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Interactive Brokers Review: Is this broker legit, safe and trustworthy for UAE citizens and residents?

Interactive Brokers - American online-trading broker that is expanding into Asian and Arab markets nowadays.

Yes, this broker's official website and app are legit, safe and trustworthy for UAE citizens and residents.

Interactive Brokers has decent reviews on Reddit and Quora, including satisfactory ratings on sites like Trustpilot. Thus, overall this broker is considered reliable for online trading of currencies, cryptocurrencies, CFDs and stocks.

Interactive Brokers (also known as "IBKR") is a financial services company that was founded in 1993 with a simplified approach to brokerage services that focuses on wide market access, low prices, and outstanding transaction execution. Customers may trade stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, and mutual funds on 135 different markets from a single integrated account, which allows for more efficiency. Towards the end of 2020, the firm introduced its Impact Dashboard, which allows users to examine assets through the perspective of socially responsible investment (SRI).

Interactive Brokers routinely ranks as one of the finest brokers for professional traders and skilled, active traders who want to take advantage of a robust array of tools and worldwide access to a diverse variety of assets. During this section, we'll take a closer look at Interactive Brokers in order to help you determine whether it's the appropriate match for your investment requirements.

When it comes to trading and low cost prizes, Interactive Brokers constantly outperforms the competition.

Investment opportunities in 135 markets across 33 nations are provided by Interactive Brokers, which provides a diverse selection of asset types (including stocks, options, futures, and bonds).

IBKR is a sophisticated trading platform that provides great technical and fundamental analysis, among other things.

Customers from more than 220 countries and territories may be served by IBKR, which has offices in the U.S.; Switzerland; Canada; Hong Kong; the United Kingdom; Australia; Hungary; Russia; Japan; India; China; Luxembourg; Estonia; Singapore; and the Republic of Ireland.

A powerful trading platform and access to a broad range of asset classes are two of the main reasons why Interactive Brokers is so popular with institutional investors and professional, active traders. This year, the broker has made an effort to extend its appeal by releasing additional products, services, and instructional material geared for less active traders and investors. However, IBKR's image as a high-end platform that caters to professionals may deter less-experienced investors from participating. More than 220 nations and territories are represented on the company's customer list, and it facilitates trading on 135 marketplaces in 33 countries, utilising 23 different currencies.

Interactive Brokers offers a diverse range of trading products (including stocks, options, futures, currency, bonds, and mutual funds) on 135 markets in 33 countries, with a focus on the United States. IBKR provides direct access to worldwide exchanges as well as a broad range of fixed income instruments, including a wide range of European corporate bonds and Euro-denominated government bonds, among other things.

The "SmartRouting" software developed by IBKR offers customers with the finest pricing execution available in the market. When you submit an order, it looks for the best firm stock, option, and combination prices that are currently available and attempts to execute your order as soon as possible. According to the results of a third-party transaction analysis service, IBKR has had a net price increase of $0.62 per 100 equity shares.
Tweets by IBKR
Its Trader Workstation (TWS) platform, which is strong enough for expert traders but built for regular traders and investors as well, is available for purchase. Many technical analysis tools, such as Social Sentiment by Social Market Analytics and ESG ratings from Refinitiv, are available. Fundamentals Explorer, which provides access to corporate fundamentals data on stocks and mutual funds, is also available.

The margin interest rates charged by IBKR are much lower than the norm for the industry. The corporation utilises a blended rate that is divided into three tiers: Consider the following example: If you have a balance of more than $1 million, the first $100,000 is charged at the Tier I rate, and the next $900,000 is charged at the Tier II rate.

Clients using IBKR Lite do not have access to IBKR's SmartRouter feature. Payment for order flow (PFOF) is prioritised by the IBKR Lite order router, and this information is not shared with consumers by IBKR. Aside from that, users who use IBKR Lite do not have access to the IBKR Web Trader platform or the IBKR APIs.

The strong platform offered by Interactive Brokers might be daunting to investors who are less skilled and less active. IBKR has a lot to offer in terms of goods, tools, resources, and services, among other things, and the steep learning curve may be intimidating for newcomers.

Despite the fact that IBKR is a fairly sophisticated platform, there are several shortcomings. In the present version of the IBKR software, traders cannot backtest bespoke trading algorithms (algos) or automate trading using the regular IBKR programme. Advanced traders seeking these features will need to make use of an application programming interface (API) provided by a third party (API).

In recent years, the onboarding procedure at IBKR has become more straightforward. You may even establish an account without immediately depositing funds into it (you have 90 days to do so). The website is well-designed, and the Client Portal and IBot—an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant—can aid you in locating what you are looking for.

Interactive Brokers offers a variety of trading platforms, including desktop, online, and mobile versions (IBKR Mobile), which are accessible for Android and iOS devices. Interactive Brokers is headquartered in New York City. It offers essentially identical functionality as the online platform, albeit neither is as powerful or comprehensive in its own right as Trader Workstation (TWS), the company's premier trading platform.

