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LightSpeed Trading vs Interactive Brokers
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LightSpeed Trading vs Interactive Brokers: Trading Fees and Investments 2012
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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 Interactive Brokers account: $10,000 for non-IRA account, $5,000 for IRA account
- All Interactive Brokers fees
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- Stocks and ETFs: $4.50 per order, plus/minus Market Center Fees
- or $0.0045 per share, plus/minus Market Center Fees, $1 minimum per trade
- OTCBB and Pink Sheets: $10 per order, plus/minus Market Center Fees
- Options: $0.60 per contract, no minimum/no order charges
- Futures: $0.60 per contract, no minimum/no order charges plus exchange fees
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, ETFs
- Minimum to open Lightspeed Trading account: $1,000 for Web Trader platform, $10,000 for Lightspeed Trader platform
- All Lightspeed Trading fees
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Low stock commissions for orders with 800 shares or less
- Professional trading platform
- Great margin rates
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- Some of the lowest commissions in the industry
- Direct access to ECN’s and exchanges
- Free practice account
- Online community
- Automated trading
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- $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
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- $10,000 minimum to use Lightspeed Trader (but only $1,000 to use Lightspeed Web Trader)
- $35 annual IRA fee
- Account opening needs work
- Web Trader platform is badly designed, full of bugs and it could take a lot of time to enter the order
- Extended hours trading is not available on the Web Trader platform
- Customer service needs improvement
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Interactive Brokers vs LightSpeed Trading Comparison Summary
Both brokerage companies have extremely low commissions on stocks and ETFs, with
LightSpeed Trading (LightSpeed Trading Review)
offering better pricing than Interactive Brokers (Interactive Brokers Review):
$0.0045/share and $1 minimum/trade versus IB's $0.005/share and $1 minimum/trade.
These deep discount brokers are primarily targeting very active traders. They offer clients professional trading
platforms with all the bells and whistles a day-trader might want.
There is a steep learning curve to master their professional trading tools.
If you are a beginner at investing, neither of these companies is right for you. You'll better off
with one of our Best Brokers for Beginner recommendations.
Interactive Brokers has $30 per month minimum commission requirement to avoid $10 monthly inactivity fee ($20 per month for accounts with less than $2,000)
and $10 monthly market data fee. This means that clients who rarely trade might pay up to $240 per year in fees!
It's also worth to mention that customer service at Interactive Brokers is infamous for its condescending attitude
towards clients.
Based on lower commissions and better customer service, we recommend LightSpeed Trading to active traders
(Choicetrade is actually a better option).
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