Option trading for beginners

KrisKad

Hi,
Can you please recommend an option trading platform for beginners with low or no fees? My teenage son is very keep to start option trading on a platform similar to Robin Hood which unfortunately cancelled their launch in the UK. 
Thank you !
Kris

eskbanker

Robin Hood option trading platforms steal from the rich unwary/naive and give to the poor platform owners.

You really would be best advised to dissuade your son from embarking on this - if he's as stubborn as many teenagers then he won't listen, but at least give him enough rope to make his own mistakes and let him research it himself....

Browntoa

Option trading is a simple formula.

Take big pot of money , gamble it , end up with no or small pot of money.

The only winners are the options platform

cloud_dog

My initial response to the OP was.... don't.  

Having thought about it, my response is.... don't!

Albermarle

Can't you persuade him to do something less risky , like betting on horses or going to the casino?

dunstonh

My teenage son is very keep to start option trading on a platform similar to Robin Hood which unfortunately cancelled their launch in the UK. 

It's not unfortunate at all.  It is an entirely inappropriate option for the vast majority of people.  

You should put your son off as much as possible.  It is akin to someone who has never driven a car in their life being given a formula one car to drive and told to get on with it.

You would actually do less damage encouraging your son to download a bookies app and get him hooked on that instead.

Moe_The_Bartender

How much does he have to gamble away? Let him lose it and he might learn something.

kangoora

If he's incapable of this amount of research himself how do you think he's going to be able to do enough research to make money on this foolish venture?

Steve182

I have a high risk appetite, but I'm not daft and generally avoid risking money on things I really don't understand. Ask your son to explain to you what he knows of options trading, and why he's so confident his knowledge and experience will give him the edge against seasoned traders? 

Also don't accept that because he may have opened demo accounts and not lost money that the same would happen in real life.  In a demo account you can go £10K into the red then a week later you're back in profit. In a real account you need both the cash in your account to cover all losses and you need to hold your nerve to cope with them, which is one reason most platforms say 76% or whatever of retail investors lose money....

MaxiRobriguez

Presumably your son has watched some Youtube videos has been taken in by the swagger of 'investment bros' and is just wanting to replicate his idols.

Somehow you need to get across to him that it's easy to see the winners but it's difficult to see the 95% who've lost big in this game.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/06/17/20-year-old-robinhood-customer-dies-by-suicide-after-seeing-a-730000-negative-balance/#5fb5d5a01638

Another_Saver

Option trading is gambling and almost all of the "trading platforms" are scams. When I was 17 I got scammed out of about £130 by a company called XP Markets. They're all registered at the offices of registrars that create shell companies.
He would be better off actually gambling any money he intends to "invest" in options, better yet saving it, even better yet learning about what investing actually is (so many comments provide links to good resources like Monevator, learn about stocks and shares ISAs and index funds).
Good luck