you use the tools with virtual money to practice using the trading tools.
And their learning platform is well-organized, giving you a quick way to access “how-to” tutorials to answer most trading questions in a succinct manner.
Bottom Line: TradeStation is the best platform for traders, and beginners can use the tools without any risk using the simulator on their way to working into using everything TradeStation has to offer.
3. Webull: The Best Trading Platform for Mobile Investors
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, options, crypto
- Minimum deposit: $0
Webull is a low-fee trading platform with an intuitive mobile app, giving you access to stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto trading on-the-go. Webull doesn’t charge any commissions on ETFs, stocks, or options trading, making it one of the lowest-cost platforms for options trading.
Webull also has built-in training and educational content, giving you step-by-step tutorials for strategies like options trading. Webull also lets you trade 40+ different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Etherem, Solana, and even Dogecoin.
While the Webull desktop app is designed for more advanced traders, the mobile app simplifies the trading process, ideal for beginners that want to learn trading quickly.
Bottom line: Webull has the best mobile app trading platform for beginners and intermediate-level traders, plus access to a decent crypto selection.
4. TD Ameritrade: The Best Trading Platform for Stock Market Simulator
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, options, futures, IPOs, mutual funds, fixed income, forex
- Minimum deposit: $0
TD Ameritrade is a trusted online broker that offers $0 stock and ETF trading (like most platforms), as well as access to a wide range of other asset classes.
While their standard platform offers simple trading tools for beginners, their thinkorswim advanced trading platform offers the ability to learn through a trading simulator.
The thinkorswim “Paper Money” tool gives you $200,000 to play with, allowing you to place simple and advanced trades, helping you learn without the risk of losing your own money.
You stock chart overlays, access stock market research, and even trade options. And if you mess up a trade, just hit the “reset” button to start over.
I played with the Paper Money tool in my TD Ameritrade account, and accidentally bought Netflix at the bottom ($171/share)…currently up over $200,000 (fake dollars) on that trade!
Bottom Line: TD Ameritrade is a great all-in-one platform with low fees, and it offers the best stock market simulator on the market…for free!
5. eToro: The Best Trading Platform for Copy Trading
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, options, futures, forex, commodities, crypto
- Minimum deposit: $10
eToro is a stock and crypto trading platform designed for both beginners and advanced traders.
Beyond a solid trading experience, on par with the other popular brokers, eToro’s CopyTrader feature allows you to copy the trades of popular investors on the platform with just a few clicks.
eToro shows you the top performing traders on their site, lets you pick a trader to copy, and will automatically execute trades that mirror their trades.
This makes it easy to perform advanced trades (limit orders, short-selling, etc.) without the need to manually create the orders yourself.
Obviously, it is risky to let someone else place trades on your behalf, but eToro also offers a demo mode, allowing you to use “fake money” to try out Copy Trading risk-free.
In addition to Copy Trading, eToro offers fee-free stock and ETF trading, as well as low-fee crypto trading. The mobile app is well-designed, and beginners can quickly get up-to-speed with eToro’s tutorials.
Bottom Line: eToro is the top copy trading platform for beginners, making it easy to place advanced trades automatically. But it’s risky.
6. TradeZero: The Best Day Trading Platform for Shorting
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, options, crypto
- Minimum deposit: $200
TradeZero is a stock trading platform that offers the ability to short-sell stocks, which is not available with many beginner-friendly platforms. As a more advanced strategy, TradeZero makes it far less complicated, with simple tutorials and training right on their website.
TradeZero short-selling involves borrowing shares of a stock, and its “locates” system allows you to source those shares quickly within the TradeZero software.
And while shorting a stock involves the use of leverage and typically requires at least $25,000 in a margin account, TradeZero accounts only require a $500 minimum to get started with short-selling.
TradeZero also offers access to commission-free standard stock and ETF trading, as well as crypto trading. There are miscellaneous fees to watch out for, including a cash withdrawal fee of $50 per transaction.
Short selling is an advanced and extremely risky trading strategy.
Bottom Line: TradeZero is hands-down the simplest platform for beginners that want to access short-selling.
7. Interactive Brokers: The Best Trading Platform for Global Investing
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Stock commissions: $0
- Assets available: Stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds, Futures, Futures Options, Fixed Income, Precious Metals, Cryptocurrencies, Warrants, Forex
- Minimum deposit: $100
Interactive Brokers is a trading platform that offers access to over 150 markets around the globe. In addition, it supports 26 currencies for funding your account and has clients in over 200 countries.
Interactive Brokers is aimed at professional traders, but their client portal interface is beginner-friendly, and new users can learn to trade global assets.
The platform supports a wide range of assets, including:
- Stocks
- ETFs
- Mutual Funds
- Futures
- Futures Options
- Fixed Income
- Precious Metals
- Cryptocurrencies
- Warrants
- Forex
There are several platforms available, as well as mobile apps to support different types of trading. The IBKR GlobalTrader platform is designed for simplicity, and is ideal for new traders that want access to trading in global markets. It includes 90+ stock exchanges, as well as options trading in 30+ markets.
Bottom Line: Interactive Brokers is a massive trading platform with global reach, but their IBKR GlobalTrader platform can give beginners access to more markets than any other platform.
Final Word: The Best Trading Platform for Beginners
The great news is that stock and ETF trading is essentially free on all of the platforms listed above, and most platforms offer options trading for less than $1 per contract.
Brokers like Fidelity and TD Ameritrade make it easy to trade stocks and other assets, and have well-designed mobile apps to trade on-the-go.
More advanced platforms like TradeStation and Interactive Brokers are less intimidating than you might think, and help new traders learn the ropes while allowing them to “level up” to their more advanced trading tools.
eToro and Webull offer access to low-fee crypto trading directly on their platforms with built-in user education to get beginners up-to-speed. And if you REALLY want to short-sell a stock, TradeZero can get you started for as low as $500.
Day trading doesn’t have to be complicated and there are plenty of platforms that can help you learn by doing. Just be aware that trading comes with an elevated level of risk.
FAQs:
Which platform is best for trading for beginners?
Fidelity is the best overall trading platform for beginners, with a simplified mobile app, fee-free trading on stocks and ETFs, as well as beginner and advanced trading platforms. There are also hundreds of help articles, tutorials, and educational videos to help you ramp up your trading knowledge.
What is the most trusted trading platform?
Fidelity is the most trusted platform in the U.S., and with over 40 million customers, it is the largest investment firm in the world by number of clients. Fidelity has a long history of offering excellent customer services, as well as rock-bottom fees for users.
Which is the easiest trading to learn?
Most brokerage accounts offer simple trades, such as buying or selling a stock, but if you want to step up your game, learning limit and stop orders can help you create a more robust trading strategy. Adding a price limit to an order is probably the easiest trading trick to learn, and will help you set boundaries for your trade.
How do I start trading for the first time?
To start trading stock, ETFs, or other assets you will need to do the following:
Open a brokerage account
Verify your identity
Deposit funds (usually a transfer from your bank account)
Begin trading
Account approval and deposits may take a few days before you can start trading.
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