I'd like to know who has any experience with Interactive Brokers. You are welcome, Share your experience on futures and stocks execution and how they are supported.
Thanks
About Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers - ECN-broker, company, based in 1977. The company is headquartered in the USA, regional offices are located in Switzerland, Canada, Hong Kong, Uk, australia, Hungary, Of Russia, India, China and Estonia. Broker SEC accredited, FINRA, NYSE, FCA и IIROC.
Direct Market Access to Shares, optional, futures, fixed income, foreign exchange transactions, ETF and CFDs from a single Universal IB ™ account.
- 120 markets
- 31 country
- 23 currencies
Access to market data 24 hours a day, six days a week, to stay up to date with what is happening in all world markets. Convert currencies at low market rates, beginning with 1/10 basis point, or create positions, backed by foreign exchange. Funding an account in various currencies. Trade assets, denominated in different currencies, from one account.
Special offers and bonuses
There are no bonuses on Interactive Brokers, no special offers, however, it is possible to receive $200 for each invited trader, if he pays commissions in the amount of more than $666,67. The total amount of commission for invited traders is not limited.
Types of trading accounts
Interactive Brokers offers one of the following 4 accounts:
1) Individual: minimum deposit $10000
2) IRA account: minimum deposit $25000.
3) Portfolio account: the minimum deposit in a portfolio account is $110000.
Interactive Brokers cannot use "advisors", however hedging, scalping and intraday strategies are allowed regardless of the account type.
History of Interactive Brokers
The entire Interactive Brokers group of companies is almost entirely one-man – Thomas Peterffy, who started his professional career on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in 1977 year. First, he implemented electronic systems for reading option prices., and after the appearance and acquisition of computer systems – the first laptop computers for trading. The use of computers with continuous position scoring and tracking has given the traders of Timber Hill Inc. a significant advantage., founded by Peterffy, in front of other traders, using tables, updated once or twice a day.
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| Thomas Peterffy |
IN 1985 Timber Hill's computer system is able to trade index futures, options and risk management for equity derivatives portfolios. In addition, the system has centralized pricing, and Timber Hill's presence spread to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (WHY), New York Futures Exchange (NYFE), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) etc.
IN 1986 profitability of Timber Hill traders, using a computer system for trading, amounted to 430%.
Over time, Timber Hill begins to conduct its own stock clearing, the company's staff is rapidly expanding, and the company declares its presence in Europe. IN 1993 incorporated by Interactive Brokers Inc. (now known as IB LLC) as a broker-dealer in the USA, providing its clients with access to Timber Hill trading services.
TO 1997 Timber Hill owns about 5% the volume of transactions in available derivatives worldwide, and in 2003 the Interactive Brokers group of companies generates approximately 12% global transactions with exchange-traded index options and options on securities.
IN 2004 Interactive Brokers introduces direct bond trading, institutional Forex. At this time, the company's clients have access to trade on almost all major stock exchanges around the world.. Further, the company will be recognized as the best online broker for several years in a row., at the same time I have one of the lowest commissions for my services.
Legal notice Interactive Brokers
The structure of the Interactive Brokers group of companies can be understood from the schematic diagram:
The holding company is IBG LLC, about the main broker-dealer – INTERACTIVE BROKERS LLC.
INTERACTIVE BROKERS LLC. is overseen by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as the US Commodity Futures Commission (CFTC). In addition, he is a member of the NYSE, FINRA and SIPC.
INTERACTIVE BROKERS LLC. publishes financial statements 2 once a year, and once a year it is certified by an auditor (Deloitte & Touche LLP, one of the companies BIG4).
The control of the company cannot be called soft due to penalties, due to which I had to pay about 2,5 million dollars in the period from 2012 on 2015 year. Nevertheless, such costs have little effect on the financial condition of a company with a capitalization of about 5 billion dollars.
Terms of trade with Interactive Brokers
The company offers trading in the following instruments:
- stock;
- options;
- futures;
- ETF;
- warrants;
- structured goods;
- Forex;
- metals;
- indices;
- bonds;
- CFD;
- SSF.
Account opening takes place through the registration process, which includes full client verification (identity and place of residence). Next, a list of codes for entering the trading terminal is sent to the specified postal address., before that time codes are available.
The minimum deposit varies depending on the type of account and age:
One can see the company's desire to attract the younger generation to electronic trading. – minimum deposit for a private person up to 25 years is 3 000$, unlike an ordinary private account 10 000$.
