I would recommend taking an idea group focused on increasing your cash; Economic ideas would be ideal for also helping you fight against inflation. Trade ideas... well, it isn't as lucrative as you would think, unfortunately, thanks to the way trade routes constantly siphon things towards Europe.

However, after you get the change to change your capital to the east coast and then place your main trade port (do you know how to change main trade ports?) onto it, trade ideas can work if you siphon the caribbians/mexico towards it, especially if you manage to get some land on west-South America and push it through Panama. Mainland North America should fall to you quickly, allowing you to siphon much trade from your continents but even then your main trade port can get siphoned by European trade fleets. I doubt you will really manage to gain much from Brazil/eastern South America, though.

Expansion ideas are a good way to go as well, albeit not as useful as an European faction. Expanding into Asia after you finish that idea group (as well as taking Hawaii and all the other small islands until you reach the continent) is a good way to expand, although the penalty of oversea colonies makes captured provinces questionable useful at times. I am not sure if there is a trade route to America from the Philiphines/one other trade node or if that has changed, but if it's still in place, you could take over China Proper, colonize the philiphines and then focus on gaining trade supremacy over the needed nodes.

After that, it depends on your game, but I would recommend at least one more military idea group, either naval/maritime for extra ships and to sunk all European wanna-be conquerors or standard offensive ideas to simply kill the enemy armies as they arrive piece-meal.

So, the immediate go is either Economic or Expansion, the latter specially so if you plan to go Trade at some point. Use your colonists and try to colonize in a way that would lock the Europeans from futher gains, like taking/surrounding all coastal colonies.