I'd just love to hear what you'll pick over robinhood in the end. Those sorts of platforms aren't ideal but yes it seems to have allmost no barriers of entry.
The ones riding high on my list right now are Fidelity and Webull.
As a topline note, I don't particularly need many of the services that some of the newer services offer, like fractional shares1, instant deposit, or crypto, so I haven't really paid attention to what offers it.
Regarding Fidelity: So far, they haven't had any kind of liquidity issue that Apex, RH, and a few others had, forcing them to restrict trading. They have actual support in case something goes wrong.2 Trading hours from 7AM-8PM. Option fees, though it's only 65c/contract. Level II access requires a certain minimum of trades. Lots of mutual funds and ETFs if they're your thing. Does NOT sell order flow.
Regarding Webull: Was affected by the Apex liquidity issue.3 Bad support. Trading hours from 4AM-8PM (widest band).4 No pink sheets. Free options. Level II available for a minor fee. Very small (~5b). Parent company owned by China. Sells order flow.
1. If you're trading with an account balance under a few thousand, this can be a big deal, seeing TSLA's been hanging out in the ballpark of 800.
2. There was an issue with RH a... year? back where people's accounts were 'hacked' and assets drained. "Thank for your concern, we'll contact you in 5-7 business days..."
3. Though, to their credit, but not very usefully, they immediately and openly stated why trades were restricted.
4. This is one is actually a really big deal and is my primary balance against Fidelity's superior stability.
-----
Another major question is: How much time do you want to spend to manage your money? I spend a lot of time managing my finances... mostly because I don't work a regular job. If you're up to juggling your finances like mad, there's a lot of subtle ways to squeeze out extra percentage points here and there.
Okay, the 5-10k then taking a break thing... probably not the greatest idea, if you're looking for stability, but also bad if you're looking for growth. Straight up, gains are typically looked at in terms of percentage, but there's a world of a difference in real world usability between 1% of 100$ and 1% of 1m$. The other thing is that you have a much wider range of options as the amount of money you can put on the table increases.1
In terms of stocks, I'd suggest a (conceptual) mix between stock picking and index funds... the former is a good way to end up supremely twitchy about everything, the latter is a great idea, if you live statistically... which very few of us do. Instead, fall back on the adage of 'Invest in what you know.'2 and temper it with something that's only really come into the limelight in the last 15 years or so: The ETF. Without getting into the specifics, they're like mutual funds in that they're a collection of other investments, but they're easier to work with and more dynamic for the entry-level investor. You can probably find an ETF that fits whatever purposes you want, whether you think there's going to be a return to oil, or frozen orange juice futures are going to spike. A slight word of caution: Know WHY you're investing, and keep that in mind. I know a few people who refuse to touch anything involving marijuana, no matter how lucrative it may be.
Definitely avoid anything with fees if you're doing a managed fund, as gimlet noted. ETFs have their fees baked into how they operate (which does technically mean it's constantly in a race to zero), but they're usually something like .25% a year... as opposed to 1%+ for managed mutual funds. In today's world, there's no reason for a retail investor to be calling up a person and asking for info and having them direct trades at a commission each time.
If you have access to options, those are... interesting. I tend to run godawful boring conservative plays with them that really only run into problems when the bottom drops out of the market without warning3, but they also only generate like 1-2% a week... not sexy, but compare that to a savings account.4 You can also treat them like lottery tickets, if you run them a different way: If you were in on Gamestop on the 22nd, you could've made upwards of 20x on that day alone.5
1. Here's a stupid niche example, because the common ones are, well, mundane: I can legally secure effectively unlimited amounts of free manufactured spending on a credit card that gives 1% back, leading to potentially several thousand a year from this, depending on how much I want to flog it.
2. This is a gaming-based forum, right? I admit it, I had positions against CD Projekt over Cyberpunk... I figured that, no matter what, it had to be PERFECT for it to not go down, given how high it was hyped. And, well, yeeeeah.
3. Yes, COVID had a warning, albeit minor... I was also in SEA when it hit, so I pulled my positions and hunkered down earlier than a lot of the US because they were taking it much more seriously. My portfolio mostly survived.
4. Something like 65% to 300% over the course of a year. More realistically, about 50-100% historically. Can't win every time. See also: The first paragraph.
5. One guy turned 50k into, last I checked, 50m, over the course of a year or so.
Update: Well, that's kind of a surprise. Webull rejected me.