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Compare Interactive Brokers versus Etrade 2010
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Interactive Brokers vs Etrade Trading Fees and Investments Offered
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- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99 if 0-149 trades per quarter; $7.99 if 150+ trades per quarter
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75/contract if 0-149 trades per quarter; $7.99 plus $0.75/contract if 150+ trades per quarter
- Mutual Funds: $19.99
- Futures contracts: $2.99 per contract, per side + fees
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, options, ETFs
- Minimum to open account: $1000
- All Etrade fees and margin rates
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- 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 account: $10,000
- All Interactive Brokers fees and margin rates
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- Very good trading tools
- No IRA account fees, no minimums with electronic statements and confirms
- Minimum to open: $1,000 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
- Banking products: checking, savings, money market accounts, CDs and credit cards
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Low stock commissions for orders with fewer than 600 shares
- Professional trading platform
- Competitive margin rates
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- High commissions
- Extra $0.015 per share will apply to that portion of the order that exceeds 2,000 shares
- $40 Account Service Fee might be charged each quarter in some instances
- Very high margin rates
- IRA premature distributions: $25
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- $10,000 minimum to open most accounts
- $10/month minimum monthly commission requirement
- $10/month for IB market data feed (waived if trade commissions are more than $30/month)
- Fees on modified or canceled orders
- Trader Workstation is designed for professional traders, is unintuitive and 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 customers get completely wiped out
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Etrade or Interactive Brokers: Comparison Summary
Interactive Brokers
is definitely better priced than
Etrade:
0.005 cents per share with $1 minimum against Etrade's $9.99 per trade.
Etrade charges $0.015 per share for that portion of the order that exceeds 2,000 shares. Interactive Brokers
is also very expensive for large orders: 2,000 shares will cost client $10, 5,000 - $25, etc.
Interactive Brokers comes ahead in trading tools. But the company has the rudest customer service of all brokerage
firms. IB charges $10 monthly fee if customer does not make at least $30 worth of commissions per month. The firm
liquidates positions almost as soon as client gets into negative territory - many people lost fortune during
market's drop in 2008 after IB tightened margin requirements at the worst possible time.
When comparing IRA accounts, both companies fall short: Interactive Brokers has inactivity fees, and Etrade
has Account Service Fee.
It's hard to recommend either of these companies. Etrade has high commissions and fees. Interactive Brokers has
notoriously obnoxious customer service and inactivity fees.
There are many other
Top Brokerage Firms
that offer low commissions and excellent customer service.
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