Interactive Brokers Review 2022

Interactive Brokers has low trading fees and the best margin rates in the industry. For US clients, stock and ETF trading is free if they choose the Lite plan.

How we ranked fees

We ranked Interactive Brokers's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

First, let's go over some basic terms related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of Interactive Brokers for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing the most important fees are commissions.

We also compared Interactive Brokers's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Saxo Bank and DEGIRO. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Interactive Brokers alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Interactive Brokers, let's start with the trading fees.

Interactive Brokers trading fees

Interactive Brokers trading fees are low. This is great if you do a lot of trades frequently.

Only US clients can choose the IBKR LITE plan. With this service plan, they can trade US-listed stocks and ETFs commission-free.

Clients from any country can opt for the IBKR Pro plan, which comes with 2 pricing plans.

• The fixed-rate price plan typically charges a fixed rate per contract or share. This charge covers all commissions and exchange fees.
• The tiered price plan charges fees based on your monthly trading volume. The more you trade, the lower the commissions are. However, exchange, regulatory and clearing fees may be charged additionally.

In this review, we tested the fixed-rate plan.

Stock and ETF fees

Interactive Brokers has generally low stock and ETF commissions.

For IBKR Pro clients, SMART routing continually scans competing markets and automatically routes orders directly to the best available market based on price while also taking into account factors such as the availability of automatic order execution.

The stock trading fee at Interactive Brokers is volume-based: it's calculated either per share or as a percentage of the trade value, with a minimum and maximum. ETF fees are the same as stock fees.

If you prefer stock trading on a margin, you should check Interactive Brokers'smargin rates.

What is the margin rate? Margin rates are charged when you trade on margin. This basically means that you borrow money from your broker to trade, for which you have to pay interest.

Margin rates vary based on the amount and the currency of the borrowed money.

Interactive Brokers'smargin rates are the best in the industry for IBKR Pro customers. However, if you choose the IBKR Lite plan, you'll be charged a higher annual rate: the markup is +1% per annum compared to the Pro Plan (e.g. 2.6% for USD).

Margin rates are lower for higher debit balances.

Forex fees

To have a clear picture of forex fees, we calculated a forex benchmark fee for major currency pairs. This catch-all benchmark includes commissions, spreads, and financing costs for all brokers.

Interactive Brokers's forex fees are in line with the industry average but higher compared to what Saxo Bank charges for a $20,000 trade in the scenario below.

When you trade forex, IB charges a volume-based commission. The higher the volume of your trades, the lower commission you pay.

Fund fees

If you're not a US resident, you can purchase thousands of non-US mutual funds with no transaction fee while most other funds are priced at €5.

In a similar fashion, thousands of US mutual funds (including funds from Allianz, Blackrock and Schroder) may be purchased without a transaction fee if you're a US resident.

The minimum size of initial fund orders is $3,000 while the subsequent minimum order size is $100.

When you purchase a fund that is not in the 'free to buy' category, a simple price structure applies that includes all regulatory and exchange fees.

The fee structure is percentage-based and can have a minimum and a maximum. Note that for European mutual funds, the pricing is a bit different:

Bond fees

Interactive Brokers has generally low bond fees. 

Interactive Brokers charges a volume-based commission with a minimum amount. 

Options fees

Options fees at Interactive Brokers are generally low/average. 

You pay options fees depending on the number of contracts you traded in any given month.

If you choose the IBKR Pro tiered plan and use limit orders when trading US listed options, you'll often find that fees will be lower than 65 cents/contract or might be even negative. That's because IBKR's Smart Routing uses many exchanges and some of them give you a rebate for adding liquidity to the market.

If you trade option spreads, IBKR Pro's Smart Routing is very beneficial for you as this order type submits each leg at the best possible venue for execution.

Futures fees

Interactive Brokers's futures fees are low.

Similarly to options, you pay a commission based on the number of contracts you trade.

CFD fees

Interactive Brokers charges low CFD trading fees.

