Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers is a versatile trading platform catered to active investors interested in day trading and international securities.
Business Insider's personal finance team compared Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers to the best online brokerages. We found it an industry leader for access to global markets.
Pros and Cons
Interactive Brokers Pros
- Only a $0 ($100 Interactive Advisors automated accounts) account minimum
- Overall low fees
- Competitive trading tools and features
- Large selection of investment options
- International trading across 200+ countries and territories
- DIY and robo-advisor account options
Interactive Brokers Cons
- Active traders may pay more for IBKR Pro
- Hard-to-navigate website
- IBKR's SmartRouting feature is not available for IBKR Lite
Open an Account
$0 ($100 Interactive Advisors automated accounts)
$0 for IBKR Lite; $0 IBKR Pro (per-share commissions apply)
- Low commissions and fees
- International trading opportunities
- Competitive trading platforms and tools
- Several account types available
- Thousands of no-transaction-fee mutual funds
- Cryptocurrency investing available for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, and litecoin
- Less active traders pay more for IBKR Pro
- Website can be tricky to navigate
Interactive Brokers is one of the best online brokerages for advanced, active investors who trade securities frequently and value access to market analysis and trading platforms.
- Promotion: None at this time.
Compare Interactive Brokers
Overview
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) may pique your interest if you're a hands-on investor looking to trade in global markets across over 200 countries and territories.
Interactive Brokers is highly regarded for its day-trading capabilities but is not exclusively a day-trading platform. It offers a range of investment strategies, including long-term buy-and-hold investments, retirement accounts, and retirement funds.
With IBKR, you can access advanced stock trading strategies like day trading and options trading. IBKR is available on mobile, web, or desktop, offering specialized accounts for professionals and accessible accounts for beginners.
IBKR's standout features are its wide range of securities (including its large bond selection), customizable dashboards, extensive educational resources, advanced research and data, low-cost trades, and comprehensive 24/7 customer support.
Although Interactive Brokers is geared toward active traders, passive investors can use the Interactive Brokers Lite pricing plan or the platform's robo-advisor to trade unlimited free stocks and ETFs.
Interactive Brokers offers a handful of professional trading tools including tax-loss harvesting, stop-loss orders, and a mobile trading app. IBKR also developed a new tool called Options Wizard to assist users in devising their combination strategies.
Although IBKR's website is packed with helpful information on its product offerings and services, beginners may find many tabs and platforms separate from the main site (such as Interactive Advisors, Investors' Marketplace, and IBKR Campus) overwhelming to navigate.
A simpler platform may suit you better if you're not interested in active day trading.
IBKR Mobile has a rating of 4.5/5 on the Apple Store and 4.6/5 on Google Play.
Ways to Invest
Interactive Brokers offers stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs, futures, cryptocurrencies, bonds, fractional shares, precious metals, and forex.
IBKR Crypto-Trading
Interactive Brokers' crypto services let you trade:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin cash (BCH)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Solana (SOL)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
However, to be eligible for crypto trading, you must update your account's permissions. Interactive Brokers says it typically approves trading permissions requests overnight.
Commissions are based on monthly trading volume and usually range from 0.12% to 0.18% of trade value. The minimum trade order is $1.75 per order.
IBKR Self-Directed Investing
Interactive Brokers gives you the choice of two pricing plans: IBKR Lite or IBKR Pro. IBKR Lite offers commission-free trading for US-listed stocks and ETFs, and you can set up and maintain your account without any minimum opening deposits or inactivity fees.
The IBKR Lite plan also accepts individual, joint, IRA, and trust accounts.
The IBKR Pro plan, on the other hand, is a better choice for more active and sophisticated investors. This plan offers extra access to investment research and lets you use software like Interactive Brokers' SmartRouting system, which ensures your orders are executed at the best price.
Both IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro provide access to Interactive Brokers' Client Portal, IBKR Mobile, IBKR Campus, and Trader Workstation (TWS). You can also find educational resources on IBKR Campus, which offers courses, webinars, podcasts, and more.
IBKR Automated Trading
Interactive Brokers' robo-advisor — Interactive Advisors — specializes in automated investment management, offering dozens of themed portfolios. As one of the best robo-advisors, Interactive Advisors' portfolios are built with a mixture of stocks and ETFs.
With a $100 minimum, you can automate multiple account types, including IRAs and individual, joint, and trust accounts.
The platform also offers multiple investing options. These include:
- Asset allocation portfolios: Interactive Advisors' asset allocation portfolios invest your funds in a diversified blend of ETFs. This option includes a 0.20% asset-based fee and no commission, entry, or exit fees.