Forex spreads have been seen at this level during “average” of the day:
The company does not impose a markup on the spread, and separately charges a commission in the amount of:
You can trade through the company's own web platform, TWS (Trader Workstation) and mobile apps. There are also Interactive Brokers API solutions. Subscription to various analysis tools and charts is paid: 69$ first and 89$ subsequent months.
Interactive Brokers Reviews
It's really hard to find massive reviews about this broker in the CIS.. but, looking at foreign resources, average broker rating is 3 from 5. This is due to the poor work of the support service., which works by phone and via e-mail. Experienced traders know the cost of errors in order execution and the need for prompt company intervention. That's why, if the client has problems with the execution of orders, it is unlikely that it will be possible to solve it promptly, and the result may be worth the loss of part of the deposit.
Conclusion
Interactive Brokers is a true major broker, as in the stock market, and in forex orbit. The reliability and openness of the broker is an example for all other brokers, however the minimum deposit, the unusualness of the trading platform and the work of the support service make this broker little-known on the Internet.
Interactive Brokers is a broker for professional traders, what the statistics of profitable and unprofitable forex traders say, published by the National Futures Association (NFA):
Trading Platforms Interactive Brokers offers the following types of trading platforms:
1) Trader workstation (Trader Workstation).
This platform creates a specialized trading environment for managing trades, analytics and account tracking. The platform integrates news and other fundamental analysis tools, risk management tools and other useful features.
- Direct access to TWS trading tools, view quotes, create orders, technical research and analysis in one window.
- Use the portfolio window to view summary account information and details about your positions; window for entering orders for their instant creation and sending; as well as an order monitor for tracking / editing them and reviewing executed and canceled orders.
- Create attached orders directly on the orders panel, including braces, stop-, beta-, limit, fx orders and orders “one cancels the rest”, profit making and pair hedging.
- Add multiple watchlists, to view contract groups and create custom market scanners.
- Add gradients, lines and bars to market scanners, to easily identify trends and algorithms.
- View interactive custom charts, supporting instruments and trend lines.
- View filtered by topic general news feeds in real time, as well as news streams for the selected underlying.
- Augment Mosaic with data, obtained through subscriptions to cutting-edge news channels and analyst research from such top-priority providers, as Reuters, Dow Jones, Morningstar и Zacks.
- Sharpen your workspace to fit your needs, combining the necessary tools.
- You can combine windows and symbol actions using color groups.. The symbol will automatically change in all linked windows when changing the current symbol in any of the windows.
- Minutely updated news from such leading news services, as Reuters, Dow Jones, flyonthewall.com etc.
- Morningstar's world-class insights, Zacks and several other providers.
- Critical financial intelligence from Reuters Worldwide Fundamentals on thousands of companies.
- Market data of world markets by individual exchanges.
- Event Calendars.
2) Mobile workstation (Mobile Trader Workstation).
Mobile platform compatible with iOS devices (iPhone и iPad), BlackBerry и Android. Also, a special modification of the Java ME mobile platform allows trading on Windows devices. There is also the option to connect to the MobileTrader platform.
3) WebTrader platform.
This platform is based on HTML and has a very simple and user-friendly interface.. Market data is also presented here, trading instruments, news and much more. Login to this platform is possible through any browser.
- Interface, tabbed, and modular design structure make it easy to find the desired features. Tabs and panels are clearly labeled and divide trading tasks into a few simple steps.
- Ideal for users, protected by a firewall. IBKR WebTrader starts and runs over the Internet, therefore you can log in and trade from any computer, connected, to the internet, without having to download the program.
- Create orders with one click of the mouse at the bid or ask price, as well as access to more complex order types through the panel.
- Quickly create spread orders based on standard or your own strategies.
- Ability to view open orders and executions, as well as creating new orders from open, executed and canceled transactions.
- Ability to view summary information about the state of the account, margin requirements, amount of capital, net residual value, P&L and positions with one click.
- You will be able to add tickers to view streaming market data, and also enable the display of market data with a delay for those instruments, for which you have not subscribed.
- Ability to view option chains and create separate tabbed pages for each underlying.
- Flash-based interactive charts allow you to see the market value and volume for individual stocks, futures or indices in one of several time intervals.
- Window “Market pulse” helps to quickly assess the state of affairs in world markets.
- Window “Market depth” displays alternative quotes, which are outside the range of supply and demand prices, which allows for a more accurate assessment of market liquidity.
- BookTrader allows you to view market depth data (deep book) for the selected asset, as well as create and place orders.
- Via “Market scanners” you can quickly scan required exchanges for the best performing instruments based on filter criteria.
- The search for contracts makes it easy to find information on the product of interest and find out its ID.
4) There are also Interactive Brokers API solutions, Customer Activity Monitor, Paper Trading Account, Order Types и SmartRouting.