To have a clear understanding of CFD fees, we calculated a CFD benchmark fee for the selected products. This catch-all benchmark includes commissions, spreads and financing costs for all brokers.

We calculated with 20:1 leverage for stock index CFDs and 5:1 leverage for single stock CFDs.

In the case of stock index CFDs, all fees are incorporated into the spreads. When you trade stock CFDs, you pay a volume-tiered commission.

Crypto fees

You can trade cryptocurrencies using the following methods:

• You can trade Bitcoin futures at the CME Group. The commission of one Bitcoin futures contract is $5 for the CME Bitcoin Futures and $2.25 for the Micro Futures.
• Bitcoin and Ether ETNs are available on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. IB charges a 0.05% fee when you trade on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and the minimum amount is SEK 49.
• The Grayscale Bitcoin (GBTC) and the firm's other crypto investment trusts are available on the pink sheets (trading costs is $0.005 per share, min $1).
• Cryptocurrency trading with Paxos on Interactive Brokers’s trading platforms has a low commission of just 0.12% to 0.18% of trade value with a $1.75 minimum per order (but the minimum is subject to a cap of 1% of trade value). Plus, there are no added spreads, markups, or custody fees.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading, check out our crypto blogpost.

Asset management service

Interactive Brokers provides an asset management service called Interactive Advisors. It is a mix of mutual funds and a robo-advisor. It may be suitable for you if you don't want to manage your investments on your own or just need a bit more confidence in investing.

Besides the usual brokerage commissions, there is an annual management fee ranging from 0.08% to 1.50%, depending on the amount you invest. The required minimum investment amount is $5,000.

There are two ways to invest with Interactive Advisors:

1. Answer a couple of questions, based on which Interactive Advisors will compile a portfolio that is automatically rebalanced from time to time.
2. Choose from among several pre-set portfolios managed by professional portfolio managers.

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Non-trading fees

Interactive Brokers recently eliminated their monthly inactivity fee. There is no account or deposit fee, either. The first withdrawal each month is free of charge while subsequent withdrawals carry a fee. 

IB's account opening process is fully digital and the required minimum deposit is low. On the negative side, the process is complicated and account verification takes relatively long.

Can you open an account?

Double check in our broker finder tool if Interactive Brokers is the right broker for you.

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Interactive Brokers is present on every continent, so you can most likely open an account. Only countries with highly unstable political or economic backgrounds are excluded such as North Korea.

What is the minimum deposit at Interactive Brokers? 

The required Interactive Brokers minimum deposit is $0. However, there is a $2,000 minimum if you would like to trade on margin (or sell short). Trading on margin means that you are trading with borrowed money, also known as leverage.

Account types

Interactive Brokers offers many account types, which differ in terms of ownership and the service provided.

Account types based on ownership

The account types fall into two big groups considering the account's ownership:

• accounts for individual traders and investors
• accounts for institutions

As an individual trader or investor, you can choose from many account types. A few of these, such as the IRA account, are available only to US clients.

Cash, margin, portfolio reg account types

After you selected the ownership of your account, you can choose between Cash, Portfolio Margin, or Reg T Margin accounts. Clients from the EU automatically get a portfolio margin account if they select a margin account.

If you're a beginner and are not familiar with the intricacies of maintaining a margin account, it makes sense to go with a cash account at Interactive Brokers. That's because they don't issue margin calls and only allow clients to be in margin violation for a very short period of time before liquidating positions. You can set any position you have as 'liquidate last' in the Account window. The above is of course not a concern if you have a cash account.

IBKR LITE and IBKR PRO

Besides the various account types, you can choose between the IBKR PRO and IBKR LITE service plans if you are a US resident. They differ in pricing.

For non-US residents, only IBKR PRO is available.

How to open your account

The account opening process is fully digital but a bit complicated. After the online registration, the account verification takes around 2 business days, which is a bit longer than the usual account verification time at most brokers. 

During the account opening process, you have to provide some personal information and answer questions about your trading experience.

