Opinions on Interactive Brokers?

S

stockmarketbeginner

Hello,

Does anyone have experience with Interactive Brokers. They have $1.00 trades, which is great if you want to take many small positions.

I downloaded Trader Workstation. I was disappointed. It looked like something out of 1997 rather than 2017. It was so bad I found it hard to work with. I can't believe a multi-million dollar company has such an awkward and unattractive desktop interface.

I'm going to try their web interface.

I'm wondering if anybody has had any good experiences with this company. There is something about the company that seems cold to me.
 
stockmarketbeginner said:
Hello,

Does anyone have experience with Interactive Brokers. They have $1.00 trades, which is great if you want to take many small positions.

I downloaded Trader Workstation. I was disappointed. It looked like something out of 1997 rather than 2017. It was so bad I found it hard to work with. I can't believe a multi-million dollar company has such an awkward and unattractive desktop interface.

I'm going to try their web interface.

I'm wondering if anybody has had any good experiences with this company. There is something about the company that seems cold to me.
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TWS is a great platform, with a lot of flexibility. But it does require a learning curve. I suggest you open a demo account and give yourself time to learn.

It may help you to begin with the TWS "Classic" view.
 
Why don't you tell us more about you and your account. We don't know what asset classes you trade. We don't know how often you trade. If you prefer it to be private, PM or email me. We do business with both IB and Wedbush. We offer both retail and institutional accounts. At IB we offer LVX, an advanced option platfrom with option analytics. At Wedbush, we offer a number of platforms for equities/options in addition to futures.

I'd need more details to help you.

Bob
 
I use IB for futures (and some ETF) trading. But I have automated all my trading and am not using TWS. So I can't comment much on TWS.
IB has certain quirks you need to be aware of, and thus involves a learning curve. This, however, depends on the class of products you are trading.
 
stockmarketbeginner said:
They have $1.00 trades, which is great if you want to take many small positions.
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Be careful with this assumption - yes, IBs commissions are some of the lowest you will find but they hit you with all sorts of small monthly fees if you want a decent data feed that typically comes free of charge at many other brokerages.

I am a happy IB customer, but am definitely paying more that $1 per side when all the little data/exchange fees are factored into the equation. Probably $3 and change if I had to guess.
 
I have seen commissions below 30 cents for stock trades using tiered rate structure. Options are a bit more expensive, but still reasonable. I'm not a fan of TWS either, but Webtrader provides all I need. Their API is pretty good and I use that to generate my own charts. I also like that they don't charge additional fees for option assignment as some other brokers do. Pretty happy with them overall.
 
SteveM said:
Be careful with this assumption - yes, IBs commissions are some of the lowest you will find but they hit you with all sorts of small monthly fees if you want a decent data feed that typically comes free of charge at many other brokerages.

I am a happy IB customer, but am definitely paying more that $1 per side when all the little data/exchange fees are factored into the equation. Probably $3 and change if I had to guess.
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Please explain how you came to that conclusion. What fees?
 
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IB is quite good with decent TWS and importantly their fills and commissions are top tier vrs the competition.

Also any charges for data feed are offset if you make minimum, i think 10, trades a month.
 
Robert Morse said:
Why don't you tell us more about you and your account. We don't know what asset classes you trade. We don't know how often you trade. If you prefer it to be private, PM or email me. We do business with both IB and Wedbush. We offer both retail and institutional accounts. At IB we offer LVX, an advanced option platfrom with option analytics. At Wedbush, we offer a number of platforms for equities/options in addition to futures.

I'd need more details to help you.

Bob
More...

Good point. I'm talking about equities trading only, with some equities options once in a while. Mostly just buy/sell USA stocks.
 
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