Things to consider
There are many aspects to assessing a broker’s services in general, maybe even too many to list. Below, we’ll focus on the most important criteria that should be taken into account when determining whether a broker is good for beginners.
A beginner-friendly broker should have:
- an excellent web and mobile trading platform
- low fees
- great educational tools
- good customer service
- an easy account opening process
- low minimum deposit
Legitimacy is also very important, but since we recommend only legit brokers regulated by top-tier financial authorities, this is one thing you don’t have to worry about.
More and more people are looking to become a player on financial markets either as traders or investors. However, when researching the basics, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available online.
This is where BrokerChooser offers a helping hand. The reason is simple: choosing the right service, especially when you are taking your first steps in trading, is highly important.
In this article we’ll check whether Interactive Brokers is the right choice for a starting trader.
Confused about fees? Use this tool to see what the commission fee of a specific stock trade would be at Interactive Brokers. To check and compare fees at other brokers, go to our main Fee calculator page.
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Is Interactive Brokers good for beginners?
Based on our scoring methodology, Interactive Brokers is not considered good for beginners. If you'd like to see alternatives, check out our picks for the best brokers for beginners.
Let's take a look at its services one by one, following the criteria we set above, to get the whole picture.
- 💻 When it comes to its web platform, Interactive Brokers might suit the needs of beginners: User-friendly. Clear fee report. Two-step (safer) login. Overall, this platform may be an optimal choice for beginners.
- 📱 The mobile platform of Interactive Brokers is reasonably well-designed: User-friendly. Good search function. Touch/Face ID login. This may be helpful for the first steps in your trading journey.
- 🕖 Account opening: Fully digital. Minimum deposit only for margin account. When it comes to the actual process however, there are more seamless experiences at other brokers that Interactive Brokers could look to as an example. Areas of improvement: Not user-friendly.
- 📚 Interactive Brokers's education materials are a great place to start: Demo account. Trading platform tutorial. Educational videos. This makes Interactive Brokers's material worthy reading.
- 📞 Phone support. Live chat. Relevant answers. However, there is some room for improvement in Interactive Brokers's customer service: Slow support.
- 💰 Low minimum deposits and low-cost transactions are attractive for new traders. Interactive Brokers's deposit and withdrawal processes have some good things to offer: No deposit fee. Several account base currencies. First withdrawal free each month. Nevertheless, its services could be improved in other areas: Bank card not available.
Overview of Interactive Brokers's services
Let’s take an overall look at how Interactive Brokers compares to its peers when it comes to platforms, fees, account opening and education tools. Our scores are on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0, from worst to best.
Web platform score
|
4.3 stars | 5.0 stars | 4.0 stars |
---|---|---|---|
Mobile platform score
|
4.3 stars | 5.0 stars | 4.5 stars |
Fees
|
Low | Average | Low |
Account opening score
|
3.1 stars | 5.0 stars | 5.0 stars |
Education score
|
5.0 stars | 4.5 stars | 3.0 stars |
Customer service score
|
3.4 stars | 4.5 stars | 2.7 stars |
Deposit and withdrawal score
|
3.3 stars | 4.5 stars | 2.6 stars |
If you wish to read more about Interactive Brokers, click 'Visit Broker' to go to the broker's website. We also have a detailed review of the broker that you can read by clicking on the 'More' button.
Is Interactive Brokers legit?
We hear more and more stories each day about clients who lost their money to scammers from Telegram or through unregulated services. BrokerChooser only features brokers that have top-tier financial regulators. As such, Interactive Brokers is a legit and trusted broker.
If you’d like to know more, check out our deeper dive into Interactive Brokers's legitimacy.
Where can I find more information?
If Interactive Brokers is not the right broker for you, go ahead and check out our picks for Best Brokers for Beginners in 2024 for some alternatives.
Also, if you feel that some things weren’t clear when it comes to the brokerage world, no worries. We have lots of content to cover your questions. You can find our articles in the Education section of our site.
For example, if you want to know how to buy shares online and how the whole process works, there’s an article about that. If you’d like to learn more about investing in stocks or what short selling is, we have articles about these topics too.
We have also written a few materials that focus on recent events in the news, like what a short squeeze is.
We hope you found all of the information above useful. If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you, just write to us at [email protected]. See you there!
Check out this short video for a behind-the-scenes peek into how our experts personally test and evaluate brokers.