Best Discount Broker for Beginners?

Hey guys, I was wondering which site you recommend for a beginner to use?

Here's what I am looking for in a broker

- Easy to use
- Plenty of learning materials, I want to learn as much as I can about trading.
- A site that doesn't ask for a large initial deposit. Just looking to start off with a couple hundred dollars to play around with while I learn.
- Cheap commissions since I am working with a small amount of money.

This would basically just start off as a hobby until I learn much more and can become much more serious about investing.

So far, some of the research I have done has led me to Fidelity and E*Trade. Which of these would you recommend for me, and is there another discount broker more suitable perhaps?

Just a side-note, I have around 2k sitting in my Chase Bank account, so I can go as high as $500 or just switch over to E*Trade banking entirely since they offer a full slate of banking services.

Just want some friendly advice, kind of getting sick of betting on sports and it really gets me nowhere financially, so I figure I might as well start a hobby in online investing since it will help prepare me for funding my retirement.

Any advice would be great, thanks in advance. 

"Just a side-note, I have around 2k sitting in my Chase Bank account, so I can go as high as $500 or just switch over to E*Trade banking entirely since they offer a full slate of banking services."

I can go as high as $500 for an initial deposit that it*

go on the forums on fool.com

Just signed up for an account at TradeKing, no minimum balance, $4.95 trades, bunch of research tools to learn from and a forum. Basically everything I was looking for. Just need to send them a copy of the drivers license and voided check and I should be all set to trade!

Thanks Bollox for leading me to fool.com, that will be a site I will be visiting often.

I'm thoroughly convinced that you will eventually lose all of your capital trying to trade in a rigged game, after spending thousands of hours trying to beat it.  But if you must, I used to use etrade and I thought it was top notch.  I also think highly of scottrade.

Do yourself a favor and buy all the silver bullion you can buy with your money and sleep very well at night

Yeah I am aware of the pitfalls associated with investing, I am not trying to become the next Warren Buffett or anything,just looking for a different hobby other then betting on sports.

If you want a nice hobby for the next few days, you need to read my last sentence again.  Then read it again and again.  Then use that as your starting point, and do all the research you can.

Then join some of us over on the political forum, and start to read. 

There will be some day that  you will thank somebody that you steered very clear of stocks, but that is up to you.

Buffett didn't stay clear of stocks, I think he still owns a few.  Your logic is slightly flawed.  Stay clear of anything you don't know or understand.  Only invest what you can afford to lose (like gambling), and never trust a "tip", most insiders don't even time things right.  As for silver, as long as the dollar declines silver/gold/precious metals will all go forward.  Just make sure to jump off the bandwagon when your doorman/cab driver/waiter tells you silver/gold/precious metals are where you need to put your funds.