In the end, you have to verify your identity and residency by uploading the required documents:

• Verification of identity: passport / national ID / driver's license
• Verification of residency: bank statement / utility bill / driver's license / credit card statement / other document

This is a standard process, which in financial lingo is called a KYC (know-your-customer) process. This is required to make sure you are truly identifiable.

Interactive Brokers offers several account base currencies and one free withdrawal per month. The main drawback is that you can only use bank transfer.

Account base currencies

Interactive Brokers provides several account base currencies, which is great if you want to trade assets in various currencies.

The selection of available currencies may differ based on the legal entity you're onboarded with. Just to mention three exceptions:

• Clients under the Hungarian entity (IBCE) can deposit in EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, DKK, NOK, SEK, HUF, CZK and PLN. If you have a Cash account (as opposed to a margin account), when you transact in currencies other than the aforementioned currencies, IBCE will convert the currency value of the transaction into your nominated base currency.
• Clients under the Irish entity (IBIE) can deposit in GBP, EUR, USD, CZK, DKK, NOK, PLN, SEK and CHF
• Clients under the Indian entity can deposit in USD and INR.

When compared to its competitors, you can see that IB's base currency selection is largely similar to that of Saxo Bank.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. They offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

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Deposit fees and options

Interactive Brokers deposits are free of charge. However, deposit options are limited, as neither credit/debit cards nor electronic wallets can be used.

If you reside in the US, though, you have multiple extra options such as: 

• ACH (Automated Clearing House)
• Check
• Online bill payment
• Direct Rollover (IRA accounts only)
• Trustee-to-Trustee (IRA accounts only)

Also, as of early 2020, Interactive Brokers introduced direct debit card deposits as part of their Integrated Investment Management account. This is only available to US residents.

Australian clients can also use BPAY as a deposit method.

A bank transfer can take 2-3 business days to arrive. You can only deposit money from sources that are in your name.

Interactive Brokers withdrawal fees and options

The first withdrawal each month is free of charge, while subsequent withdrawals have a fee.

Similar to deposits, you can only use bank wire for outgoing transfers. US residents can also withdraw via ACH or check.

The fee for subsequent withdrawals after the first free one depends on the currency and the method used for withdrawal.

*Check payments are also available in USD and they carry a $4 fee.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Interactive Brokers? We tested it and it took 2 business days. While you wait, as a new feature since early 2020, you can track your withdrawal in real-time on the Client Portal.

How do you withdraw money from Interactive Brokers?

• First, log into the Client Portal then click on 'Transfer & Pay' and 'Transfer funds.'
• Select the account you want to use for the transaction.
• At the top of the page, click on the 'Withdraw Funds' tab. 
• Select the currency of your withdrawal, then the withdrawal method.
• Enter the required information.
• Submit your withdrawal request. 
• You can see the status of your request under 'View Transaction History.' 

Integrated Investment Management

Interactive Brokers has expanded the range of its account services available to US residents with the introduction of the Interactive Brokers debit card and the Integrated Investment Management program. These include:

• direct debit card deposits
• borrowing
• paying bills without checks through Bill Pay

All US cash and margin accounts are eligible for application. To apply, log into the Client Portal, go to 'Transfer & Pay', and open the 'Debit Card' menu. 

The Interactive Brokers web platform is simple and easy to use, even for beginners, however there are some minor but annoying glitches.

You can choose between two web platforms: the Client Portal and the Webtrader. In this review, we tested the Client Portal as it is more user-friendly and easier to use than Webtrader. IBKR Lite customers can only use the Client Portal.

The Client Portal is available in several languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovakian, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

Look and feel

The Client Portal platform is particularly user-friendly and intuitive. You will easily find every feature even if you have just started trading.

However, from time to time, there are some annoying technical glitches. For example, if you have a large number of positions, there are often problems displaying them in sorted order (e.g. from A to Z) while you are scrolling.

