- What is Interactive Brokers
- InteractiveBrokers Pros and Cons
- Awards
- Is Interactive Brokers Safe or a Scam?
- Margin Trading
- Accounts
- Products
- Commission
- Deposits and Withdrawals
- Trading Platform
- Customer Support
- Education
- Conclusion
Our Review Method
- 55Brokers leading financial experts with over 10 years experience in Stock and Forex Trading check trading offering in detail including fees, platforms, verified licenses, contacted customer service and placed trades to see trading conditions and give expert opinion about Interactive Brokers.
What is Interactive Brokers?
Interactive brokers is one of the world’s Biggest Trading brokers with sophisticated and powerful trading technology developed by the Broker, and is ranked as #1 for Professional Traders access to trade real Futures, Stocks, ETFs, Options, Forex and many more instruments.
The company’s history started back in 1977 when Chairman Thomas Peterffy brought a seat on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and became a trading member as an individual market maker in equity options. Since then, through many years of development and integration, Interactive Brokers or IB conducts its broker or dealer business on over 120 world market destinations and is truly one of the biggest trading providers worldwide that adhere to the trading technology development.
- So why did the Interactive Brokers gain their highest rankings and a great reputation among the traders’ community? Firstly, the general broker’s offerings are directed to competitive, client-oriented proposals through a transparent policy, low commissions, financing rates, and price executions that minimize the costs, but deliver the highest level of trading technology.
The interactive Brokers management office is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, and serves its additional entities in the USA, Switzerland, Canada, Hong Kong, UK, Australia, Hungary, Russia, Japan, India, China, and Estonia.
What type of broker is InteractiveBrokers?
In its broker dealer or agency business model, IB provides direct access trade execution and clearing services to institutional and retail traders for a wide variety of products including stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, CFDs and funds worldwide. In fact, in 2017 IBKR was among the first brokers offering client access to Bitcoin futures trading on the Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) and the CME.
Actually, apart from the retail client’s solution, the broker focuses on broad offering to connect and conduct trading business solutions through Investors’ Marketplace, an online service that comprises service providers, advisors, hedge funds, research analysts, business developers and administrators. As well as introduces a new Order Management System (OMS) for Institutional clients.
Is Interactive Brokers good for beginners?
Yes, it is. Interactive Brokers has always been a great choice for beginner traders due to its rich educational resources offering test trade and hone their trading skills. The broker offers also low-fee trading which is a great plus. Also, beginner traders can sign up for a demo account before risking their own money.
Is Interactive Brokers Stock Broker?
Yes, Interactive Brokers is a well-known Real Stock trading brokerage firm. Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. is a financial services company that provides online brokerage services to individual and institutional investors. It offers a wide range of financial products and services, including the ability to trade stocks, options, futures, forex, and other securities on various global exchanges. The broker is known for its low-cost trading and sophisticated trading platforms, making it a popular choice among active traders and investors.
InteractiveBrokers Pros and Cons
From what our experts found, Interactive Brokers is one of the best and most well-regulated brokers worldwide with an excellent reputation, the account opening is smooth, technological base, trading platform and range of available instruments are also one of the best available in the industry in addition to some of lowest commissions and spreads.
- Education section, the range of available tools, customer support, and funding methods are also on the highest level.
From the negative side, we would only admit the advanced level of all proposal overall, plus quite high deposit for some accounts that makes IB more suitable for seasoned or professional traders’, also institutions.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|
Long history of operation and strong establishment | Conditions and offering vary depending on the entity and regulations |
Excellent reputation, company trusted by leading organizations | Minimum deposit is high for some accounts |
No minimum deposit | |
Great trading tools and trading technology | |
Stock Trading and Investment | |
Proprietary awarded software | |
Low fees and commissions | |
International large proposal with numerous opportunities | |
Broker is one of the best option for futures, Stocks and Index trading | |
Might be more suitable for trading professionals and traders of bigger size | |
Interactive Brokers Review Summary in 10 Points
🏢 Headquarters | USA |
🗺️ Regulation and License | US SEC & CFTC, ASIC, FCA, IIROC, SFC, NSE, BSE, FSA |
📉 Trading Products | Stocks, Options (Incl. Futures Options), Futures, Forex, CFDs , Warrants, Combinations, Bonds, Mutual Funds, Structured Products, Physical Metals, Inter-Commodity Spreads |
🖥 Platforms | TWS, IB WebTrader |
💳 Minimum deposit | 100$ |
🎮 Paper Trading/ Demo Account | Available |
💰 Base currencies | Various currencies |
📚 Education | Professional Trading Acedemy |
💰 Stock Commission | $0,0035 |
☎ Customer Support | 24/7 |
Overall Interactive Brokers Ranking
Based on our Expert findings, Interactive Brokers offers the best conditions and proposals in the trading market. The broker has expensive instruments choice both for CFDs/FX and Provides access to Real trading options by DMA access. The range of trading platforms is truly impressive with multiple strategies available IB is suitable for various traders including European clients, African and Asian traders, also beginning traders, and experienced looking for good technical trading solutions.
