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Interactive Brokers vs JP Morgan Chase
2023 JP Morgan Self-Directed Investing (Chase) vs Interactive Brokers (IBKR): which firm is better? Compare IRA/Roth accounts, online investing fees, stock broker mutual fund rates, and differences.
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Overview of Interactive Brokers and Chase
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) advertises its low margin rates a lot. But does that mean it’s a better
choice than Chase’s new upstart J.P. Morgan? There’s only one way to find out.
Cost
| Broker Fees |
Stock/ETF
Commission |
Mutual Fund
Commission |
Options
Commission |
Maintenance
Fee |
Annual IRA
Fee |
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IB
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$0
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$14.95
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$0.70 per contract
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$0
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$30
|
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Chase
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$0
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$0
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$0.65 per contract
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$0
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$0
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WeBull
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$0
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na
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$0 per contract
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$0
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$0
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Services
| Broker Review |
Cost |
Investment Products |
Trading Tools |
Customer Service |
Research |
Overall Rating |
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IB
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Chase
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WeBull
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Promotions
WeBull:
12 FREE stocks valued $36-$36,000 when you deposit ANY AMOUNT at Webull.
Interactive Brokers: Use this referral link to get up to $1,000 of IBKR stock for free!
Chase:
Get zero commission on stock and ETF trades.
Financial Instruments
IB customers can trade these products:
- Closed-end funds
- Mutual funds
- ETFs
- Futures (including index, Bitcoin, and currency contracts)
- Precious metals
- Forex
- Structured products
- Contracts for difference
- Equities (including penny and OTC)
- Options (with options on futures)
- Warrants
- Fixed income
- Cryptocurrencies
J.P. Morgan Chase provides trading in these assets:
- Equities (including penny stocks, but not OTC stocks)
- Option contracts
- Exchange-traded funds
- Closed-end funds
- Mutual funds
- Bonds
Interactive Brokers offers a very extensive global investing service that provides access to many foreign exchanges for multiple financial instruments. During our exploration, we also found an IPO service. Neither of these is available to J.P. Morgan Chase clients.
Winner: Interactive Brokers
Desktop Software
Interactive Brokers has a desktop program available free of charge to both IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro
customers. The software has many professional-level features, including:
- Advanced charting with full-screen mode and many tools, including right-click trading
- Order form with many choices, such as bracket orders and margin details for every entered ticker symbol
- iBot, an AI that can answer some questions
- Ability to trade warrants, forex, and futures
- Access to global markets
- Customization and multiple layouts
- Watchlists and market movers
- Demo mode for extra practice
J.P. Morgan Chase has no desktop platform.
Winner: Interactive Brokers
Other Computer Software
IB clients get other trading tools, too. A client portal is a browser-based trading platform that offers weaker charting compared to the desktop system but better research tools. During our trial run of the program, we were able to trade fractional shares of stocks and ETFs.
WebTrader is another browser-based program. Only IBKR Pro customers can use it. It offers direct-access routing for derivative trades, a unique feature. Interactive Brokers also offers API functionality.
Once again, J.P. Morgan Chase fails to offer anything here.
Winner: Interactive Brokers
Mobile Apps
Both brokerage firms have mobile apps, although their trading abilities differ widely. On IB’s platform, we found advanced charting with several tools. Moreover, the software has two trade tickets. Take your pick. iBot and a demo mode make appearances as well.
J.P. Morgan Chase’s app has very simple charting, but we did find options trading. Many features found on IB’s app are simply missing on J.P. Morgan Chase’s.
Winner: Interactive Brokers
Mutual and Exchange-traded Funds
The best place to go for fund research at Interactive Brokers is the client portal. Here users will find the following resources on fund profiles:
- Lipper ratings
- Top 10 holdings
- Performance history
- ESG ratings
- News articles
- Free fund reports from the ETF Research Center
- And more!
There’s also an ETF scanner in the client portal, but not a mutual fund screener.
At J.P. Morgan Chase, we did locate both an ETF screener and a mutual fund search tool. Both screeners are easy to use and we found them more effective than IB’s ETF screener. Some of the search criteria on J.P. Morgan Chase’s screeners include:
- Age of fund (years)
- Turnover ratio (%)
- Overall risk rating
- Minimum investment ($)
Fund profiles show the growth of $10,000, option chains if available, Morningstar ratings, top 10 holdings, and more. IB’s profiles have much more info, however.
Winner: Draw
Options Trading
J.P. Morgan Chase provides chains for calls and puts on its software platforms. It does not have any pre-installed multi-leg strategies, though. IB’s software uses calls and puts by default; but this setup can be changed by turning Strategy Builder on. There are several spreads in IB’s software, including:
- Unbalanced butterfly
- Calendar spread
- Iron condor
- Synthetic
Winner: Interactive Brokers
Portfolio Management
If you lack the time or skill to manage your own investments, you could turn over the reins to a professional. Chase offers managed accounts through J.P. Morgan Portfolios. This service uses only JPMorgan funds and costs 0.35% per year.
Self-directed accounts through J.P. Morgan Chase can use Portfolio Builder for free; although the service does require $2500 in assets. The digital tool (as the name implies) constructs a brokerage account based on time horizon, goals, and risk tolerance. Unlike J.P. Morgan Portfolios, Portfolio Builder will construct an asset allocation among many ETFs and stocks.
Interactive Brokers doesn’t offer any type of portfolio management at this time; although it does provide its trading technology to independent investment advisors who do offer account management services.
Winner: J.P. Morgan Chase
Day and Swing Trading
Shorting: J.P. Morgan Chase does not have a short locate tool, but IB does.
Extended Hours. Interactive Brokers, but not J.P. Morgan Chase, offers trading before and after the normal day session.
Level II Quotes. Same story here.
Direct-access routing. Again, same story.
Margin.
J.P. Morgan Chase doesn't offer margin accounts. Interactive Brokers does, and IBKR Pro clients
consistently get some of the lowest margin rates available in the brokerage industry today.
Routing Fees and Rebates. Interactive Brokers has maker-taker fees. J.P. Morgan Chase does not.
Winner: Interactive Brokers
Other Services
Dividend Reinvestment Program: Auto dividend reinvesting is available at both brokerage firms at no cost. However, only J.P. Morgan Chase permits DRIP settings to be established for each individual security in an account. At Interactive Brokers, only an entire account can be enrolled or unenrolled.
IRAs: Individual Retirement Accounts are available at both brokers in this contest. J.P. Morgan Chase offers fewer IRA types than its rival.
Automatic Mutual Fund Investing: J.P. Morgan Chase customers can set up periodic deposits into mutual funds. IB customers cannot.
Winner: J.P. Morgan Chase
Lastly, Our Recommendations
Beginners: Because IB is designed for experienced traders, we pick J.P. Morgan Chase.
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: J.P. Morgan Chase.
Mutual Fund Traders: J.P. Morgan Chase.
Stock/ETF Trading: Interactive Brokers.
Small Accounts: Either.
Best Brokers
JP Morgan Chase vs IBKR: Results
For professional-level trading, Interactive Brokers is hard to beat. For home gamers, J.P. Morgan Chase
looks like the better firm.
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Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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