Interactive Brokers Review




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Interactive Brokers Pros


  • Low stock commissions for orders with 800 shares or less
  • Professional trading platform
  • Great margin rates


Interactive Brokers Cons


  • $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


Interactive Brokers Review Summary


Interactive Brokers (IB) is targeting experienced, professional investors. The firm is a good choice for very active traders who trade 600 shares or less on average per trade. IB delivers excellent trading platform, fast executions and great margin rates.

Customers should be extremely careful when using margin: IB liquidates positions almost as soon as they get into negative territory without giving clients a chance to add funds. The firm tightened margin requirements at the worst possible times in 2008-2009 and many customers who used margin got wiped out. It came without a warning and it showed that IB does not care about their clients at all when its own money could be at risk. We think it was completely unfair to the account holders.

Interactive Brokers has a well-deserved reputation for very rude and obnoxious customer service. Because of that and the complexity of their trading platform, IB is not a brokerage for beginner investors. And the firm is definitely not the way to go for those who rarely trade, trade orders of over 1,500 shares, as well as people looking to invest in mutual funds.

Since the company charges monthly fees, we can't recommend Interactive Brokers for an IRA account. For anyone looking to open retirement account, there are a lot of great No-Fee IRA Brokerages to choose from.

Investors who are NOT day-traders and looking for cheap trades, often go with Optionshouse. The firm offers flat $3.95 per trade for unlimited shares, no monthly fees and great customer service.


Interactive Brokers Promotional Code/Offer: IB never offers promotions


IB.com review 2012
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