- IB Overall Ranking is 9 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to 500 other brokers, see Our Ranking below compared to other popular and industry Leading Brokers.
Ranking | Interactive Brokers | XM | FP Markets |
---|
Our Ranking | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Advantages | Market Range | Low Deposit | Low Spreads |
IB Alternative Brokers
We have to admit, that IB does have not so many negative sides, the main points are that the broker has quite high deposit requirements for some account types, and overall being one of the most sophisticated brokers it may not be very suitable for beginners, although it does offer excellent educational materials. See our list of alternative brokers as well:
Awards
Throughout the long operation of the Interactive Brokers Group, its constant development, and enlargement of the proposals affiliates execute over 800,000 trades per day. While the broker serves as a trusted partner with numerous clients, or global companies the broker has been recognized not only as an important player in the trading industry but been recognized timely by various awards and programs.
Is Interactive Brokers Safe or Scam?
No, is not a scam in fact Interactive Brokers is highly and very heavily regulated by international regulatory bodies around the world, due to its global presence and adherence to delivering a truly safe trading environment.
Is IB legit?
The Interactive brokers’ group of companies serves not only numerous entities around the word, but designs and operates a vast of trademarks that are all regulated and are part of the InteractiveBrokers LLC: Interactive Brokers ®, IBSM, InteractiveBrokers.com ®, IB Universal Account ®, Interactive Analytics ®, IB Options AnalyticsSM, IB SmartRoutingSM, PortfolioAnalyst ®, IB Trader WorkstationSM and One World, One AccountSMare.
The IB holds several operation licenses from respected authorities that keep brokers operating in full compliance with SEC, FINRA, NYSE, FCA, ASIC, IIROC, and other regulatory agency standards or the set of rules that protect traders and presence in the trading industry itself.
See our conclusion on IB Reliability:
- Our Ranked IB Trust Score is 9 out 0f 10 for good reputation, excellent service for years, and constant growth and reaches to more jurisdictions. IB holds reliable top-tier licenses and is one of the biggest Brokerages worldwide including the US, Lapan, Canada, and Hong Kong
Interactive Brokers Strong Points | Interactive Brokers Weak Points |
---|
Regulated by several reputable authorities Long history of operation and high rankings | Regulatory regime is different in each jurisdiction thus the offering |
Established according to the United States CFTC and NFA regulation | |
Listed in Stock member of NYSE | |
Additional regulation from FCA, ASIC, IIROC, MAS in Singapore, FFAJ Japan | |
Negative balance protection
| |
Is Interactive Brokers available in the UK?
Yes, Interactive Brokers is registered and authorized by FCA, a UK security and commodities financial regulator, hence offering its service and product to Uk clients. The broker’s proposal may vary according to jurisdiction, hence it is good to double-check conditions and products before registering under a certain entity.
How are you protected?
Actually, compliance with regulation means that every step of the operation, client’s fund management, participation in the compensation scheme, negative balance protection, procedure execution, or general trading delivery has no questions, as they are taken strictly on how it has to be for the best possible performance.
So you can trade with courage and peace of mind that your funds are safe and well protected. Notwithstanding the long company history that built a reputation as a reputed and trusted financial service provider brings a stable base to trade.
Margin Trading
The Interactive Brokers offers margin rates that generally apply to all customers, while in various jurisdictions, local regulators require different or higher margin rates. If the local margin rates are higher than the IB margin rates, then the margin rates required by local regulators will apply.
In addition, leverage depends on the trading instrument, and the country of your residence since regulation restricts high risks involved in leverage. For this reason for easier understanding, IB provides an online tool to check on all applicable margins at your glance so you can choose trading best conditions.
InteractiveBrokers leverage Vary according to the Instrument and region and IB entity you trade with:
- 1:5 on Cryptocurrency CFDs in Europe
- 1:30 is the maximum for Forex in Australia and Europe entity
- maximum of 1:40 available on Forex for US traders
- International and Professional traders may use high leverage up to 1:500
Account types
The range of accounts is designed specifically to meet each one’s needs, while every specification is taken into consideration for both parties’ good and includes Individual, Joint, Trust, IRA, and UGMA/UTMA Accounts.
