Interactive Brokers Review

I switched to IB from TD Ameritrade for the lower fee's a month ago and I couldn't be more disappointed. The Trader Workstation platform is terrible, it's unorganized and tough to navigate through, the charting is bad, you have to pay for just about any type of data, the Account Summary is downright shady, the list goes on... It will literally take you a month to get used to the platform. I've been trading for 10 years and have traded on TD, Etrade, and Scottrade as well and have never experienced anything like this. The Intraday Margin Requirements move to overnight 15 minutes before pits and exchanges close depending on what you're trading. They claim their "SMART Routing Multipurpose" is top of the line but I'm not getting fills like I did for years with other brokerages. I mostly trade Futures, some FX, and maintain a portfolio of stocks, and my results have suffered significantly. It honestly feels like they are trading against you. But the worst part about IB is their Customer Service. They are completely useless and disrespectful. If you're thinking about transferring to IB for cheap commissions, DON'T! It's not worth it.

The best platform ever . The customer service can improve a but nothing beats this fast and cheap service.

Hi there .this is the most worst broker platform i have ever used in my life .i traded UBS ,Baxter,hotspot and many other small platforms .it always hang out very complected and it coast you so much and prices don't reflect real market movement .if you enter a position you will always have a big draw down i don't advice any one to trade with them unless they do a proper correction to there behavior

IB is not only the worst broker but one of the worst companies I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

I transferred money in to fund a CTA account. The day of the transfer they upped their min account size for CTAs thus stopping me from trading. Nice of them to warn me or the CTA himself.
No amount of reasoning from him (even though he brings lots of custom) would change their mind.
I therefore decided to transfer the money out to another broker.

It has taken me months and months to get the money (still haven't got it out).
The transfer was refused as they took 1/10th a cent out of my account saying it was an interest adjustment (I earned no interest on this account, nor should I have been charged anything - no positions were opened or closed).
I assume it was a rounding error in one of their systems.

So after weeks of trying to transfer the money, I transfered 1 cent less.
The transfer goes out but then gets lost as they didn't enter the correct account number.
The receiving bank returns the payment but IB can't locate it.

This is still ongoing.
No one seems to care and my complaints don't get answered.

They send vague messages on their internal message system, which is as bad as the rest of their site.
It's also a complete pain in the a** to login as they have a complicated security process that seems to expire and get confused etc. meaning I have a tough time logging in sometimes.

Overall a horrible experience and I'm yet to get my money back or be offered any apology or compensation.

Avoid like the plague.

Interactive Brokers has proven to be a sub-par broker and broker platform. I trade equities and currencies and their performance is worse than than the other broker platforms I use.
It seems like you get what you pay for, and their very cheap costs are nullified by their poor performance.
Also, "customer service" at IB is an oxymoron.

Everything in 1 place, great execution, great spreads, though their swap rate are not the best. I am using them for FX and stocks.

Interactive brokers are scammers. Stay away from these shady brokers. They will deactivate your account login just to have you call their customer support number.

Instead, when you call them, they attempt to sell you add-ons these you don't even need. Horrible experience. Much rather work with a real broker instead of these scammers. Buyer be aware.

Interactive Brokers has best execution and lowest commission / spreads. They are good at this. I only trade futures even currencies and thier commssion is lowest that help me make good scalp trades. Thier platform and customer service is okay or worse sometimes. But trust me, in trading execution and commission counts, anything else is just nice to have but not necessary.

First of all, these guys have no regard for their customers. They failed to exercise options worth $8000, supposedly as risk prevention. If you understand how giving away your money somehow protects your account, you are smarter than me. Note, I am not talking about market priced liquidations. I am talking about giving away options of considerable value, and getting nothing in return.

Second, the Web Trader product is completely unreliable. I have witnessed it change terms of my order entry on its own. Further, the site constantly becomes unresponsive.

Third, the company recently adopted a policy of "preemptive liquidation". This means that even if you are in margin compliance, they might still liquidate you if they think you MAY not be in margine compliance the next day. This is bad. Worse, if you call Interactive Brokers and ask them which positions they are concerned about, or which positions may be liquidated, they can't tell you. IB engages in this practice even while claiming it cannot accurately predict future margin requirements. In fact, more times than not, in my personal experience, IB's pre-emptive liquidations have not only failed to reduce margin requirements, but actually served to INCREASE them.

Fourth, after putting up with this cr** for too long, i tried to transfer my assets to another broker. Interactive Brokers was not cooperative with this process.

There are a host of other reasons to not use Interactive Brokers, and i will add to them at a future time.

This is my first blog EVER. I have nothing to gain from writing it, but i do hope to prevent others from making the same mistake I did by signing up with this horror of a brokerage firm.

All the bad reviewers are blaming IB for their bad trades. Look at their spreads man. Nobody can come close, not even Oanda. They do not trade against you. They did not get to be that big by deception and fraud. They are exceedingly good at what they do: Execution at bare bones prices. That is their game, and their only game, and they at the top of it.