Login and security

For the 2 factor authorization, use the IBKR Mobile Authentication (IB Key), which requires fingerprint or PIN, depending on the hardware capabilities of your phone. Until the IB key is set up, you will receive an SMS message each time you log in.

Search functions

The search function is OK but as the picture below shows, it can be a little confusing when there are several companies with a similar name or if a given company has both common and preferred shares.

Placing orders

The Client Portal offers many order types. Available order types are:

• Limit
• Market
• Stop
• Stop Limit
• Limit-on-Close
• Market-on-Close
• Trailing Stop
• Trailing Stop Limit

If you are not familiar with the basic order types, read this overview.

If you want to place even more sophisticated orders, you should use the desktop trading platform.

You can also use several order time limits:

• Day
• Good-'til-Canceled (GTC)
• Immediate or Cancel
• Market-on-Open
• Limit-on-Open

Alerts and notifications

You can set price alerts using the bell icon.

Portfolio and fee reports

Portfolio and fee reports are transparent. The portfolio tab gives a clear overview of your trading performance, including a historical profit/loss balance and fees paid.

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The Interactive Brokers mobile trading platform boasts a lot of functions and a useful chatbot, but its user interface could be better.

IBKR Mobile, Interactive Brokers's mobile trading platform, is available both for iOS and Android devices. In this review, we tested it on Android.

The number of available languages on IBKR Mobile is almost the same as on the web trading platform; only Slovakian is not supported.

Look and feel

The mobile trading app is much like the web platform. Its overall look and user-friendliness lag behind competitors' mobile platforms.

There are some annoying glitches. For example, when we received a bulletin in our inbox informing us of margin requirement changes, we could see half of the text and could not resize the window or scroll.

Somewhat surprisingly, the app sometimes displays text in English and sometimes in the client's local language.

Login and security

You can use a two-step login, which is safer than a simple login. Furthermore, if your device supports such features, you can also use biometric authentication for more convenience.

Search functions

The search function is OK and is much like what the web trading platform offers. As the picture below shows, it can be a little confusing when there are several companies with a similar name or if a company has both common and preferred shares. 

We actually liked the previous version of the search function better.

After you select the product you are interested in, the system will display an information and trading window that shows

• asset market information,
• an interactive chart with technical indicators,
• related news,
• some fundamental data,
• summary of the latest analyst report,
• and the 'Buy' and 'Sell' buttons that transfer you to the order panel.

Placing orders

IBKR Mobile has the same order types as the web trading platform. 

Alerts

You can set price alerts using the bell icon.

Special feature - Chatbot

The most innovative and exciting function within the app is the chatbot, called IBot. You can use the chatbot to execute or close an order, as well as to get basic info quickly.

The chatbot understands basic commands, such as “apple price” or “buy 1 apple share.” On top of this, you can also search for company fundamentals, like dividend yields and PE ratios. Some other functions, like displaying a chart, are also available via the chatbot.

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IB's desktop platform, TWS comes with great customizability and advanced order execution, but it's not user-friendly and caters more to advanced traders.

Interactive Brokers's desktop platform, Trader Workstation (TWS), is so advanced that even a separate review would not be enough to cover all its features.

The system offers literally every feature you can think of, from attaching a delta hedge order to an options order to creating charts for synthetic securities.

There are many trading algos to choose from. One favorite, the ScaleTrader originates from the notion of averaging down or buying into a weak, declining market at ever lower prices as it bottoms - or on the opposite side, selling into a rising market or scaling out of a long position.

The desktop trading platform is available in multiple languages, but fewer than the web trading platform. For example, Dutch and Slovakian are missing.

Look and feel

In many respects, this is by far the most complex platform that we at BrokerChooser have ever reviewed. Despite its complexity, the platform is highly customizable; for example, you can set up your own templates.

This platform is ideal for you if you consider yourself a professional user. If you are a beginner or someone who doesn't trade actively, you may have difficulty navigating all of TWS' features. Keep in mind, however, that all the advanced features are optional. If you don't use them, you can easily handle TWS just to place orders even if you are an everyday investor.

