Hi, so basically I'm trying to buy Alibaba (BABA on NYSE) ASAP. Shares might be available Monday if I'm not mistaken, but most likely at least next week.

I have never bought stock before, never even paper traded but I'll learn how to really use the platforms (possibly other ones besides what's recommended for now) eventually, I just want BABA and QQQ right now long term just buy and hold.

I'm only putting about $400 into BABA next week and then like $400 into QQQ and another $300 into BABA in the following weeks and holding those through pulls back etc for at least about a year. So in other words, I only want to make two or three 'buys' now and then two more 'sells' when I sell in about a year.

What platform is relatively simple to use (although I'll probably be on the phone with them anyway making sure I buy the stock correctly) and will cost me the least in commissions and fees etc for such a small account?

Also, can I open the account today and not deposit money into it until a few days and no be charged? Because I still have to deposit cash to my savings account to transfer it to the broker platform. I might do that a day or two after and would like to have the account with no money in it only just to figure out basically where the 'buy' button is and how to find BABA (or something else since BABA won't be listed yet) on the NYSE and QQQ in nasdaq.
thanks.