- Even though IB has a huge selection of account types, which vary according to the client’s own preference and type, the account is not just a simple account available via the client portal, as it includes integrated investment management that allows borrowing, earning, spending, and investing funds worldwide.
Also, there are options for trading for IBKR lite and IBKR pro conditions which are designed either for experienced traders and day trading with selected order types or allowing commission-free trading which is considered one of the best online trading opportunities.
Interactive Brokers Advantage | Interactive Brokers Disadvantage |
---|
Wide range of deposit option including Credit Debit card
Credit Debit card available | Minimum deposit might be high for some regions |
Interactive Brokers Debit Mastercard | Conditions vary depending on the entity |
No deposit fees | |
Free Withdrawal (conditions applied) | |
Trader Account
Let us have a look closer at what the personal group means, while the first group is the Trader & Investor Accounts, which is suitable for individual investors or traders, family offices, small businesses, or friends and family advisors.
The second group is the Institutional Accounts, which are designed for registered investment advisors, hedge or mutual funds, money managers, proprietary trading groups, introducing brokers, incentive plan admins, and SIPP administrators. And the third group was developed for Other Services Accounts – compliance officers, administrators, educators, and referrers.
Trading Products
Another fantastic thing at IB as we see within InteractiveBrokers Review is an advanced product range. Eventually, you will be able to trade almost everything that is available for trading through IB platforms. These markets range includes Stocks, Options (Incl. Futures Options), Futures, Forex, Interactive Brokers CFDs, Warrants, Combinations, Bonds, Mutual Funds, Structured Products, Physical Metals, and Inter-Commodity Spreads.
Of course, conditions and applicable laws in some jurisdictions may impose variations between proposals but all in all you will definitely find what you want to trade.
- IB Market Range is ranked 10 out of 10 for being the best offer in the market including both FX.CFD trading and trading of real assets as well. The market range is widely extended including Real Trading of Stocks, Options and bonds, besides Interactive brokers is ranked the best for Futures Trading and Indices trading. Yet, the trading conditions may depend on the entity
InteractiveBrokers Fees
Based on our research, IB’s model of the trading fee is based on the charge of the commission per trade also ranging on the product you trade, hence the prices are quite competitive since they do not include spreads and allow you to easily calculate.
Considering the full fee structure including Interactive Brokers commissions, funding fees, inactivity fees, platform fees, and others we found Interactive Broker fees as low and very competitive among the similar proposal.
- IB Fees are ranked with an overall rating 8.9 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to over 500 other brokers. Fees are different based on the account type you choose but overall are considered very low
Fees | Interactive Brokers Fees | Trading Station Fees | Forex.com |
---|
Deposit fee | No | No | No |
Withdrawal fee | No | No | No |
Inactivity fee | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Investment plans | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fee ranking | Low | Low | Low |
What are Interactive Brokers trading fees?
Interactive Brokers’ pricing is among the most competitive ones, even though the commissions or various additional fees system seem to be quite complicated with its possible fees in changing positions or so. The general outcome is still pleasant, especially while trading Stocks, Futures, or EFPs.
The pricing is either Fixed or Tiered commission with a choice remaining to you, either to stick to the fixed price with all regulatory fees or low broker commission depending on traded volume through tiered rates as a rebate.
Additional charges
In addition, Interactive Brokers calculates an internal funding rate based on a combination of internationally recognized benchmarks on overnight deposits and real-time market rates as traded, and measured. So then the IBKR’s interest model will start with the fixing rates and incorporates the dynamic market pricing to produce a midpoint or “Benchmark”.
IBKR accrues interest charges on margin loans on a daily basis and posts actual interest monthly on the third business day of the following month.
Trading Commission
As a result of its global expansion and transparency, you will get a tight spread, defined as substantial liquidity and the charge on commission which you have to pay on every opened position.
Moreover, the commission is based on trading volumes, as well as on the size of the order. The active traders’ program allows one to get discounts according to the account type and trading volumes the trader performs thus resulting in a better price model.
- IB Commission is ranked good with an overall rating of 8 out of 10 based on our testing comparison to other brokers. We found fees are rather attractive since built into the commission charge, offering some good costs.
Asset/ Pair | Interactive Brokers Commission | PhillipCapital Commission | Lightspeed Commission |
---|
Stocks Fees | $0,0035 | $3,88 | From $0,50 |
Fractional Shares | $1 | No | No |
Options Fees | $0,03 | $3,88 | From $0,20 |
ETFs Fees | $0,0035 | $3,88 | From $0,50 |
Free Stocks | Yes | No | No |
Interactive Brokers Trading Hours
The broker offers extended trading hours to its customers, allowing them to trade outside of regular market hours. The exact trading hours can vary depending on the asset class and the exchange on which you’re trading. For example, for U.S. stocks, Interactive Brokers typically offers pre-market trading starting as early as 4:00 AM and after-hours trading until 8:00 PM Eastern Time. However, these hours can change, so check the broker’s official website or contact their customer support for the most up-to-date and specific information on trading hours for the particular asset you’re interested in.
