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Start with a small withdrawal before trusting any new broker with real size

this is a boring habit but I've never regretted it. Whenever I open an account somewhere new, I deposit a small amount, make a few trades to see how the platform behaves, and then do a withdrawal of part of it before I put in real money.

What I'm checking is how long the withdrawal takes, whether they ask for extra documents at that stage, and whether the amount that arrives matches what I asked for after fees. Better to find out the process on small money than on a big balance.

I also look at the trade history and statement. Do the prices on the statement match what I saw on screen? Are the swap and commission lines what the contract said they'd be? If something looks odd on a small account, it's an easy walk away.

I'm not saying anything bad about any specific broker, just that the process should be tested before trusted. Also check whether the company is regulated and by whom, and read the fine print about account closure and inactivity fees.

Adding one thing I forgot. When I do the small test withdrawal, I use the same method I would use for a larger amount later. If I plan to withdraw to my bank, I test the bank route, not a card or an e wallet. Some brokers are fast on one method and painfully slow on another, and the fees can be completely different. Testing the wrong method gives a false sense of how things will go when the amount actually matters.

Also worth keeping copies of everything during the test. I save the confirmation email, a screenshot of the withdrawal request, and the bank statement line when it arrives. If something goes wrong later with a bigger withdrawal, having a record of how the first one went makes it much easier to show the broker or a regulator what normal looked like. It takes two minutes and you hopefully never need it, but it is there if you do. I keep them in one folder per broker so they are easy to find.