On every trading platform, you may trade the same asset types. On all of the platforms, you have access to real-time streaming data, charts, sketching tools, research, and breaking news, among other things. Benzinga, Dow Jones, Morningstar, Seeking Alpha, Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv, and in-house commentary are just a few of the sources of information accessible. A monthly fee is charged for access to premium news content on the internet. It is possible to construct mobile watchlists that are shared with the web and desktop platforms.

You may check on your positions, see your accounts in real time, and make simple trades using IBKR's Client Portal. It is available in both English and Spanish. It is simple to obtain a trade ticket and to set up trade defaults in the system. Having said that, the Trader Workstation will be used by the vast majority of customers who want to make the most of their Interactive Brokers account (TWS).

TWS provides far greater capability and is intended for aggressive traders and investors that want flexibility and the ability to trade a variety of items. To place orders fast, you may set up hotkeys, and you can also stage orders for later execution—either one at a time or in batches, depending on your preferences. You may provide a date and time for when an order should be broadcast, or you can submit a conditional order that becomes active only if certain circumstances are satisfied, such as when an existing order is executed, to be transmitted. Additionally, you may link an application to TWS in order to execute automatic trades or get subscriptions to trading signals from third-party sources.

Orders may be placed, modified, and managed straight from the chart's interface. If you're utilising numerous devices at the same time, you'll get streaming real-time quotes, charts, and news across all platforms.

IBKR mobile and TWS allow you to trade the same asset classes and order types (including conditional orders) as you would on the desktop. The process is straightforward and flows smoothly from one step to the next while using the mobile app to complete the task. It has the same research features as the Client Portal, such as screeners and choices strategy tools, but it's available on a mobile device.

IBKR has launched a new mobile trading platform, branded as IBKR GlobalTrader, to its offering. This is a condensed version of IBKR mobile, which makes it easier to trade internationally in your home currency3. In addition, the new app provides access to cryptocurrencies.

When it comes to asset classes, Interactive Brokers provides the widest choices in the brokerage market. It introduces new items on a regular basis in response to client demand and connects to new electronic exchanges as soon as it is practicable. Customers may trade roughly 35,000 mutual funds, with around 8,300 of those funds charging no transaction fees (all funds in its marketplace are no-load).

Order types supported by IBKR include a diverse range of order types on the Client Portal and mobile app, as well as over 100 order types and algorithms on the Trader Workstation. TWS with connected orders and mobile as part of the bracket order capabilities both enable one-triggers-another (OTO) orders. OCO orders allow you to choose and combine logical criteria from a variety of price, time, and volume factors, as well as margin cushion, daily profit and loss (P&L), percent change, number of shortable shares, and rebate rate.

In accordance with the order and the individual market circumstances, IBKR's SmartRouting technology integrates both spray and sequential order routing approaches. According to a third-party transaction analysis company, IBKR has had a net U.S. dollar price rise of $0.62 for every 100 shares traded, which is $0.47 more than the industry average of $0.15 per share.

The order execution engine at Interactive Brokers reroutes all or a portion of your order in order to achieve optimum execution, price improvement, and to maximise any possible rebates that may be available. IBKR utilises eight dark pools in its SmartRouting logic to assist in providing price improvement on high volume and block orders—as well as taking advantage of hidden institutional order flows—and to help give price improvement on large volume and block orders. The SmartRouting algorithm for options traders represents each leg of spread orders individually and submits each leg at the best potential venue.

Customers of IBKR Lite do not have access to the company's SmartRouting technology, which should be kept in mind. The order router for Lite customers, on the other hand, prioritises payment for order flow, information that IBKR does not communicate with consumers

The TWS Portfolio Builder tool allows you to examine the historical performance of a group of companies that have been selected in accordance with one of the investing rules that are available. However, you will not be able to backtest bespoke algorithms or automate your trade using the IBKR software; instead, you would need to use an API application from a third-party provider if you want these capabilities.

Fixed per-share price of $0.005 per share exchanged, with a $1.00 minimum and a maximum of 1 percent of the trade value as a percentage of the total trading value. All exchange and most regulatory costs are included in the price.

Tiered per-share price dependent on the volume of orders received each month. There is a minimum of $0.35 per transaction and a maximum of $0.0035 per share for trading fewer than 300,000 shares per month. If you trade more than 100 million shares per month, the maximum is $0.0005 per share and the minimum is $0.0035 per trade. It does not include any exchange or regulatory costs, for example.

The IBKR Lite programme, which provides free trading for stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are publicly traded in the United States (via the Client Portal and IBKR Mobile). Trades are routed so that payment may be generated for order flow.

IBKR commissions and fees are broken down as follows, assuming you adopt the fixed rate per share system:

In the case of transactions involving one share or fewer (for those who trade fractional shares), the transaction fee is equal to either 1 percent of the entire trade value or a minimum charge of $1.00. The cost of trading 1,000 shares is $5.00. (free for IBKR Lite clients).

There are no differences in fees payable for trading OTCBB (penny stocks), albeit you must fulfil specified standards in order to trade these assets.

