Stock trading at a glance
Buying and selling stocks is probably the most common form of investment and given the explosion in the number of online brokers over the past years, nearly everyone can invest in stocks. You don't need a large amount of money to start investing in a company; everyday investors do it with $100 or less.
Interactive Brokers clients have access to real stocks, meaning they can buy and sell shares at this online broker. Follow these easy steps to start buying stocks at Interactive Brokers:
- Open an investment account at Interactive Brokers
- Transfer money to your account
- Find a stock or ETF that you want to buy on the trading platform
- Buy the stock(s) or ETF(s)
- Review your positions regularly
- Sell as you see fit
If you are a client of Interactive Brokers, you can trade both stocks and stock CFDs. Note that CFDs (contracts for difference) are derivative products that come with a higher degree of risk.
If you buy a CFD, you speculate on price movements without buying the actual asset. For example, if you buy a Tesla share CFD and Tesla’s share price goes up, so will the value of your CFD. If this is the first time you're considering opening a CFD position, we recommend you check out our expert guide to CFD trading.
Same as buying actual stocks, you will need to open an account at Interactive Brokers, top it up, select the CFD(s) you want to buy, purchase them, check your positions regularly, and sell when convenient.
Disclaimer: 60.0% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
CFDs can be a good idea for short-term traders, but remember that these instruments have many drawbacks: for instance, you'll need to pay the broker a financing charge as long as you hold the CFD. This fee could add up to a significant amount if you hold the CFD for several weeks.
Save for a few special cases, investing in real stocks instead of CFDs may be a better long-term strategy.
What stocks can you trade at Interactive Brokers?
Interactive Brokers gives access to 90 stock exchanges for trading real stocks.
The following table contains an estimated number of stocks available at Interactive Brokers and its closest competitors. Some brokers that offer access to the NYSE and Nasdaq focus on the biggest names and may not list some smaller companies. Other brokers allow you to trade all stocks listed on the respective exchange, giving you more flexibility in setting up your investment portfolio.
Number of stock markets
|
90 | 50 | 29 |
---|---|---|---|
Approx. number of stocks
|
90,000 | 23,500 | 31,000 |
Data updated on March 13, 2024
Check out the following table for details about US stock trading at Interactive Brokers.
Due to limited trading activity, stocks usually have greater price fluctuation and wider bid-ask spreads during extended hours compared to standard market hours.
Number of stock markets
|
90 | 50 | 29 |
---|---|---|---|
Number of stocks
|
8,500 | 7,800 | - |
Data updated on March 13, 2024
At Interactive Brokers, you have access to 8,500 stock CFDs.
Number of stock CFDs available
|
8,500 | 7,800 | - |
---|
Data updated on March 13, 2024
Trading costs at Interactive Brokers
Trading stocks comes with a range of brokerage fees, which can be divided into trading and non-trading fees. Trading fees are directly tied to a trade and usually include commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees. Non-trading fees are charges not directly related to trading, such as withdrawal fees or inactivity fees. When you are trading stocks, the most important fees are commissions. For a more detailed breakdown of costs related to investing, check out our in-depth guide to brokerage fees.
When it comes to trading real stocks at Interactive Brokers, commissions are Low when compared with all brokers we've reviewed at Brokerchooser. The following tables contain the most important charges related to stock trading and the fees levied by the competitors of Interactive Brokers.
We've calculated the fees for an imaginary trade of $2,000 worth of shares on American, British, Hong Kong and German stock exchanges. We've converted the GBP, HKD and EUR trading fees to USD for better comparison.
$2000 trade on the NYSE/NASDAQ
|
$1.0
|
$1.6
|
$2.2
|
---|---|---|---|
$2000 trade on the LSE
|
$3.8
|
$3.8
|
$3.4
|
$2000 trade on a German stock exchange
|
$3.2
|
$3.2
|
$5.3
|
$2000 trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange
|
$2.3
|
$2.0
|
$6.5
|
Data updated on March 13, 2024
In order to calculate CFD fees, we compared brokers by calculating all the fees of a typical trade for selected products. We chose popular instruments that best reflect CFD trading fees:
- Stock CFDs: Apple and Vodafone (UK)
- Stock index CFDs: the S&P500 index (SPX) and the EURO STOXX 50 index
We calculated these simulated trades using a leveraged CFD position, which we held for a week before selling it. The following table contains the most important charges we incurred.
