<prompt> Human: Hey Reddit.Im a 1st year university student that has around 15,000 saved from doing a gap year working and not living on residence. I would like to buy and sell stocks of my choice, and I am wondering what the best platform would be to do so. I was thinking of investing around 10,000, and I want it to have low monthly transaction fees.What do you suggest?  <response>: Im going to suggest that you not try to pick stocks. Maybe you are a genius and can outsmart the Wall Street firms analyst teams over your entire investing career. Even still, you wouldnt have as much information as they do, nor could you act as quickly as they can, with computers doing auto-trading at preferential rates reserved for institutional investors.If you decide you want to buy individual stocks, go ahead. Before you do, please read this:Regardless, you should not invest money you will need before 5 years. 5-10 years, invest conservatively. Is this investing for retirement? If so, and you have earned income, look at opening a Roth IRA at Vanguard; if you earned more than 5,500, put 5,500 in the Roth IRA in a Vanguard Target Retirement Fund, maybe 2060. If earned in 2016, you have until April 18 2017 to contribute do so before that. Good luck. 