Interactive Brokers Review

I used IB since it was marketed as an all in one Brokerage firm. However, I only used them for daytrading the futures markets. On the many occasions that I called customer support, I was on hold for an average time of 5 to 10 minutes. However, the worst scenario I have ever experienced happened when I saw that the platform had erroneously entered me into a trade on Brent Crude oil, a market that I did not even trade. I tried repeatedly to exit this trade, and guess what, the platform would not let me exit the trade no matter how hard I tried. During these futile attempts to exit the trade, I was on hold from IB support and finally, after 10 minutes, someone answered the phone. When I explained the issue, he said, you entered a short trade on Brent Crude, and I said, I do not even trade this market, how could that be possible. He manually exited the trade for me for a loss of over $600.00.

I filed a complaint against IB and it was like a circus in the making. Some manager got on the phone, tried to recite the facts as he had received them from someone else, and these facts were 100% incorrect. They attempted to put the blame on me, saying I had placed the trade myself and it had nothing to do with anything that IB did or did not do. It was like talking to a bunch of idiots who could not tell anyone which way was up or which way was down; I could tell it was a scam in the making and all the complaining I did was to no avail. I immediately closed my account and have told as many people as possible about their practices and I will say it again. If you are looking for an honest, reliable brokerage, go look somewhere else. These guys are looking for excuses to scam their clients and do it in a way that they feel the client has no recourse but arbitration. The worst, most obscene excuse for a brokerage firm I have ever had the occasion of dealing with. I say, AVOID THESE CHARLATANS AT ALL COST, OR YOUR TRADING ACCOUNT WILL SUFFER!

I love interactive brokers. Low spreads and cheap commissions..Good executions, they are geared towards professional traders. So not the best for people who are just starting out or trade little.

IB is one of my favorite brokers. First off they are US based / regulated, publicly traded and have a large asset base in both retail and institutional accounts. Their main business is global individual stocks. This puts me at ease in a way, because FX is not their core revenue stream. The TWS platform is excellent and very robust. Good charting, customizablility and tools are also a plus. That being said, the main reason IB is one of my favorite brokers is due to the cost of trading. For FX spreads are among the tightest I've ever seen and execution has been good. My only gripe is with stop orders. If I place a sell or buy stop, there is almost always a delay between the time the order is triggered and the time the order is executed. I believe this is because of their STP model. Since they have to send the order away, it causes this delay. Usually around 2 - 5 seconds. This also happens with equities. Not a deal breaker, but it can definitely cost you big time if you have huge blocks at play. Leverage is average for he USA at 40:1. I don't think you will need more than this unless you are trying to get rich quick. To summarize, I love IB because of their platform, service, support, size, regulation, ACH funding and low cost. I dislike the delays in stop orders. Overall, I love to trade with them.

Excellent execution, fair platform , can trade any market , low fees, good reports,

Haven't got an account from IB, but decided to give it up after reading so many bad reviews and plus my bad experience in opening account with them.
I handed in my first application online two week ago, I've uploaded my bank statement, Canadian driver license whatever they asked.
Got first rejection saying that I have to upload my Canadian SIN card photo copy since I'm currently living in Canada.
OK, I uploaded my SIN card and received the 2nd rejection, saying since I had a Canadian SIN then I need to reopen a new application and fill in "Canada" in residence field.
So I opened a new application and attached the same bank statement I've using in previous application, got 3rd rejection saying that my bank statement is out of date, actually the bank statement was from last month and I guess they didn't even open it for review.
So I replied them that the bank statement was the latest one and tried to upload it again.
Now, I've got my 4th rejection saying that they want a debit card statement not the credit card statement!
Don't even bother to apply again, after reading so many interesting reviews, absolutely disappointing.

IB trades against you (or the bank they use -- JPMorgan -- trades against you as they have unlimited Fed money to do it). I have traded thousands of trades with them and 10's of thousands of trades with other brokers over more than a decade (profitablly I might add) -- and the way the market recognies your entry with them again and again is rediculous -- they trade against you or the bank they use trades against you. Day trading with them is an absolute scam. You have to trade small and hold for longer periods to make money with them. Any broker that advertises how profitable their Fx customers are should be avoided -- just like the used car salesman that tells you how honest he is. They don't make their money on commisions, they make it on market making. The low rates are the bait. When you deposit funds with their bank then the name of the game for them is to move as much of your funds to their side of the ledger. They trade against you. They target active traders as these are the easiest targets I think.

2010-03-08 2Star It is impossible to reach customer service after market hours. If you have any problems during the market hour, deal with it yourself, because you will not get any assistance from IB. The quickest way is chat, but I have watied for over 30 min. during market hours. If you get anyone on the phone, they are always so dipressed.
Your stops will receive the worst fills and the system will freeze when volatily pick up. It may seem convinint to trade all markets from one platform, but it is not woth it. This truly is the worst brokerage experience we ever had. Stay away!!!!!!!!!!

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.