Before you spend $0.01 on any investment, you must know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how to do it. Before you invest in any security, the first investment you should make is in yourself, and the best investment you can make is by educating yourself.

By the wordinbg of your question you do not know what you're doing. You talk about doing 1-5 trades a year, then you ask about mutual funds.

Also North America you must be 18 to open a brokerage account in your name, so at 16 you can not even iopen an account.

Right now the best thing for you to do, before you even what brokeage firm to choose, learn what you're doing and why you're doing it.

After you feel comfortable with what you're tryng to do, visit the Web sites of some of the more popular brokerage firms. So if you feel comfortable with what you see on line and look at the cost and/or charges. When you are ready to go, just open an account on line with the firm. Please remember, the cheapest is not always the best. Even though you’re opening an account on line. you can always call the firm's "customer service" area for help.

In your situation and based on the knowledge you have, TD Ameritrade would be the better firm

Just choose the brokerage that offers cheaper commissions, if you're going to be investing long-term. There's no difference between brokerages when it comes to trading stock..

So I'm 16 and this will be my first time ever using anything like this. I'm thinking of having a starting deposit of 500 dollars and I was wondering if TradeKing or Ameritrade would be better than me, I probably wouldn't be a big trader maybe around 1-5 exchanges a year right now I can currently spend $1000 which would be better in my case? Also if anyone has any trade advice I'd love to hear it. Should I start out with a mutual fund to lower my reduce my risk? Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.