I am new to australia and am considering investing in options or futures for the first time. does anyone know of any related groups that can help each other? does anyone know of what the best options or futures investing software is? if the software recommends specific trades, are the recommendations accurate/sound?

Nowadays most trading are done online. So it does not matter if you are in Australia or anywhere else.Go search online for forums or groups to join discussing optionsetc.I am not into trading, but I suggest forex trading as this is a 24 hour market.And you have greater liquidity.

Check out optionsxpress.com not sure if they can open an account for you but they have the best option platform around and very inexpensive. Equity options are a better bet than Forex.

For a start, options and futures are derivatives, and being so, they are generally more volatile in terms of fluctuations vis-a-vis the underlying instruments. Hence, you really have to consider carefully before you take the plunge, reason being that you used the word 'investing' rather than 'trading'. Generally again, the former is used for a longer term horizon (e.g. a few weeks to a few years) and the latter is a shorter-term horizon (e.g. intraday to a few days).To 'invest', you would prefer to buy the stock or bond and watch them appreciate in value, while to 'trade', you can buy options or futures to capture a larger gain with a small move in the underlying (of course, that means you can also potentially lose more, which is why it's volatile).Before you even begin to contemplate which instrument (since all instruments can potentially make or lose money), you would have to consider your risk appetite and financial objectives. Only after you have considered this can you then zoom in on which instrument, because ultimately, everything depends on your own preference.To answer your question on options and futures, it is best to do some research on the Internet to understand the basics of each of the instruments, i.e. options, futures, forex, commodities, etc. This is because they are fundamentally different (yes, options are different creatures from futures) and to successfully trade each of them requires you to have an intimate knowledge. Once you are familiar with their differences, you can then shortlist 1 or 2 and pick up a beginner's book.There are literally hundreds of websites and groups, and once you are familiar and are sure you want to commit, then you can look for a group based on locality, trading style, etc. (I am joining a local group on options that meet regularly). And since you already have some knowledge, you can then better understand and contribute to the group.There is no 'best' options investing software until you understand the inner workings of each instrument. There is no software in the world that can predict with uncanny accuracy the right trades at the right time all the time - the best they can do is to highlight the most probable trades based on some algorithms. Ultimately, it still depends on whether you know how best to tap the results that they show.It is a lot of hard work and a lifetime of learning. Good luck!