Start your trading career with the best brokers for beginners

Top Brokers for beginner investors

Kickstart your trading track record by using a broker that is tailored for beginners. Low-fees, educational resources, and easy-to-use tools are all essential when starting trading. We review the leading brokers that are best suited for beginners.

Broker Overall rating Min deposit Fee Rating Customer service quality
4.8/5
 2000
4/5
4/5
4.4/5
 AUD$200
3/5
5/5
79.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
4.6/5
 300
4/5
4/5
4/5
 500
4/5
4/5

Starting considerations for beginner traders & investors​

Traders that are at the beginning phase of their career typically have unique needs when it comes to choosing a broker. Beginning traders will often have lower account sizes so it is highly advantageous if they choose a broker with competitive fees. This will allow the traders to focus on building their account size without worrying about enormous fees. For this reason, you will notice some of the top discount brokers have made this shortlist.

Beginning traders will also often want to improve their trading skills and knowledge. For that reason, brokers that put an emphasis on education are vastly more suited towards starting traders. The interface of trading platforms and accessible tools is going to be another big factor when considering the best brokers for beginners. A well-designed interface and easy-to-use trading tools can be the difference between a trader quitting early and a trader who progresses to be profitable.

Don’t feel bad if the sheer amount of factors to take into consideration along with the countless brokers to choose from are overwhelming. The transition from the physical world to the digital world has resulted in swarms of businesses setting up online brokerages. Some of these are worthy considerations while others are simply scams. We have delved into the leading ones to narrow it down to a shortlist that is most suitable for beginners. The following brokers made the shortlist:

Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers is a discount broker that prides itself in offering drastically lower commissions than major brokerages such as E-Trade, Charles Schwab, and TD Ameritrade. The company has a long history of operation after being founded in 1977. It developed into one of the leading online brokerages and is now publicly listed and servicing 31 countries globally. The company is regulated by several bodies including the SEC, CFTC, and FINRA.

Apart from having low fees, Interactive Brokers is a good choice because it also facilitates for more professional traders and has a wide variety of trading platforms to choose from. There are trading platforms supported on web, mobile, and desktop. The desktop client is the most powerful platform offered by Interactive brokers and has the widest suite of tools available. Additionally, there is also an integrated bot which recognizes both text and voice command so that traders can place orders by speaking.

There is a host of educational tools available on the Interactive Brokers website making the brokerage even more suitable for beginners. This is combined with a library of resources and webinars that focus on teaching the user how to trade and how to use the technology and platforms provided by Interactive Brokers. Also, to assist there is regularly released commentary and insights from industry professionals and analysts. These insights and reports can vary in level with some covering basic data and others delving into more advanced topics that require programming knowledge.

TradeStation is another discount broker and has been hugely increasing in popularity over the past years. They have been a sponsor of the massively popular Chat with Traders podcast which is hosted by Aaron Fifield. Aaron also stated on the podcast that he uses TradeStation as a broker himself. The company was founded in 1982 and has been publicly listed since completing its IPO in 1997.

TradeStation is designed in many ways to be a top consideration for beginning traders. Firstly, the traders will save hugely on commissions when compared to large brokerages such as TD Ameritrade. Similar to Interactive Brokers, there is a significant focus on education. In fact they have a University education section on the TradeStation website that releases webinars on trading strategies as well as regular reports and insights from analysts. There are also insights regularly released in blog and video format on the website.

TradeStation also has a heavy focus on providing top-tier and easy to use technology for trading. Their trading platforms are available across web browsers, mobile, and desktop. All of the software is built by TradeStation and there is also software to cater to more advanced trading strategies for when traders begin to progress.

Pepperstone is a recently established online brokerage but has quickly built a reputation as a top consideration among beginners and professionals alike. Founded in 2010 in Australia, Pepperstone operates in multiple jurisdictions globally and is regulated by both the FCA and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Similarly to Interactive Brokers, it is also highly suitable for professional traders. It has the hugely popular MetaTrader4 (MT4) desktop software that is well-regarded among beginner and intermediate traders. There are also trading platforms for mobile and web browsers. For more professional traders, Pepperstone has an alternative more advanced desktop software which allows traders to access interbank liquidity and program algorithmic trading strategies.

There are a variety of account types that can be opened on Pepperstone, for beginners this will mostly be opening the standard account. It’s worth noting that no commissions are associated with the standard account and spreads start from 1 pip. Furthermore, there is an area on the website dedicated to trader education. These educational resources include information on how to manage accounts, market updates, and trading strategies.

IG is another broker that has a long history of operation. They are well suited for both the beginning trader and the professional trader alike. The company was founded in 1974 and is now a publicly traded company listed on the FTSE 250. IG Group is regulated by the FCA in the UK and other regulators in jurisdictions where it operates worldwide such as ASIC. IG provide their clients with access to a number of markets. This includes shares, bonds, commodities, and cryptocurrencies among more.

IG Group has a number of trading platforms available to their users. Beginner traders can use the MT4 platform and there are also options for more advanced traders. The more advanced options enable traders to get direct market access so that their orders can be put directly into the order books on exchanges. They have trading platforms which are supported on web browsers, desktop, and mobile.

IG also have a library of educational resources to teach traders different strategies and also have analysts regularly reporting on market conditions. They have a dedicated section on their website called IG Academy where traders can take courses to build their skills and also find regular webinars.

Pro's and Con's

Broker Pro's Con's
  • Around for more than four decades and offers its clients a wide range of assets
  • Ability to buy actual shares, in addition to FOREX trading and CFDs
  • Extremely low rates and fees, which are a big benefit to frequent traders
  • Bad reputation when it comes to customer service, especially with smaller accounts.
  • The trading platform that Interactive Brokers designed has been described as ‘unintuitive’.
  • A wide variety of tools that traders can use to help when making their trading decisions.
  • Traders can apply large amounts of leverage and take both long and short positions in markets
  • A vast library of educational tools suitable for traders of all levels
  • Not a huge variety of trading instruments available within market classes
  • There are several different fee types which traders are subject to
  • Only operating for approximately ten years
79.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
  • Long track record in the CFD industry. Listed on the LSE, regulated in numerous jurisdictions
  • Offers a huge number of CFD’s (10,000+) in a variety of markets
  • Very affordable initial deposit of £250 for UK clients
  • Own research division, which is a benefit to its clients
  • Unless you live in the UK or Australia, you will only be able to trade CFDs
  • Doesn’t allow clients to select their level of leverage, defaults to the maximum allowed by regulators
  • User-friendly trading platform with superior functionality
  • Comprehensive chart analysis and advanced technical and fundamental analysis
  • Very good educational content
  • No Forex trading
  • Limited international markets

Bring on the Best Brokers for Beginners!

All of the brokers covered in this review will be top considerations when you are starting out trading. Before making your final decision on what broker is best for you, it is important to check that you are comfortable with the fee schedule and the access to the markets that you wish to trade. All educational resources of these brokers are free to use even if you are not a client. If uncertain of which one to choose, have a look at the educational resources and see which one best suits your needs.