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TradeKing vs Interactive Brokers
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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: $4.95 (for stocks/etfs priced over $1)
- Options: $4.95 plus $0.65 per contract (for up to 8 contracts) OR $8.95 plus $0.15 per contract (for over 8 contracts)
- Short options valued at 5 cents or less, can be bought to close these positions for no charge (commission free)
- Multiple legs will only be charged one base price of either $4.95 or $8.95, depending on how many total contracts are involved
- Mutual Funds: $9.95
- Bonds: $4.95 per bond ($14.95 minimum)
- Treasuries: $24.95 per transaction
- Certificates of Deposit (CDs): $24.95 per transaction
- Investments: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, treasuries, ETFs
- Minimum to open TradeKing account: $0
- All TradeKing 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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- Great commissions
- No minimums, maintenance or hidden fees
- Free real time quotes
- Award-winning trading tools
- Best rated customer service
- Low margin rates
- Best online investor community
- Fee-free IRAs
- Extensive educational resources
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- $10,000 minimum to open most accounts
- $30/month minimum commission requirement to avoid $10/month fee
- $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, 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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- Additional $0.01 per share on the entire order of stocks priced less than $1
- $50 annual inactivity fee if BOTH apply to an account(s):
- Combined account value of the household account(s) is less than $2,500
- No commission-charged trades have been executed in the account(s) during the last 12 months
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TradeKing vs Interactive Brokers: Comparison Summary
Interactive Brokers (Interactive Brokers Review)
is better priced online brokerage firm than
TradeKing (TradeKing Review)
when comparing cost of trading stocks and ETFs of up to 990 shares
per order. For trades with over 990 shares TradeKing is cheaper than IB. Mutual funds are $14.95 per transaction at
Interactive Brokers and $9.95 at TradeKing.
When it comes to support for
beginner investors
and customer service, TradeKing is by far better brokerage than IB. While Interactive Brokers is infamous for
very rude customer service, TradeKing is rewarded "Best In Customer Service" by major financial magazines every year.
TradeKing also boasts vibrant trader community, where users could ask questions, learn from more
experienced traders and get investment ideas.
Both brokerages have award-winning trading tools. Unlike Interactive Brokers, TradeKing does not charge
$10/month fee plus $10/month market data fee (if not making $30 in commission per month) and
customers could open account with just $0 instead of hefty $10,000 required by IB.
TradeKing was named Best Broker by Barron's magazine for 2 years in a row and it is one of our
Top Brokerage Firms in 2012.
Interactive Brokers is only suited for very experienced traders who trade a lot and know what they are doing.
IB is very unforgiving and clients could easily loose all their money and more if not careful (most recently
in the end of 2008).
We strongly recommend TradeKing over Interactive Brokers for all types of accounts.
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