- Actively managed portfolios: Portfolio management mainly falls into the hands of Interactive Advisors' CIO and investment team. However, the company also relies on registered investment advisors (RIAs) and data from top investment management companies. These portfolios use a wide range of ETFs and can have minimums as high as $50,000.
- Smart Beta portfolios: Interactive Advisors says these portfolios aim to achieve more attractive returns through an alternative risk-return profile. These investment portfolios also include fractional shares and automatic rebalancing.
- Socially responsible portfolios: You can invest in companies that work to impact the world positively and embody other ESG factors.
- Top performing portfolios: Invest in Interactive Advisor's top portfolios for the highest returns in the 365 days. This includes the technology portfolio of large and mid-cap stocks, fundamental growth portfolios, and the long-term value portfolio.
- Portfolios with the best risk-adjusted returns: Invest in Interactive Advisor's top portfolios for the best risk-adjusted returns based on the highest 365-day Sharpe ratio. Included portfolios are fundamental growth, long-term value, technology, and unconstrained.
- Top performing socially responsible portfolios: Invest in top socially responsible portfolios with the highest 365-day returns, like the LGBTQ Inclusion portfolio, Clean Air portfolios, and Racial Equality portfolios
Interactive Advisors mainly offers ETFs and other funds when building portfolios. Its asset allocation portfolios use US equity, bond exposure through several ETFs, or inflation-hedging through real estate and commodities.
IBKR Retirement Accounts
Interactive Brokers offers traditional, Roth, rollover, inherited, and SEP IRAs.
IRAs are generally available in cash or margin form, and IRA margin accounts allow you to trade currency products.
Other IBKR Trading Platforms
Other trading platforms available at Interactive Brokers include its client portal, Trader Workstation, IBKR mobile apps, and IBKR APIs for institutional clients. The company also offers courses on investing, markets, and programming through its Trader Workstation (TWS) application.
Also, Interactive Brokers' IMPACT is a socially responsible investing mobile app that helps investors find companies whose values align with their own.
Fees
A regular brokerage account with Interactive Brokers doesn't require any minimum to open an account. But Interactive Advisors requires a minimum investment of $100. Management fees for the robo-advisor portfolios range from 0.10% to 0.75%.
IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro have no account minimum. Active traders may also access discounted tiered pricing based on trading volume.
Options trades range from 0.15% to 0.65% per contract. Futures trades range from 0.25% to 0.85% per contract.
Trustworthiness
Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers LLC has received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. The BBB rates companies using a grade scale range of A+ to F, showing that Interactive Brokers generally works well with its customers. The bureau says its ratings don't guarantee that a business will be reliable or perform well; they simply provide a closer look into customer interaction.
On September 29, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Interactive Brokers Corp. and Interactive Brokers LLC for failing to maintain and preserve records required by CFTC record keeping, plus not diligently supervising related business matters. Interactive Brokers admitted to these accusations and is set to pay a $20 million civil monetary penalty.
On June 30, 2022, the CFTC settled a lawsuit against Interactive Brokers, accusing the platform of violating CFTC regulations by failing to supervise employees who handled customers' exchange fees adequately. Interactive Brokers agreed to pay $710,828.14 in disgorgement and a $300,000 civil monetary penalty.
Alternatives
Let's compare Interactive Brokers to other top investing apps.
Fidelity
$0 ($25,000 Fidelity Personalized Planning & Advice)
0% ($0 or 0.35% for robo-advisor)
- No account minimum or account fees
- No commissions for stock, ETF, and options trades; fractional shares available
- Thousands of no-transaction-fee mutual funds and fee-free mutual funds
- Several research tools and trading platforms available
- Fidelity Go accounts cost more for investors with higher account balances
- Representative-assisted trades are slightly more expensive than other brokerages
Fidelity is one of the best online brokerages for beginners and retirement savings. It has great features for all types of investors and traders.
Fidelity Brokerage- Promotion: None at this time
- App store rating: 4.8 iOS/4.4 Android
- Awards: Morningstar named the Fidelity HSA as the best HSA provider in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
- Consider it if: You're focused on long-term investing and retirement.
Interactive Brokers and Fidelity Brokerage both offer commission-free trades on multiple investment types. They also share a $0 minimum requirement for self-directed brokerage accounts, but fees vary for different account types.
For instance, fees for automated advice at Fidelity Go range from $0 (for balances below $25,000) to an annual 0.35% (for balances above $25,000).
But for Interactive Advisors, you'll pay an annual 0.15% to 0.65%, depending on the advisor and portfolio you choose, plus at least a $100 account minimum. Higher fees may be worth it for traders interested in international trades and more advanced trading features.
Otherwise, beginners with an account balance of more than $25,000 are better off with Fidelity Go, which offers unlimited access to a financial advisor.
