Interactive Brokers Review 2024

Stock Trade Fee:N/A

Account Minimum:$0

Promotion:N/A

Open Account

Trading involves substantial risk of loss

Eric Rosenberg

Last updated: Aug 16, 2021

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Introduction

Interactive Brokers is a powerful brokerage for active and expert traders looking for an excellent platform and pricing tailored to active and professional trading strategies.

If you are an active trader with advanced trading needs, Interactive Brokers may be a good fit for you. It offers a combination of competitive pricing options custom-tailored to the needs of active individual, professional and institutional traders and top-tier trading tools and platforms to help them execute precision trading strategies. 50% clients are Individuals.

Interactive Brokers offers very competitive pricing, particularly for active traders who want to see costs broken out per-share rather than pay a flat fee per trade. It has great platforms and trading flexibility. You can buy and sell a massive range of assets on markets around the world.

Pros:	Cons:
Excellent platform designed for professional and expert traders Ultra-low pricing with tiered pricing discounts for very active accounts Support for nearly all types of trades including contingent and advanced criteria	Limited banking features Not ideal for beginner or passive investors

Interactive Brokers Overall Rating

3.8

Here's how we rate brokers

Cost & Fees

4.5

Banking

1.5

Account Types

4.0

Customer Support

3.0

Tradable Securities

5.0

Promotions

0.0

Account Opening

4.5

Regulations, Reputation & Security

5.0

Trading Platforms

4.5

Research & Education

4.5

Order Types

5.0

Trading Specs
General Information
Trading Features

Official Site:www.interactivebrokers.comDemo Account:Open Demo AccountAccount Minimum:N/AStock Trade Fee:$0Promotion:N/AETF Trade Fee:$0Mutual Fund Trade Fee:$14.95Options Base Fee:$0Options Per Contract Fee:$0.7Bonds Trade Fee:$1Futures Trade Fee:$0.85Forex Trade Fee:$2
Phone Trades:$0Broker Assisted Trades Fee:$30Annual Account Fee:$0Account Transfer Fee:$50Account Closing Fee:$0Account Inactivity Fee:$10IRA Annual Fee:$0IRA Closure Fee:$0Tradable Securities:Stocks, Options, ETFs, Mutual Funds, Bonds, FOREX, FuturesCommissions Free ETFs:96Commission Free Mutual Funds:7558
Number of Mutual Funds (Total):11000Complex Options Max Legs:8Account Types:Taxable, Joint, Custodial, Retirement Accounts, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Rollover IRA, SEP IRA, Trusts, Business Accounts, Partnerships, Demo AccountOS compatibility :Windows, MacWeb Platform:YesMobile Trading:N/AOrder Types:Market, Limit, Stop, Trailing Stop, Contingent, Multi Contingent, OCO, OTO, OTOCO, Algo

Cost & Fees4.5

Interactive Brokers offers competitive commissions and fees. Choose between Fixed Rate and Tiered, volume-based pricing

Interactive Brokers gives you the choice between fixed and tiered pricing models. Fixed pricing is 0.005 cents per share with a $1 minimum per order for stocks and ETFs. Tiered pricing starts at 0.0035 cents per share with a 0.35 cent minimum for up to 300,000 shares traded per month.

Tiered pricing does not include any exchange, regulatory, or clearing fees. Fixed pricing includes all fees, so it is a bit more predictable and probably makes sense for lower-volume traders.

For options trading in the US, fees range from 0.70 cents per contract to 0.25 cents per contract depending on volume. With direct routing, you’ll pay a flat $1 per contract. Most mutual fund trades of North American funds cost $14.95 per transaction.

Bonds are 0.1% of the face value for the first $10,000 traded and 0.025% for additional face value with a $1 minimum per trade. Futures trades start at 0.85 cents per contract for traders with fewer than 1,000 contracts traded per month. Forex trades start at 0.20 basis points wit ha $2 minimum per order.

Pricing can get a bit complex when looking at the various tiers for each product. However, high-volume traders will likely save if they take advantage and opt for the unbundled, tiered pricing.

Account Types4.0

Interactive Brokers offers personal, business, and some more unique accounts for high-net-worth and professional investing for family offices or hedge funds.

You can open both personal and professional accounts at Interactive Brokers. Most individuals will find the best fit with an individual, joint, trust, IRA, or UGMA/UTMA account for minors.

Investment advisor, hedge fund, family office, money manager, and business accounts are also available. One unique type of account is the “friends and family advisor” account. This type of account allows you to manage multiple linked account from one central login.

Tradable Securities5.0

This brokerage supports a wide range of investments including stocks, ETFs, options, futures, foreign exchange, metals, fixed income (bonds), and mutual funds.

This brokerage gives customers a huge range of available investments for active trading. Stocks are available from 135 different markets, giving you a ton of choices to invest in global markets. Other investment products follow a similar pattern of offering more flexibility and choices.

Forex trading supports 23 currencies. Futures trading gives you access to many markets including currencies, agriculture, energy, metals, volatility indices, and other assets. You can even buy physical precious metals (storage fees apply).

In terms of the number of unique assets you can buy and trade, Interactive Brokers does an excellent job and is hard to beat.

Account Opening4.5

Accounts are available to international users in locations around the world. For users in the US, opening a new account online is easy and requires just basic contact and financial information.

Some banks and brokerages make you jump through a lot of hoops to open a new account. At Interactive Brokers, opening a new account is fairly quick and painless. All information is verified electronically, so you most likely won’t be required to submit any paper or physical documentation.