5)IBot
Find the information you need. Customize orders with simple speech. IBot understands text / voice commands and gives immediate results, requiring no special syntax or financial jargon. Available in TWS for PC, IBKR mobile app, “Customer Portal”, as well as through our website search engine and IBot FAQ.
Commissions and spreads
Interactive Brokers spreads are listed below.:
| Currency pair | Spread |
| EURUSD | 0,2 |
| USDJPY | 0,1 |
| AUDUSD | 0,1 |
| GBPUSD | 0,3 |
| USDCNH | 1,1 |
| USDCHF | 0,4 |
| USDCAD | 0,1 |
| USDMXN | 10,0 |
Graphs
On Interactive brokers thanks to the IBIS system (Interactive Brokers Information System) you can get various analysis tools and charts to improve the quality of your trading. Subscription to this system costs $69 for the first month and $89 over the next months. This system provides information and data, usually available only to corporate traders. Among others, on the IBIS platform you can find the following:
1) 3 type of graphs (linear, bar, candlestick).
2) 22 custom indicator, including Bollinger Bands and ATR.
3) Create alert in one click.
Traders can also access “market scanners” (Market Scanners), which will help you find a good opportunity for a trade depending on the price behavior and fundamental data. Scan results can be exported to Excel.
Training and demo accounts
At the "trader's university" (Traders University) webinars are organized and courses, also there you can find video tutorials. A large selection of different training materials will help you gain knowledge in different areas of Forex trading. You can also download various iOS apps here (for example, trading calendar and glossary). Interactive Brokers also has a dedicated “student lab” (Student Trading Lab), to help you prepare for the exam, if you are studying to be a professional trader.
Finally, you can access a free demo account on the WebTrader platform (the demo account is valid for a limited time).
Support service
You can contact Interactive Brokers support in the following ways::
1) Telephone: USA: 1 (877) 442 – 2757, 1 (312) 542 – 6901
Canada: 1 (877) 745 – 4222, 1 (514) 847 – 3499
Europe: 00800 – 42 – 276537, +41 – 41 – 726 – 9500
Hong Kong: +852 – 2156 -7907
Australia: +61 (2) 8093 7300
India: +91 22 61289888, +91 22 33259888
China: +86 (21) 6086 8586
2) Online chat.
3) Contact form on the site.
Deposit and withdrawal of funds
You can deposit and withdraw funds to Interactive Brokers in the following ways:
1) Bank transfer
2) Check
3) BPAY
4) Online bill payment
5) Electronic translation (Canada)
6) Automatic calculation
7) Pr my translation
9) Payment through proxies
i) Internal transfer from one Interactive Brokers account to another.
Deposit limits
Interactive Brokers minimum deposit varies by account type. The table below shows the minimum deposit for each account.
| Account type | Minimum deposit amount |
| Individual | USD 10000 (or an equivalent amount in another currency) |
| Счет Trading Group Masters | USD 10000 (or equivalent amount) |
| Broker Masters account | USD 10000 (or equivalent amount) |
| Indian account 2 marked IB India | Indian rupee deposits only, equivalent to USD 2000 |
| Indian account 2 marked with IBLLC-US | USD 5000 (or equivalent amount) |
| IRA account 3 | USD 5000 (or equivalent amount) |
| Individuals no older 25 years | USD 3000 (or equivalent amount) |
| Clients of brokers or consultants | USD 5000 (or equivalent amount) |
Withdrawal conditions
Minimum withdrawal amount through ACH systems, SEPA and EFT is 5 000 000 US dollars. Smaller amount can be withdrawn via bank transfer or check. There is no limit on the maximum amount.
Necessary, so that when withdrawing funds, the account balance meets the margin requirements. All withdrawal transactions must be directed to a bank account, owned by the owner of the trading account.
Conclusion
Interactive Brokers Is a broker for professional traders. It will be difficult for beginners to use this platform at first., however, with experience it will not be difficult to get used to it. Interactive Brokers has the advantage of, that this broker provides trading tools, usually only available to institutional traders. In this way, trading on the IBIS platform, you get an advantage over all other private traders.
Voted Best Online Broker 2018 of the year and were among the leaders according to Barron’s – eighth consecutive year
During 40 years IB Group has been working on e-commerce technology, providing tangible benefits to traders, investors and institutions around the world. The equity capital of Interactive Brokers Group and its affiliates exceeds $6 billion. We are the largest electronic broker in the United States based on the results of the average daily profit per trade, performing 951,000 deals per day.4 Learn, why professional traders and investors prefer IBKR