Deposits and Withdrawals
The payment methods accepted by brokers cover the most common options, however, you should check what is applicable according to your particular residence, as the methods may vary.
Deposit Options
The major options are available, so you can perform deposits or withdraw funds through bank wire transfers, ACH Initiated, US Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer Initiated, by Check or online bill payment, BPAY, Canadian Bill, EFT, Direct Rollover (IRA only) and more. As well, IB allows the transfer of funds between internal accounts.
In addition, to make the funding process easier, IB introduced the Interactive Brokers Debit Mastercard, which allows cardholders to spend and borrow directly against their Interactive Brokers account.
- IB Funding Methods we ranked Excellent with overall rating 10 out of 10. The minimum deposit is high for dome account types, However, Fees are either 0 or very small, besides the range of supported funding methods is wide, but be sure to verify conditions with the entity before you trade
Here are some good and negative points on IB funding methods found:
Interactive Brokers Advantage | Interactive Brokers Disadvantage |
---|
Wide range of deposit option including Credit Debit card
Credit Debit card available | Minimum deposit might be high for some regions |
Interactive Brokers Debit Mastercard | Conditions vary depending on the entity |
No deposit fees | |
Free Withdrawal (conditions applied) | |
What is the minimum deposit requirement for InteractiveBrokers?
The minimum deposit requirement varies by the account type, also since IB announces enlarging programs and opportunities for low cost trading it lowers deposit requirements. A typical individual account requires a 2,000$ deposit, while the Friends and Family Advisor only 200$. As well the requirement may vary according to the region, e.g. Indian residents submitted to 500$ deposit to start.
Interactive Brokers minimum deposit vs other brokers
|
Interactive Brokers |
Most Other Brokers |
Minimum Deposit |
$100 |
$500 |
How to withdraw money from Interactive Brokers?
The withdrawal of funds is performed via a withdrawal request on the Fund Transfers page which you should complete in Account Management. The pleasant thing is that IB allows one free withdrawal every month with no need to pay a withdrawal fee, also withdrawal options are widely available and depending on the region.
Further on, if you wish to withdraw funds again within a current month, IB will charge fees for any subsequent withdrawal.
Trading Platforms
InteractiveBrokers developed its own trading software and technology IBKR Trading Platform, which is highly ranked and is among the best available, especially regarded by Professional Traders due to its powerful capabilities.
The range of IB Platforms comes with various software which is applicable to any of your devices and ranges according to our research. Overall, the technology solution of Interactive Brokers is definitely on the highest level and features great powerful capabilities and flexibility at the same time.
Apart from the choice of the platform, each of them supports various trading products with advanced analysis tools and more additions exclusively available only at Interactive Brokers.
- We rank IB Platforms with an overall ranking of 9 out 0f 10 based on our testing. The broker does offer a wide range of highly sophisticated platforms, yet the lack of the industry-standard MetaTrader suit is a gap
Trading Platform Comparison to Other Brokers:
Platforms | Interactive Brokers Platforms | Pepperstone Platforms | LegacyFX Platforms |
---|
MT4 | No | Yes | No |
MT5 | No | Yes | Yes |
Own Platform | Yes | Yes | No |
Mobile App | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Desktop Platform
Desktop TWS, the platform which won a huge number of awards. Flagship platform for active traders of high volume and multiple product trades. TWS features power and flexibility at the same time, with the most advanced Algos and tools.
Web Platform
Lastly, you can use IB WebTrader a web-based trading interface with similar functionality as the desktop version. Over 120 worldwide markets are available from a single account and with a great performance no matter the connectivity.
Interactive Brokers App
IBKR Mobile app brings easy trading under any conditions on your mobile Android or iOS. The platform might be close to the desktop one, since including a range of advanced quotes and researchers, as well as full ability to manage the account.
The high security of trading is provided in several ways, also the platform offers a pre-authorization that informs the company about a purchase of 1.000$ or more. However, based on Products you trade some might be available or not available on particular platform offered by Interactive Brokers as we found, see snaphot below:
Research
Interactive brokers provide some of the best Research avaiable, with enhancement provided by real-time comprehensive news, researchers, and market data. As well as the most recent monitoring at any time and risk management tools. In addition, the software is always in development, hence you can load different versions even the ones under the tests.
