Interactive Brokers Review

PROS: Great on costs (.2 pip) and usually the tighest spreads. Low cost stock and option trading too. Fast and easy withdrawals, not a hassle like some other brokers (mbtrading - can only fax in request, no electronic) CONS: Worst customer service ever. I was once chatting to a rep because my charts weren't working, and after he said lemme check something, he never came back. I didn't terminate the session for like 30+minutes -got NOTHING. I gave it awful ratings, and sent it in, no response. They also respond rather rudely and dismissively to any kind of problems or complaints. SCAM: Though they have the tightest spreads, some of those spreads I have to say are fake (maybe to scare you into taking the opposite position/closing or to make themselves look better, I don't know) because sometimes I see the quote and I send a limit order but doesn't get filled. Sometimes the quote gets even better by .5 pip or something and still no fill. Or I send limit orders ahead of time and the quote comes up, but no fill. Another thing, on margin calls: if you deal with IDEALPRO you get nice spreads, but IDEAL has awful spreads, but you have to trade larger lots to trade on PRO. If you get a margin call, they close positions using IDEAL, and they will steal about 10pips from you. I had them cover 19,000+ euros, just a few euros under the minimum (20,000), so they could use their IDEAL system and steal 10 pips. And it wasn't even necessary to cover 19,000+ to bring the margin above 5%. Bottom line: they don't care about you and treat you like c***, but will give you low cost service. And be careful of some of the fishiness

For Forex trading, you dont get ( as at Sep 2006) by trade profit a loss calculations live. Spreads on majors are the best out there. However trading the Crosses of the majors is not as clear as MT4 platform. They way they handle Forex Swap is a bit more confusing than standard fix brokers. You trade either large forex contract (IDEALPROD) or small contract. To conclude ok for position trading forex, not so good for intraday trading. Purely as the platform is not as good as MT4.

Executions are quick. They don't run your stops (at least I haven't seen evidence of it yet) like a lot of other brokers I've seen. For the most part they appear to be honest, though, granted, I've only been using them since May of '06. I've heard people say they don't help you--that they're support is terrible--but every time I have an issue I go through the problem ticket, which is quicker than an email, and I get a prompt answer (usually less than 24 hours). The spreads on forex are usually equal to or better than Oanda, though they do widen a bit (briefly) during news events, and not by as much as Oanda, who seem to be the benchmark in this game. The software platform takes some getting used to but how many forex brokers do you know where you can trade every other financial instrument conceivable from the same platform?!

I was doing well with IB until recently. Twice they filled me at 10 pips outside the spread. Basically stealing from me 10 pips. They also are not filling limit orders at times and they are very slow. I was getting in within a second or two, and not it is as much as 15 seconds. I had a buy limit order placed and the price moved above and below the limit order a couple pips and no fill. I switch it to market, and it fills outside the spread. Their actions are criminal, pure and simple. I emailed them and they basically said that Forex is unregulated and they can do whatever they want. This broker has gone way downhill.

They are great for trading stocks and futures. You can also trade forex, however you have to pay a commission on top of the spread for each trade. Execution is instant, but spreads can widen a lot during news announcements (+30 pips) for brief periods, so it may not be the best broker for news trading. Customer service is excellent though and they offer a lot of products.



2006-09-03 update I got filled around 8~12 pips outside of the spread 3 times in a row during news time! That's 10 pips above the spike, where the price never was!

Crap! I've been trying to close my account with them for months but, due to some irrational problem they have, they can't close it. You can't speak to any one, you have to log on and use their chat service which takes forever for someone to answer. I get margin call email messages despite not trading through them for about two years. They've pissed me off big time. They haven't got a clue about customer service. Whilst their platform is quite good, I wouldn't recommend them as a broker for Joe Soap.

Worst firm ever. Cannot recommend them due to huge slippage on volatile markets or no fills. Rollover cost and commissions too high compared with others. The accounting is a disaster...

i use them for 18 months now - manual and automated trading with Smartquant's Quantdeveloper - done futures and forex (IDEALPRO) - the costs are very low, execution is fast and reliable - customer support is a little bit slow - finally i got all my questions answered, ever ... very happy with them - only the FX leverage 50:1 is a little boring ;-)

Their staffs just did not have the patience to answer my questions regarding the works of their platform. I decided to withdraw the fund and cancel my account.

Offers both futures and cash, a real broker (opposed to all the other market makers), represents your order on the ECN, small spreads, quick executions, definitely worth the commissions!

I am trading IB's IDEALPRO now for a few month. I am doing a 100% auto-trading strategy creating almost 100 Trades a day. The platform is very good and fits my needs concerning spreads/costs, availability and fills. The ECN-type model is very good for doing quick (scalp) trades. No limitation at all. Only issue may be the relative low leverage of 50:1 (or even lower, depending on the Base currency and traded currency pair) They got my recommendation an 5 stars.

I use IB since years and am very happy with them: no booking errors, many markets, lowest fees, and - as it is all direct access: no broker stop hunting - even on forex! The platform is very complex, due to the many different markets it serves. But once I had worked my way through my favorite products this became a no-brainer. A problem is the accounting, as all positions are booked into one account: If you do not keep record of you fx positions you might end up with one without noticing it. But there are overlays available which do the job for you. All in all: thumbs up!

Used them for a few months... not my favorite broker... but very professional, good execution, free outbound wire transfer each month, great commission rates. My problem was the trading platform/interface, itself (which they are improving lately). It was beyond difficult for me to figure out. Then their trading statements were no fun for me, either. If I were an institutional trader, I might use them, but as a simple little man trying to get by without drama, I stopped using them.