Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers is a large American brokerage company founded in 1978 in the USA, which offers trading in a huge number of financial assets for almost a million clients worldwide. Like all financial services companies in the United States, Interactive Brokers is fully regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In addition, Interactive Brokers also has several overseas branches whose activities are regulated locally by regulatory authorities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Australia.

Interactive Brokers - a regulated broker?

The Interactive Brokers group includes several brokerage companies:

• Interactive Brokers US is located in the United States and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC);
• Interactive Brokers AU is located in Australia and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC);
• Interactive Brokers CA is located in Canada and is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Authority of Canada (IIROC);
• Interactive Brokers UK is located in the UK and is regulated by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FCA);
• Interactive Brokers SG is located in Singapore and is authorized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS);
• Interactive Brokers HK is located in Hong Kong and is regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC);
• Interactive Brokers JP is located in Japan and is regulated by the Financial Regulatory Authority (JFSA), etc.

What is the maximum leverage in Interactive Brokers?

On Forex, Interactive Brokers provides leverage up to 1:50 on theselected categories of tools.

Trading instruments

It is important to note that this broker offers not only the usual choice of currency pairs, cryptocurrencies, commodities and stocks, but also a wide range of investment and trading assets, such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options, futures, bonds, etc. Full list of all assets can be found on the trading platform Trader Workstation.

Trading Platforms

For most Interactive Brokers clients, the broker's own web platform will be enough to place trades, check quotes and perform simple technical analysis. However, for more demanding users, the broker also offers a flagship desktop platform known as Trader Workstation, which includes almost everything that even the most advanced trader may need. Another great feature of Trader Workstation is that it can be used on Mac computers, as well as on Windows and Linux. This differs, for example, from the popular MT4 and MT5 platforms, which in their standard versions are only available for Windows computers.

Interactive Brokers offers the FXTrader platform with a user-friendly interface and management for trading Forex currency pairs.

In addition, Interactive Brokers also offers a mobile version of its web platform, known as IBKR Mobile, as well as an API solution for traders who want to connect to a broker through other third-party trading platforms.

What types of accounts does Interactive Brokers offer?

Interactive Brokers should pay attention to account types and pricing structure, which may seem a little complicated at first. When it comes to mFor international stocks and most derivatives, you can choose between trading with a multi-level account, where the commission decreases as more transactions are made, and a fixed account with the same commission level regardless of the volume of trading.

In addition to this, the broker also offers the opportunity to trade US stocks with zero commission, as some other online brokers in the US have also started doing so in recent years. However, for spot trading on the foreign exchange market, fixed income instruments and investment in mutual funds, all transactions are commission-based.

Spreads and commissions

Interactive Brokers offers competitive prices, but it is difficult to make an accurate comparison, since the broker does not publish its average spreads for Forex instruments. For Forex trading, commissions on each side start at 0.2 basis points of the transaction value in US dollars with a minimum of $2 per order.

What is the minimum deposit in Interactive Brokers?

There is no minimum deposit in Interactive Brokers. The main method of replenishment for most countries is an international bank transfer.

Conclusions

Interactive Brokers is one of the largest and most well-known brands in the entire industry of stock and Forex brokers. The company offers a huge selection of trading instruments. However, the process of opening and verifying an account is quite complicated. Moreover, it will not be easy for a novice trader to understand the trading conditions on the broker's website. Finally, Interactive Brokers does not provide MT4 and MT5 platforms, and Trader Workstation is not exactly easy to use. Thus, Interactive Brokers can be recommended to professional traders with large capital, and it is better for beginners to choose another broker.

Before before choosing a broker, we recommend that you read the reviews of Interactive Brokers, as well as see our rating of Forex brokers.