Trading tools
So together with great technology and software, there is an advanced range that enhances capabilities even further. Some of them include the following as we find via our InteractiveBrokers Review.
- IBot is a chat/voice-based trading interface for traders on the go that understands native languages and is available on TWS Desktop and Mobile.
- IB APIs feature easy-to-use tools for those who want to write their own trading software or automated trading programs. An application can be built either through Interactive Brokers API programming languages or as a choice by FIX CTCI.
- QuickTrade brings access to the IB account with a simplified trading interface, where you can quickly place orders for a variety of asset types from within Account Management, and works the same way as the Order Management Panel in WebTrader.
Customer Support
Interactive Brokers global presence delivers also multiple support to the trader’s benefit provided by professional and well-established centers. Also, customer support is defined by the type of investor either individuals or separate ones for institutions.
Regular traders also will get easy access to phone support, a Live chat room, contact search, also availability to report a problem, send general feedback, and access feature poll for a request for new features. Eventually, this kind of professionalism you won’t find in many brokers best and we should remark again on the great offering of InteractiveBrokers in general and in particular as well.
- Customer Support in Interactive Brokers is ranked Good with an overall rating of 9 out of 10 based on our testing. As we check the Customer Service Live Chat for our tests too, the satisfaction statistics are good, and IB provides a good level of customer support along with support
Pros | Cons |
---|
Customer oriented policy with separate support for individuals and institutions | None |
Worldwide coverage | |
Live Chat and phone lines | |
Online access to requests, additional information and research | |
24/7 customer service | |
Support of international languages | |
Interactive Brokers Education
The range of learning materials, insight and technology solutions for better trading, like numerous Apps, widgets, or progressive software is available too. Besides, IB being one of the biggest world tradings provides support with good quality education materials through its established Traders Academy.
There you can access Trading tools, Investment products Courses, and Courses for risk analysis, together with Videos, Webinars, Traders’ insights, News, and recent updates.
- IB Education ranked with an overall rating of 10 out of 10 based on our research. Webinars Video and Analytics are at a very good level, the broker offers one of the best education centers for traders of all expertise. The broker also cooperates with international trading education providers like Trading Academy
Interactive Brokers Review Conclusion
Overall, regulated globally in numerous financial centers Interactive Brokers is known for its competitive commission rates, a very advanced range of markets and technology to trade, also its nonstop development and availability of the newest products alike Bitcoin trade through the CFD. What we should strongly admit is that IB great offering to the broker is its technical development.
A variety of platforms and tools are covering the most demanding needs while bringing both performance and ease of use. The comprehensive proposals to traders of every type, including various level traders or diverse institutions bring the best possible technologies to the potential benefit of both parties.
Based on Our findings and Financial Expert Opinion Interactive Brokers is Good for:
- Beginning Traders
- Professional Traders
- US Traders
- International Traders
- Direct Market Access trading
- Futures Trading or Index Trading
- Real Stock Trading
- API Trading
- Algorithmic Trading
- Powerful technically packed platform
- Powerful Trading Tools
- Currency Trading and CFD Trading
- Running various Strategies
- Running Robots
- Excellent Research
- Trading Education
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Does your firm offer PAMM accounts for Forex trading?
where is your office and support 24/7 located country coming from and the official offices also ……..how long being there as an established office
what is your fax and phone numbers who owns your company what and who are the CEOs names and details of who and where they live
im new to tradeing and as being its my money to invest i want to insure beyond advertising what you do with it and what it will cost me to do the various trading and do you have the MT4 platform and if not why how can i get a recommendations on your company in fact how reliable are you to offer services to your investing clients at 100%
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How does one become a member of IB
Hola como están quiero saber si alguien me puedes ayudar en mi situación invertí mi capital con alguien autorizado por la compañía el cual desapareció y no se nada de él y por tal motivo quisiera saber como puedo hacer para recuperar asi sea la inversión muchas gracias.
IB is a dangerous place for people to put money in! I just got screwed up by their policy of not protecting their customers’ funds from online frauds. I lost $3400 USD ($4400 AUD) on my Interactive Brokers Canada trading portal two months ago and IB didn’t get my money back from the hacker after more than 10 weeks, and then said they will not compensate my loss either. So what a horrific picture here! Imagine, if you lost a large amounts of your money on your IB online site (portal) due to a fraud, say, in my case a hacker hacked into my IB trading account and stole my money, IB will not responsible. Put in another words, IB could do whatever it likes to do with your money on their site and you, as their customer, have to bear the result. So don’t go with IB!
I would like. To open a trading account with you.
Comment want to.kmow more about IBm