The application process requires your contact information, Social Security number, employment information, and bank information for funding your account. Identities are verified digitally and you shouldn’t need to upload anything else unless your information doesn’t match.

International and entity account have different requirements, but for personal accounts, it couldn’t be much easier.

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Demo Account

Trading Platforms4.5

Interactive Brokers focuses on expert traders and does a great job at delivering a trading platform that meets expert needs.

Interactive Brokers offers a top-of-the-line trading platform experience for Windows and Mac. In addition to the flagship Trader Workstation, Interactive Brokers gives you the ability to trade on the client website, the IBKR Mobile app, using a bot that understands natural language orders, a web-based trading platform, or with APIs.

The desktop platform is geared toward experienced and expert traders. With so many professional-level users, it’s not a shock to see a platform that may be a little advanced for newer traders. However, anyone with trading experience should be able to get up and running quickly.

If you want to test it out for free, a demo is available as well as paper trading on live accounts.

Trader Workstation features customizable views with a window-style interface. It gives you quick access to charts, a watchlist, current positions, and other information useful to your trading strategy.

The unique iBot allows you to ask questions and manage your account with natural language text. For example, you can say “What is the share price of Apple” or “Buy 10 shares of AMZN” and the bot will take care of whatever you ask. That includes pulling up charts and data as well as order entry.

After asking iBot to “Buy 10 shares of AMZN,” this confirmation appears. Using the demo system, my market order was filled in just a few seconds.

If you want to dig in deeper, the charting tools allow you to draw and customize your view.

Option chains and other advanced tools are perfect for traders looking to take their strategies to the next level.

The PortfolioAnalyst tool gives great portfolio visualizations, which are good enough quality for a financial advisor to give a client. Profitability Lab is an options probability analysis tool to help you improve your results by measuring trade profit probabilities without doing the math yourself.

If you are not by your computer, you can also manage your account on-the-go with the IBKR Mobile app, for iPhone and Android.

Image via Interactive Brokers

Order Types5.0

Interactive Brokers supports most types of standard and complex trade types. You can also employ algorithmic trading via the Interactive Brokers API.

You can enter just about any kind of trade with an account at Interactive Brokers. That means you can do a lot more than a boring old market order. The list is so long it wouldn’t reasonably fit here.

Advanced trades are allowed to help you limit risk, capture price improvements, and time your trade. Algorithmic trading and other advanced trades are available as well.

This is another very strong area for Interactive Brokers that sets it apart from the pack.

Banking1.5

Interactive Brokers offers cash management features but no bank accounts.

There are no checking or savings accounts at Interactive Brokers. However, there are some banking features. Account-holders earn interest on cash balances. Accounts also support a debit card and bill pay.

Customer Support3.0

Customer service is available 24 hours a day during the business week.

Customer support is available with direct numbers for individuals, institutional customers, and the trade desks. Support is also available with online chat or email.

If you forgot it isn’t the 1990s, you can also send in a fax.

The FAQ section is driven by a search bot that didn’t work all that well with a few test questions. The Knowledge Base, however, was easy to navigate and filled with useful information.

Promotions0.0

No current public bonus or promotion is available.

There are no current promotions available to the public from Interactive Brokers.

Regulations, Reputation & Security5.0

Interactive Brokers is a well-reputed firm with strong security practices and good protections for investor funds.

As a global investment firm, Interactive Brokers has to live up to a lot of different regulations and requirements. That makes it a particularly strong brokerage for security and regulations.

In the US, Interactive Brokers is a member of FINRA and regulated by the SEC. It is a member of the SIPC and funds are covered by SIPC insurance.

The firm is also registered in Canada, Australia, the UK, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Hungary, Singapore, and Luxembourg.

Interactive Brokers offers a Cyber Security Notice page on its website outlining how it works to keep your account and digital information safe. Based on its history of data incidents (none could be found), it takes cyber security seriously and does a good job.

Research & Education4.5

This brokerage offers useful education resources through its Traders’ Academy online hub.

Education materials are free to the public at IBKR Campus. The central hub is Trader’s Academy, a set of free courses to help you learn more about the markets, this broker’s platforms, and other useful account and investment information. Traders can

Other education resources include webinars, videos, articles, courses, and a glossary. You can also download apps and tools to help you hone your investment and trading ideas and strategies.

For research, Interactive Brokers gives you access to a ton of data. Users can tap into new and research from nearly three dozen sources. It does a great job giving you all the info you need to make smart decisions in your account.

FAQ

Is Interactive Brokers regulated?

Yes

Where is Interactive Brokers based?

Greenwich, Connecticut

When was Interactive Brokers founded?

1978

How does Interactive Brokers make money?

Trade commissions, margin interest, inactivity fees, premium data subscriptions

How do I deposit in Interactive Brokers account?

ACH/wire/check

How do I withdraw money from Interactive Brokers?

ACH/wire/check

How do I open an account with Interactive Brokers?

Online at the Interactive Brokers website

Does Interactive Brokers offer margin accounts?

Yes

Are funds at Interactive Brokers secured or insured?

Yes

Overall3.8

Expert traders and high-volume traders will find an excellent experience with Interactive Brokers. Beginners and casual investors, however, may find the fees and platforms too much to handle.

For strong platforms, the ability to enter nearly any kind of trade you can image, and low fees, Interactive Brokers is a good choice. Its standout features are most important to institutional and very active traders.

It is not the best brokerage for new traders or people who will trade just a couple of times per month. But if you trade weekly or more, you should definitely consider Interactive Brokers.

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