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Interactive Brokers review
Find out if Interactive Brokers is any good, its fees and some key features.
Interactive Brokers is a comprehensive trading platform that lets you trade on stocks in more than 200 countries. It claims to offer the lowest trading fees, but it’s got a pretty complicated pricing structure. Interactive Brokers has four trading platforms to choose between, letting you decide how much detail you want to see your investments with. Find out some of the key features of interactive brokers and what we thought.
What's in this guide?
What is Interactive Brokers?
Interactive Brokers is a broker designed for sophisticated and experienced investors. It’s got all the tools you need to understand your investments, including:
- Detailed quotes. Interactive Brokers gives you detailed information and quote details.
- Advanced charting. You can customise your charts, add technical indicators and display volume charts.
- News. You can stay on top of news that’s relevant to specific products.
- Key metrics at a glance. You can see essential information like your Net Liquidation Value and buying power.
- Performance charts. Interactive Brokers has made it easy to track your performance with cumulative and monthly return charts.
- Quick trade. You can quickly place orders, manage ones you already have open and view recent trades.
- Notifications. You can turn on notifications and FYIs.
- Order types and algos. These help you limit your risk.
- Risk management. Interactive Brokers has a risk navigator and other technology to help you manage your risk.
- Paper trading. Interactive Broker’s demo account. You can try out strategies without using real money.
- iPhone and Android apps. You can access your accounts from anywhere.
Who is Interactive Brokers good for?
Interactive Brokers isn’t really for beginners. It’s quite intimidating, with lots of different tools and a lot of jargon – this could be exciting for a sophisticated and experienced investor but is enough to put a beginner off.
If you’re just starting out and want something a little less intimidating, check out Hargreaves Lansdown or IG.
Interactive Brokers has tools suitable for active and day traders.
What can I invest in with Interactive Brokers?
Here are some of the financial instruments you can trade with Interactive Brokers:
- Stocks
- Options
- Futures
- Forex
- Bonds
- Funds
Stock exchanges covered
Is Interactive Brokers safe?
Interactive Brokers is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Client money is segregated from Interactive Brokers’ own money and your deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
Interactive Brokers fees
| Instrument | Cost |
|---|---|
| Stocks | $0.0005 – $0.0035 per share |
| ETFs | $0.0005 – $0.0035 per share |
| Options | $0.15 – $0.85 per contract |
| Futures | $0.25 – $0.85 per contract |
| Currencies | Price quotes in 1/10 of a PIP. |
Other fees
- Exchange fee. This is a fee for exchanging your money from your currency to the one that you’re buying the shares in
- Regulatory clearing fee. This is a fee from a clearing house for completing a transaction
- Inactivity fee. There’s a fee for not using your account but holding money in it
Pros and cons
Pros
- Lots of stock exchanges covered – the most for any provider we’ve reviewed
- Plenty of tools available
- Four different trading platforms to choose between
- Low fees
Cons
- Intimidating for beginners.
- Complicated fee structure.
Compare share dealing platforms
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Our verdict: Is Interactive Brokers any good?
On the whole, Interactive Brokers is a great trading platform. It’s got everything you could ever need when investing, a huge range of markets covered, plenty of tools and a choice of platform. It’s possibly too much for an inexperienced trader, with a lot of unexplained jargon. That being said, it does have a range of educational content which could help would-be investors get to grips with the terminology and how it works.
There’s not currently any support for individual savings accounts (ISAs) which is a bit of a let down – we look forward to seeing if it adds these later on.
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