1. I'm currently with Virtual Brokers, and I don't believe there is a risk department, especially when it comes to placing trades. I find that whenever I place a trade, it gets executed rather quickly. You might want to clarify this with them.

Pressing enter on the keyboard submits the text, I was trying to create a line break. For your 2nd question, I use their free web trading platform, VB Web trader light (provides level 1 data), although I use Stocks to trade as my level 2,scanner, news, charting. Going long on a trade seems to work very well with them, however, when I try to short, it doesn't go through (I get message that says "high risk" or some sort). I'm not sure if they just don't have shares to short or what. Their commiss

Their commissions are 9.99, roughly $20 for a buy/sell. Check out their website for more information. Seeing how I'm not able to short through this broker, I'll have to go long for now, until I've amassed enough funds to open an account with Interactive Brokers.

Cool ill check em out, thanks for the comment!

If you don't mind me asking, what resources did you use to help you when you first started trading?

Yeah, this was my first ever trade as well, bought at 1.30, sold at 1.17 for a $65 loss :/