Vanguard
$0 ($3,000 for Vanguard Digital Advisor; $50,000 for Vanguard Personal Advisor)
0% (0.20% to 0.30% for professionally managed portfolios)
- Commission-free stocks, ETFs, and options
- Brokerage, automated, and advisor-managed accounts available
- Thousands of low-cost mutual funds
- Multiple resources with expert analysis and market insights
- Several retirement accounts and services for retirement plan participants
- Higher options contract fee than other discount brokerages (Vanguard charges $1 per options contract)
- No separate trading platforms for advanced traders; no fractional shares
- No cryptocurrencies
Vanguard is a reasonable low-cost option for all types of investors. Whether you're an active trader, passive investor, or retirement-focused individual, you should be able to find what you're looking for.
Vanguard- Promotion: None at this time.
- App store rating: 4.7 iOS/ 1.8 Android
- Consider it if: You're a long-term focused investor looking for access to a variety of account types and investment choices.
- Awards: Morningstar gave Vanguard a 'High' assessment in its 2022 Robo-advisor Landscape report, listing it as the #1 platform out of 16 robo-advisors
Like Interactive Brokers and Fidelity, Vanguard offers various account types and investments. However, thanks to its competitive selection of retirement resources and "all-in-one" target retirement funds, Vanguard is best for retirement-focused individuals.
Interactive Brokers is generally better for experienced traders and active traders. While Vanguard solely offers its web and mobile platforms, Interactive Brokers provides more advanced trading platforms and tools.
Interactive Brokers is also better for investors seeking international diversification across a wide range of global markets.
Why You Should Trust Us
Interactive Brokers was examined using Business Insider's rating methodology for investing platforms to compare and examine account types, pricing, investment options, and overall customer experience. Investing platforms are given a rating between 1 and 5.
Interactive Brokers was evaluated with a focus on how it performed in each category.
Business Insider's Overall Interactive Brokers Rating
| Feature | Our rating (out of 5) |
| Fees | 4.00 |
| Investment selection | 4.50 |
| Access | 4.00 |
| Ethics | 5.00 |
| Customer service | 4.50 |
| Overall score | 4.38 |
FAQs
What is Interactive Brokers, and what services does it offer?
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is a global online investing platform that offers a range of investment options and strategies for individual and institutional investors. It offers self-directed trading, robots, access to global markets, and crypto services.
How does Interactive Brokers stand out in the online investing industry?
Interactive Brokers stands out in the online investing industry with its access to 200+ international markets and powerful tools like the broker's Trader Workstation platform, which provides users with customizable, powerful, in-depth analysis tools and trading strategies.
Is there a monthly fee for Interactive Brokers?
Interactive Brokers has no monthly fees. It requires a $0 minimum for its standard account and a $100 minimum for its robo-advisor, Interactive Advisors, which charges management fees ranging from 0.10% to 0.75%.
Is Interactive Brokers good for beginner investors?
Yes. Interactive Broker is good for beginner investors, especially with Interactive Brokers Lite, but a $100 minimum requirement exists. It offers unlimited, commission-free trading of US stocks and ETFs while still getting access to global markets.
How does Interactive Brokers support advanced and professional traders?
Interactive Brokers supports advanced and professional traders with tools and trading strategies like the Shortable Search feature to find shortable stocks and bonds and the ability to choose from more than 48,000 mutual funds, hedge funds, or futures.
Sofi Active Invest: Investments are not FDIC-insured - Are not bank-guaranteed - May lose value - Brokerage and Active investing products offered through SoFi Securities LLC, member FINRA(www.finra.org)/SIPC(www.sipc.org).
Must be a SoFi Plus member at the time a recurring deposit is received into your SoFi Active or Automated investing account to qualify. Bonus calculated on net monthly recurring deposits made via ACH and paid out as Rewards Points. See Rewards Terms of Service. SoFi reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time without notice. See terms and limitations. https://www.sofi.com/sofiplus/invest/#disclaimers.
SoFi Plus members can schedule an unlimited number of appointments with a financial planner during periods in which the SoFi Plus member meets the eligibility criteria set forth in section 10(a) of the SoFi Plus Terms and Conditions. SoFi members who are not members of SoFi Plus can schedule one (1) appointment with a financial planner. The ability to schedule appointments is subject to financial planner availability. SoFi reserves the right to change or terminate this benefit at any time with or without notice. Advisory services are offered by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Information about SoFi Wealth's advisory operations, services, and fees is set forth in SoFi Wealth's current Form ADV Part 2 (Brochure), a copy of which is available upon request and at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Customer must fund their Active Invest account with at least $50 within 30 days of opening the account. Probability of customer receiving $1,000 is 0.028%. See full terms and conditions. https://www.sofi.com/invest/clawpromotion/rules.
