TD Ameritrade vs Interactive Brokers
|
|
|
|
|
- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $49.99
- Stocks and ETFs Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Telephone System: $34.99
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract
- No-load mutual funds: $49.99
- Treasuries at auction: $25 flat fee
- All other bonds and CMOs, CDs: on a net yield basis
- Futures: $3.50 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs, bonds, CDs, UITs, futures and forex
- Minimum to open TD Ameritrade account: $0 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
- All TD Ameritrade fees
|
- Stocks and ETFs: $0.005 per share with $1 minimum per trade for SMART routed orders
- Options: $0.70 per contract plus exchange fees
- Mutual funds: $14.95 per transaction
- Investment products: stocks, options, ETFs, bonds, futures, currency transactions
- Minimum to open Interactive Brokers account: $10,000 for non-IRA account, $5,000 for IRA account
- All Interactive Brokers fees
|
|
|
- No surcharges on penny stocks, large orders and after-hours trading
- Large and well known company with many local branches
- Two excellent trading platforms (ThinkOrSwim and Trade Architect)
- Practice trading without risking your own money using paperMoney
- See what other traders are doing on myTRADE trader community
- Free IRA accounts
- No maintenance and inactivity fees
- Free streaming quotes, including Level II
- Large selection of independent, third-party research (Standard & Poor's, Morningstar, Jaywalk and TheStreet)
|
-
Low stock commissions for orders with 800 shares or less
- Professional trading platform
- Great margin rates
|
|
|
- $9.99 commission for stocks/ETFs and $49 commission for mutual funds are high
- The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the high volume days
- High margin rates
|
- $10,000 minimum to open most accounts
- $30/month minimum commission requirement to avoid $10/month fee ($20/month fee if account balance less than $2,000)
- $10/month for IB market data feed (waived if trade commissions are more than $30/month)
- $7.50 quarterly fee on IRA accounts ($30 per year)
- Fees on modified or canceled orders
- Trader Workstation is designed for professional traders, it is not intuitive; difficult to learn
- Expensive to make trades with over 1,500 shares
- A lot of complains about snobby customer service (experienced it ourselves)
- $1.20 fee to modify or cancel an option order
- Merciless margin tightening and margin calls - IB doesn't care if their customers get completely wiped out
|
TD Ameritrade vs Interactive Brokers: Comparison Summary
Interactive Brokers (Interactive Brokers Review) and
TD Ameritrade (Ameritrade Review) are two
very different brokerage houses and they are targeting different types of customers. TD Ameritrade mostly attracts retail,
buy-and-hold investors, people who rarely trade. The firm uses Internet and TV ads to gain new customers.
Interactive Brokers' clients, on the other hand, are very active traders and the company is well-known in
day-trader community and attracts new clients by the word of mouth.
TD Ameritrade has flat-rate commissions: $9.99 per stock/ETF trade and no account maintenance/inactivity fees. Interactive Brokers
offers per-share commission plan, which is very cheap for orders of up to 800 shares and becomes very
expensive for orders with over 1,800 shares. IB also has monthly $10 inactivity fee ($20 for accounts less than $2,000) and charges
$10 per month for market data if client makes less than $30 in commissions in that month.
Both companies offer rich selection of investment products to their clients: anything from stocks and mutual funds, and up to
forex and futures.
Interactive Brokers is known for notoriously obnoxious customer service. If you are using margin and you get into negative
territory, the firm will liquidate your positions almost instantly, not giving you a chance to add funds.
We recommend TD Ameritrade for IRA accounts, beginners and "buy-and-hold" investors. Interactive Brokers is very cheap if you trade
often and your orders are under $800 shares. If you are not a day-trader, you will end up with $240 in fees every year.
|
|
|
|
|