Interactive Brokers

Great, cheap broker

InteractiveBroker has some great executions at great costs. I do enjoy how you can short the stocks with them. They list all the stocks available to short on their website and then it's a first come, first serve model.

Commission is very cheap, which is great, especially when trading penny stocks or other stocks in which the commission can have a significant impact on profits.

The account interface is somewhat confusing, but once you have it figured out, it's not too bad.

InteractiveBroker also allows you to have your account in any currency you want. I keep my account in Euros, but can trade all over the world. When I trade US$ stocks, I basically borrow against my Euro deposit. However, this means that I'm still impacted by any currency impacts.

When your account is within 5% of maxing out, you'll get reminders from their automated system, letting you know that your account has used almost all it's margin.

Login is also secure because 2 pins are required when loging in.

Trust Score

1.4

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Cheap and Good

Interactive Brokers has incredibly low commissions and a much greater variety of shortable stocks than other brokers. The $10,000 minimum for a taxable account is higher than many other discount brokers.

Trust Score

4.6

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

good

I have used various brokers and like IB the most. Very cheap commissions and I have received good customer service on the phone and very timely replies via email. Their trader workstation takes some time to get used to and figure out but is good once you understand it.

Trust Score

3.4

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

retail trading king

Low commissions, all exchanges available, no arbitrary rules about shorting stocks under a dollar, lots of hard-to-borrow stocks, reliable execution and software --> what more could you want?

Maybe a little bit better in customer service but otherwise very good. Whatever limitations it has, it still beats every other broker for run of the mill retail guys.

Trust Score

2.5

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Best Global Broker

After using Interactive Brokers for so many years, I still can't find:

(1) any broker providing lower commission than Interactive Brokers;

(2) any broker offering universal account to trade futures, options, forex, stocks in all major international market;

(3) any broker providing free real time data feed connecting to popular trading software;

(4) any forex broker offering lower spreads than Interactive Brokers;

(5) any broker providing robust and free trading API's in popular languages, such as in Excel VBA and C++;

Trust Score

1.6

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Advanced tools

IB is the most powerful broker / tools i've used so far for individual investors. Highlights include full hours for AH and premarket trading. Being able to short stocks that normally aren't shortable. A non-web based platform for trading and quick executions.

Its very data and technical driven so if you've never traded before you may want to try a more user friendly broker first such as tradeking.

Trust Score

1.8

User’s Review Ratings

Overall