Login and security

The system has the same security features as the web trading platform. You can log in using a two-step authentication, which makes the platform unquestionably safer to use.

Search functions

The search function is great. You can check/uncheck boxes to include/exclude searching for derivatives (like CFDs).

Placing orders

Trading through TWS, IKBR PRO offers many different order types.

The desktop platform provides Smart Routing, a great feature that detects the best possible route (e.g. exchange) for your trades automatically. TD Ameritrade also has a similar service.

If you are not familiar with the basic order types, read this overview.

Order term options also include some special types beyond the usual ones:

• Good 'til Canceled (GTC)
• Good-'til-Date (GTD)
• Market-on-open (MOO)
• Limit-on-open (LOO)
• Immediate-or-cancel (IOC)
• Fill-or-Kill (FOK)
• Day-'til-canceled (DTC)

Alerts and notifications

Price alerts can be set from a dropdown menu in the 'Order Entry' panel.

You can also set additional alerts such as daily profits or losses on the Client Portal.

Portfolio and fee reports

You can access reports under the "Account" menu item. It will open a new tab in your browser and will take you to the Client Portal's reports, which are of high quality.

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At Interactive Brokers, you have access to an extremely wide range of markets and all product types are available.

Interactive Brokers has a great selection of products, with an exceptionally wide range of ETFs and bonds. IB also offers a couple of more exotic assets, such as warrants and structured products. It only lags behind its competitors in terms of FX pair and CFD selection.

IB provides access to roughly 150 exchanges worldwide, including its alternative services, such as Interactive Advisors. This is an asset management service that is a mix of robo-advisory and social trading.

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Stocks and ETFs

Interactive Brokers allows you access to more stock markets than its competitors. 

This includes major stock markets like the NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), as well as minor ones such as the Warsaw Stock Exchange or Mexican markets. In addition to regular stocks, penny stocks are also available. 

Besides stocks, you can also trade more than 13,000 ETFs at IB. This is an extensive selection compared to its competitors.

In 2020, Interactive Brokers introduced the possibility of buying and selling fractional shares of a stock, which allows traders to invest small amounts and still diversify their portfolios.

Forex

The number of forex pairs available is average and a bit below what Saxo Bank offers.

Funds

Through IB, you have access to more than 250 fund providers, including big names like BlackRock and Vanguard.

Bonds

Interactive Brokers gives you access to a massive number of bonds. Out of all government and corporate bonds available at IB, 1.4 million are so-called municipal bonds: these are fixed income investments issued by US local governments, cities, states and counties, but they are tradable only by US residents. The table below does not include municipal bonds in the overall number of bonds, but even so, the figure is  higher than at competitor brokers.

Options

As with other product types, Interactive Brokers offers an extremely wide range of options markets. 

You can access the biggest ones, like the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) or the CME Group, as well as smaller markets, such as the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) and the Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MEXDER).

Futures

Interactive Brokers offers an extensive selection of futures products and markets. At the time of writing, there were 32 markets available, which is more than what competitors offer. Similarly to options, you will find both major and minor markets.

CFDs

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 60.0% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Clients from the US are not eligible to trade CFDs. Compared to other products and competitors, IB offers an average range of CFDs, mainly stock and stock index CFDs.

Cryptos

At IB, you can trade cryptos the following ways:

• Bitcoin and Ethereum ETNs are traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the US OTC (Pink) markets
• Bitcoin Index is available on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), on the CME Group and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
• Bitcoin futures are available on the CME Group
• Through a partnership with Paxos, you can trade and custody cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash 

If you want to know more about crypto investing, we recommend our crypto blogpost.

Please note that the FCA banned the sale of crypto-derivatives by UK retail consumers from 6 January 2021.

Asset management service

Interactive Advisors is IB's own asset management service, which allows you to copy professional portfolio managers and lets you automatically make trades as professionals do.

You can choose from among many portfolio managers to find the one that fits you best, with real-time portfolio performance available.

