Well, from what I can see you may have been saved, but that doesn't really help explain why you can't make a trade. Your best bet is to contact IB because there is no apparent reason as to why you can't trade.

Trades made in a cash or margin account take T+3 days to settle. In a cash account, you have to wait T+3 days until you can trade. Margin accounts still take T+3 days to settle but overcome the restriction because a margin account is like a credit line you borrow from while the trades settle.

Homework: About Settling Trades in Three Days: T+3 https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/tplus3.htm

The IB platform should have T counter on it. Just enable it.

I started with 300... What you'll learn in time is that you need capital to make capital. I increased my account size to 2K and although that is still small, it's made a substantial difference. If you can, save up more and put it in your account and remember, you don't have to (and I don't recommend) using more than 30% of your account on one position at a time. Bearing that in mind, 30% on 300 would only be 100 and that's just really not enough.

Start out paper trading to get yourself prepared..

That's 12 trade commissions round trip; say you invest half your account in a position, you would need to make 17% just to break even (120*1.17=140); 140-(2*10)=120 I.E. 0 Profit; (1200*1.17=1404); 1404-20=204; 1404-(2*10)=1384 I.E. 184 Profit. A larger account on the same trade could mean the difference in being profitable. Also when you have a small account, you tend to risk more which means larger losses especially when you begin. I killed my small account, took 2 years off to finish college

Asian's comment is right on point. Just try adding money slowly to your account, it sucks and takes time. Had a little bit larger of an account starting out found that 500-700 per trade worked for me.

I use Interactive Brokers with thinkorswim. Do all my chart analysis on TOS and executions on IB. If you are asking how to submit orders you click new order and put ticker and desired price.

Thank you folks.

Also try RBC Direct Investing. They have really good executions, never fails

I'm in the same situation and did quite a bit of research into this. I eventually opted with Questrade as they'll let me have a TFSA or RRSP in USD...plus no PDT (I've got less than $25k to start), different (and competitive) commission plans, decent platform, etc. The one caveat is I haven't started to use the account yet so I don't know how good/bad they are for executions and shorts.....there is some negativity about that from a few years ago but that noise seems to have quietened down.

Thanks @cheesycheese72, let me know how things go with Questrade.