Proper Buy-In

What's the proper buy in and why? For instance at PokerStars 2NL, maximum buy in is $5.00, but the real buy in would be $2.00. Which should a newbie do?

100 big blinds

On PokerStars all games 10nl and up are broken up into three types of tables. The shallow tables have buyins of 20-50bb, the normal tables have buyins of 40-100bb, and the deep tables (which also have antes) are 100-250bb. They decided not to break up 2nl or 5nl into those types of tables for some reason, so they let you buy in for up to 250bb on them. In general you should probably be buying in for 100bb for now. Later on you'll know when to buy in for something different, but right now it's not very important.

Thanks guys.

You're welcome sir.

Buying in for 50-60bbs is good for training wheels until you improve. Its hard to make a lot of mistakes and you learn about SPR and sizing your bets properly.