Interactive Brokers is a trading platform with a 46 year long history. The mission of Interactive Brokers is to: "Create technology to provide liquidity on better terms. Compete on price, speed, size, diversity of global products and advanced trading tools." The brokers stands out by offering their services globally. They currently offer their services in over 200 countires and have offices world wide. (Please note that since Interactive Brokers is a global platform, we have based our review on information relavant to the US.)

Interactive Brokers offers a wide range of tradeable assets on multiple platform options. The research tools on the platforms are some of the best in the market and there are multiple pricing plans depending on what you need. Overall, Interactive Brokers is better suited for intermediate to advanced traders with their in depth research tools and large range of tradeable assets.

Interactive Brokers currently offers the following account types if you are an individual or retail trader:

Individual or joint brokerage account: A brokerage account simply allows you to deposit funds and start investing. You can own this account as an individual or jointly with another person.

Traditional IRA: IRAs are individual retirement accounts. A traditional IRA allows you to contribute pre-tax dollars to the account to save for retirement. In general, the amounts in your traditional IRA, as well as earnings and gains are not taxed until you take a withdrawal.

Roth IRA: A roth IRA is just the opposite of a traditional IRA. You pay taxes up front on the money you contribute to this account, but when you make a withdrawal you don't pay taxes.  

Rollover IRA: A rollover IRA allows you to transfer funds from an old employer sponsored plan to an IRA.

UGMA/UTMA Accounts: These accounts are custodian accounts for a minor who is a US resident.

Please note: You must qualify for an IRA and there are limits to these accounts. Consult a licensed financial advisor or visit the IRS website below to learn more.  

Interactive Brokers has clients from more than 200 different countries and territories. You can fund your account with 24 different base currencies depending on where you are trading from. Your location will determine what assets you have access to trade.

Interactive Brokers offers some of the best research and news of any trading platform. You can opt for dozens of free services from third party providers such as TipRanks Market News, Zacks Investment Research, and more. If you want greater levels of research, you can also opt to upgrade to paid third party providers. You can buy a service from a single provider, or buy a package to get research from multiple third party providers.

Interactive Brokers has one of the most comprehensive suits of trading tools currently available to be used on their platforms. We could not review every feature, so we have highlighted a few of the best.

Integrated Stock Window: The Integrated Stock Window is a dynamic, customizable window that includes the data and order management tools you need to analyze the current market, track activity, make trading decisions and place orders for a selected security.

Exit Strategy: The Exit Strategy window highlights your potential profits and losses graphically – green for profit, red for loss – and includes a view into the probability that each order will be filled.

Bracket Orders: Bracket orders are designed to help limit your loss and lock in a profit by "bracketing" an order with two opposite-side orders.

In addition to third party research and news tools, Interactive Brokers publishes a ton of educational content themselves to help you become the best possible trader. You can get access to financial news on IBKR Campus, courses on the Traders Academy, as well as access to a variety of podcasts and webinars.

Interactive Brokers offers the following tradeable securities:

Interactive Brokers offers four primary platforms you can choose from. Two of them are mobile apps, one is a desktop platform, and one is a web based platform.

IBKR Global Trader: This is one of the mobile platforms. It focuses on offering global trading on stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies. You can trade 90+ stock markets worldwide and the platform does offer fractional shares if you don't want to buy a full share, as well as $10,000 in virtual funds so you can practice simulated trading.

IBKR Mobile: This is the second mobile platform. You can access 150+ markets world wide and trade stocks, options, bonds, crypto and more. This platform is the mobile version of Interactive Broker's flagship platform, Trader Workstation. With this in mind, more technical tools and research are offered than the IBKR Global Trader platform.

Trader Workstation: This is Interactive Brokers flagship desktop platform. The platform offers access to 150+ markets world wide and comes with the best technical and research tools offered by Interactive Brokers.

Client Portal: The Client Portal is Interactive Brokers web based platform. The portal is not built for comprehensive trading, but instead to help you manage your overall account. In the portal, you can track the performance of your portfolio, fund your account, see your buying power and more. It should be noted that you can place "quick trades" within this portal if you see an opportunity come up.

IBKR Lite Pricing Plan:
‍

IBKR Pro Pricing Plan:
‍

There are a few other details about Interactive Brokers that are worth mentioning.

Cash management: Interactive Brokers does offer a cash management solution for your uninvested cash. You can earn up to 4.58% on your cash balances. You can also use the IBKR Debit Mastercard to withdraw cash from a network of ATMS, as well as for daily spending. The cash management feature can be managed through the IBKR Mobile App.

Interactive Advisors: Interactive advisors is Interactive Brokers in house robo advisor. Similar to other robo advisors, Interactive Brokers will build you a portfolio based on your preferences after you answer a few questions. Over time you can customize the asset allocation within your portfolio, or have Interactive Advisors atuomatically keep your portfolio optimally balanced by selling and buying different securities over time. There is a $100 minimum to get started, and expect to pay an annual fee of 0.12%.

Interactive Brokers offers very good customer support which is to be expected considering how many global clients the platform services. Your first option is to submit an email through the message center within the account management tab. A response can be expected within 24 hours through the message center or to your email depending upon how your preferences are set up.

Your second option is to use phone support that is available 24 hours a day on business days. Your final option is to use the 24 hour chat service on business days. You can chat with Interactive Brokers about both "general" or
"urgent" inquiries.

The primary advantage of Interactive Brokers is having access to global markets. Since Interactive Brokers serves so many clients worldwide, the trading tools are top notch, and you can trade a very large selection of assets across both mobile and desktop based versions. Finally, both the third party research and in house education are excellent.

The main disadvantage of Interactive Brokers is that there is a bit of a learning curve to get the best out of the platform. Since you have access to global markets, it can be tricky to figure out exactly what you are able to trade and what tools you are allowed to use. The trading tools themselves do not have a user friendly interface and can take some time to master them. If you are a beginner, it is probably best to go with a more user friendly platform such as Webull.

Interactive Brokers is right for you if: