This study proposes a new two-step iterative scheme for solving nonlin- ear equations. This scheme is based on the Newton’s method, in which the order of convergence is 4. As this scheme requires two function evaluations and one derivative evaluation at each iteration, it is optimal in the sense of the Kung and Traub conjecture [20] and in terms of computational cost, and we show that its efficiency index is 1.587. Finally, using the proper- ties of a new derivative of arbitrary real order, our approach is extended and the convergence, stability and superiority of our suggested scheme is discussed