The minimum investment depends on the portfolio you want to invest in: the lowest investment amount starts at $5,000.

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Interactive Brokers has almost limitless research possibilities, but the user interface is not the most user-friendly.

The quality of research available at Interactive Brokers is good and you can choose various third-party providers as well.

Recommendations

You can opt in to receive email communication from IB if there's a new analyst buy or sell recommendation on the stock you hold or about upcoming dividends, upcoming options expiry and much more. We think this is a very useful feature for stock investors.

You can also opt in to get free daily ETF trading ideas from Trading Central. Both of the above options are free.

 Additionally, you can subscribe to research and recommendations provided by third parties like Morningstar via the Client Portal. To do so, select 'Menu-Settings-User Settings' and then 'Research Subscriptions'. However, most are not free.

Fundamental data

Interactive Brokers provides a broad selection of fundamental data on all of its platforms. These include income statements for the past six years, a dividend calendar and peer group companies, to name but a few.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores from Refinitiv are also provided.

For screening stocks, we recommend using IBKR GlobalAnalyst. It will create searchable and sortable tables so that you can compare companies grouped by region or country or industry at current prices in the currency of your choice.

In the picture below, we searched for US-listed consumer discretionary companies and sorted them so we see those with the highest earnings growth first.

Charting

The charting features are almost endless at Interactive Brokers. There are 127 technical indicators; however, similar to the platforms, the charting tool is not user-friendly. 

Other special technical tools include:

• Stock/ETF benchmarker: helps you compare your stock and portfolio to a selected benchmark
• Mutual fund and ETF replicator
• Volatility lab
• Option probability lab: a group of option analysis functions
• VaR, Sharpe: portfolio performance analyzers

News feed

You have access to:

• News
• Daily summaries
• Multiple economic calendars

Interactive Brokers has its own news domain called 'Traders' Insight'. It also provides integrated third-party news and recommendations on the IB desktop platform.

Upon entering the platform, you can read daily market summaries through the 'Daily Lineup'. This feature helps you keep up to date with the latest news and analyst recommendations. There is also an Earnings and an Economic Event Calendar that are helpful shortcuts to start off your day.

The Economic Calendar informs you about upcoming events that will have an economic impact. This feature can be accessed separately any time from the menu, though the design could be better. If you are looking for an all-around economic calendar that includes upcoming national holidays, you can find it here on IB's page.

Mutual Fund Search Tool

As of June 2020, Interactive Brokers has launched the Mutual Fund Search Tool on their website. This tool enables clients to browse and select international mutual funds by country, fund family and whether the fund charges extra commissions. With the 'Fund Type' filter, you can also search for funds based on their structure (e.g. only bond, only equity, or mixed investments).

Investors' Marketplace 

Another new addition available from June 2020 is the Investors' Marketplace. This is an overall networking tool, helping investors, brokers and hedge fund account holders, as well as others, to connect. The purpose of the connection can range from education to career development, advisory, administration and technology. 

Tax Optimizer, Shortable Instruments and alternative news sources

US residents can take advantage of IB's Tax Optimizer, which lets clients choose their best tax method based on IRS reporting rules after trading. This includes maximizing long-term gains or minimizing long-term losses. 

The Shortable Instruments (SLB) Search tool lists the available shortable securities within the web platform and the borrowing volume that is provided for these securities. (SLB stands for Securities Lending/Borrowing.) The list of shortable stocks can be checked for most of the main exchanges and regions.

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Interactive Brokers's customer service could be better. You can contact them via phone, email, live chat and an automated 'iBot', and receive mostly relevant answers. However, waiting times can be long, especially on the phone.

You can contact Interactive Brokers via:

• Live chat
• Phone 
• Instead of email, you have to use the 'Message Center' that is accessible from the Client portal

Customer service is available in several regions and languages, namely English, Russian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese.

Our experience with customer service was mixed.