We opened a $2,000 position or the EUR/GBP equivalent. The leverage we used was 20:1 for stock index CFDs and 5:1 for stock CFDs. These catch-all benchmark fees include spreads, commissions and financing costs for all brokers.
Apple stock CFD
|
$4.8 | $11.6 |
-
|
---|---|---|---|
Vodafone stock CFD
|
$11.2 | $24.5 |
-
|
S&P 500 index CFD
|
$4.8 | $3.6 |
-
|
Europe 50 index CFD
|
$4.4 | $3.7 |
-
|
Data updated on March 13, 2024
Now let's take a look at non-trading fees. Most online brokers don't charge an account fee, nor deposit fees, but inactivity fees and withdrawal fees are more common.
Account fee
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
---|---|---|---|
Inactivity fee
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Deposit fee
|
$0
|
$0
|
$0
|
Withdrawal fee
|
$0
|
$0
|
$0
|
Data updated on March 13, 2024
Minimum deposit for trading stocks at Interactive Brokers
The minimum deposit to open a brokerage account with Interactive Brokers is $0. This is a great benefit as there are brokers that require as much as a couple thousand dollars.
Minimum deposit
|
$0
|
$0
|
$0
|
---|
Data updated on March 13, 2024
Margin vs cash accounts at Interactive Brokers
Clients can open a margin account with Interactive Brokers. These accounts allow you to borrow money from the broker and buy more stocks than what your actual cash balance would cover. You'll need a margin account if you want to short individual stocks or ETFs (i.e. bet on price decline). Margin accounts require a minimum balance. If you decide to use this feature, you'll have to pay the following margin interest on your negative cash balance.
USD margin rate
|
6.8%
|
-
|
6.9%
|
---|---|---|---|
EUR margin rate
|
5.5%
|
-
|
6.9%
|
GBP margin rate
|
6.7%
|
-
|
6.9%
|
Data updated on March 13, 2024
Pattern Day Trading at Interactive Brokers
The Pattern Day Trading (PTD) Rule applies at Interactive Brokers. According to FINRA rules, you are a day trader if you execute at least four day trades within five business days. Pattern Day Traders have to maintain a minimum account balance of $25,000 in their margin accounts. This will allow them to engage in unlimited day trading. Brokers are free to impose a higher minimum requirement, which is often called a house requirement. If the account balance drops below the set minimum, traders are not permitted to day trade until the minimum level is restored. If the account balance is less than $25,000, a maximum four day trades are allowed in five business days.
Bottom line
While buying stocks and ETFs may prove one of the best long-term investments, it also carries a number of risks. In addition to unpredictable market movements, the most common risks include choosing the wrong broker, not diversifying your portfolio and investing in lousy stocks. To avoid some of these pitfalls, check out our guide about managing risks related to trading stocks.
We recommend only quality brokers, so you can be sure that none of the online brokers listed here are scams. In order to be sure, we check roughly 20 safety-related criteria, such as regulation, investor protection amount and the transparency of the broker's financials. Lastly, at least one top-tier financial authority regulates all the brokers you can find on BrokerChooser.
If you want to read our full review of Interactive Brokers, including fees, deposit options and platform reviews (like web and desktop), visit Interactive Brokers review.
Check out this short video for a behind-the-scenes peek into how our experts personally test and evaluate brokers.
Further reading
- Diversifying your investments
- Interactive Brokers stock conditions as of September 2023 explained
- Interactive Brokers penny stocks trading conditions explained as of September 2023
- Interactive Brokers bond availability as of September 2023
- Interactive Brokers ETF trading explained September 2023
- Are margin rates low at Interactive Brokers as of December 2023?
- Interactive Brokers cash interest rate as of February 2024
- Interactive Brokers ESG investing September 2023
- Interactive Brokers invest $100,000 as of September 2023
- Interactive Brokers IPO accessibility
- Interactive Brokers Mexican stocks trading availability October 2023
- Interactive Brokers US stock trading details October 2023