In 2019, we tested the chat, email and phone support, three times each. Email responses arrived within a day. The wait time for a representative in a live chatroom was rather long (e.g. more than three minutes), but after they came online, the experience was smooth and we received relevant answers. The waiting time on the phone call was around one minute.

In January 2021, customer services collapsed for Europeans as lots of clients had to migrate from the UK entity to another one because of Brexit. Messages went unanswered for 5-10 days and it was not possible to contact IB by phone either.

Currently, the level of customer service is back to its baseline level, which is a bit below the industry average.

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Interactive Brokers offers a wide range of quality educational materials and tools, including videos, courses, webinars, a glossary, and a demo account.

At Interactive Brokers, you can learn in the following ways:

• Paper (demo) account
• Online courses
• Webinars
• Educational videos
• Platform tutorial videos
• Glossary
• News

Once you set up a trading account, you can also open a Paper Trading Account. This is a demo account: all paper accounts start with $1,000,000 in virtual money, which you can use to experiment with IB's platforms and trading services.

In addition to the above services, you can choose from multiple courses based on your trading skills. There is also a glossary that helps you understand technical terms, unfamiliar expressions and acronyms.

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Interactive Brokers is regulated by several financial authorities, including top-tier ones like the SEC in the US and the UK's FCA. Its parent company is listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

Is Interactive Brokers regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by multiple top-tier financial authorities, like the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Is Interactive Brokers safe?

To be certain if a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

Interactive Brokers Group is an international broker, operating through multiple entities globally. This matters for you because Interactive Brokers provides negative balance protection, and the investor protection amount and the regulating authority differ from entity to entity.

Interactive Brokers provides negative balance protection for forex spot and CFD trading, but only for retail clients from the European Union. Professional and non-EU clients are not covered with any negative balance protection 

*If you are from the UK, the regulator and the protection amount also depends on the type of assets that you are trading:

• If you trade forex, CFDs, non-US stock index options and futures, you are protected by the FCA, up to the amount of £85,000. 
• If you trade stocks, bonds, funds and US stock index options, you are protected by the US investor protection (the protection amount is $500,000 with a cash limit of $250,000).

** In general, SIPC covers notes, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investment company shares, as well as other registered securities. It does not cover instruments such as unregistered investment contracts, unregistered limited partnerships, fixed annuity contracts, currency, and interests in gold, silver, or other commodity futures contracts or commodity options.

*** Client accounts at IBCE are protected by Hungary's Act CXX of 2001 on the Capital Market up to an amount of EUR 100,000. The amount paid by the insurance fund is:
100% up to the limit of the EUR equivalent of one million HUF (equivalent to EUR 2,800 on 12th December 2020),
Above one million forints: 1 million forints and 90% of the part above one million forints to a maximum of EUR 100,000.

Background

Interactive Brokers is based in the USA and was founded in 1977. During the last more four decades, IB managed to remain a leading force in the global brokerage market, despite multiple economic crises, which is a good sign for the broker's safety.

Interactive Brokers Group (the holding company of the different entities) is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. The listing makes the broker more transparent, as it has to publish financial statements regularly. 

Being a listed entity and rand the fact that it's egulated by both the UK's FCA and the US SEC are all great signs for Interactive Brokers's safety.

In recent negative news, Interactive Brokers was fined $38 million by US regulators in August 2020 for not monitoring hundreds of millions of wire transfers that were potentially used for money laundering purposes. In addition, IB also failed to report some potential manipulations regarding microcap securities.

Find your safe broker

Interactive Brokers is one of the biggest US-based discount brokers, regulated by several top-tier regulators globally. We recommend this broker both for advanced traders and for everyday investors who want to have access to many stock markets.

On the plus side, IB offers very low fees, a vast range of markets and products, and diverse research tools. 

There are some drawbacks, though. We weren't satisfied with the quaity of the customer service and the account opening process is complicated. Unlike the web and mobile platforms, the desktop platform is complex and hard to get a handle on, especially for beginners.

If you have experience navigating complex platforms and enjoy transparent, low-cost trading, Interactive Brokers is a great fit for you.

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