When trading options, there are no per-leg fees to pay. You'll pay a fee of $0.65 per contract for options trading, with a $1.00 minimum commission. Low-value contract costs are reduced to $0.50 (premiums between $0.05 and $0.10) or $0.25 (premiums less than $0.05).

The cost of trading a single contract is one dollar. The cost of trading 50 contracts is $32.50.

The cost of a covered call deal involving 500 shares plus five contracts is $5.75.

Mutual fund transaction costs are the lesser of 3 percent of the trade value or $14.95 for funds that are not on the no-transaction fee list, whichever is greater. For overseas money, the rate is 4.95 Euros.

Clients with Pro accounts get 1.59 percent interest on balances up to $100,000, while Lite customers earn 2.59 percent on on balances up to $100,000. These are the lowest interest rates available among the brokers that participated in the poll. The rate of margin interest for Lite clients is one percent greater than the rate for Pro customers.

There are no costs associated with closing or transferring an account.

There are no inactivity fees on any of the accounts.

There are no fees for exercise, transfer, or voluntarily reorganising your business.

Clients may send one wire each month without incurring any fees; however, there is a $10.00 cost for any additional wire sent. Receiving a wire does not incur any fees.

Clients may submit one paper check each month without incurring any fees; however, there is a $4.00 cost for each additional check sent.

The cost of a futures contract is $0.85 per contract (plus exchange and regulatory fees). Volume was tiered between $0.25 and $0.85 per contract, depending on the volume.

The cost of a forex transaction ranges between 0.20 and 0.08 basis points, depending on the amount traded.

Cryptocurrencies are subject to a fee that is calculated depending on the value of the transaction. The cost is 0.18 percent for transactions up to $100,000 USD in cryptocurrency, 0.15 percent for transactions between $100,000 and $1 million, and 0.12 percent for transactions beyond $1 million in cryptocurrency every month.

If you are a customer on the fixed or tiered commission plans, you may trade 96 ETFs with no charge; otherwise, the commission is $0.005 per share with a minimum order value of $1.00.

Deals in stocks that are facilitated by a broker are $30.00 and are only available for closing trades. Clients may make trades via a live broker for big block orders and fixed income transactions; costs vary depending on the kind of trade and the broker.

Although the fees and commissions indicated above are accessible to consumers, there are a few more ways in which IBKR gets money from you (and for you) that are less transparent:

The difference between what you are paid on your idle cash and what IBKR can make on client cash balances provides interest revenue for IBKR, as does the majority of brokerage firms. Some brokers pass on a portion of their profits to their consumers. Clients of IBKR in the United States do not receive any interest on any cash holdings at the time of the review. 8

In exchange for routing orders to certain trading venues, many brokers earn a profit by taking payments from market makers for directing those orders to particular trading venues. This is referred to as "paying for order flow" (PFOF). IBKR-Pro customers have complete control over how their orders are routed, and the default routing does not pursue PFOF. Clients of IBKR-Lite have access to zero fee trading and fixed rate US equities options, however orders are routed to market makers who give IBKR with PFOF in exchange for the PFOF.

Stock loan programmes: Stock loan programmes produce money for brokers when equities stored in client accounts are lent to other traders or hedge funds, who then use the stock to sell it short, as is often the case in the stock market. As a result of lending the shares, IBKR generates a profit and pays you 50% of that profit. Customers who have been authorised for a margin account or who have a cash account with a balance of at least $50,000 may participate in the programme.

IBKR's smart order router looks for opportunities for price enhancement and achieves an average of $0.62 every 100 shares traded on the stock exchange.

Portfolio Margining: Eligible IBKR clients can apply for portfolio margining, which can reduce the amount of margin required based on the overall calculated risk of the portfolio. The majority of the time, portfolio margining is most beneficial for clients that trade derivatives to mitigate the risk associated with their equity assets.

Identifying your next trade may be made easier with the use of Interactive Brokers' extensive collection of screens, tools, calculators, idea generators, and research tools and resources.

Based on the characteristics and filtering criteria that you choose, the TWS Market Scanners tool searches the worldwide markets for the best-performing instruments (including stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, futures, bonds, and indexes). You may either use one of the 49 existing scanners or design your own. It is possible to send orders straight from a scanner and to store a scan as a template for reusing it later on in the process. Hundreds of data points are explored in depth via the Fundamentals Explorer (available on both TWS and Client Portal), which includes historical trends, industry comparisons, important ratios, projections, ratings, ownership, and other relevant information. On the Client Portal, there is a stock scanner, but it isn't quite as powerful as the one on TWS.

IBKR provides a number of tools to assist you in locating your next options deal. Using the Probability Lab, you may convert the option price of an equity into the market's projection for the stock's price. Customers provide a price prediction, and the Lab recommends strategies with the highest Sharpe ratios based on that projection. In the Option Strategy Lab, a stock's price and volatility projections are used to produce option strategies for that stock. In addition to scanning the most active multi-leg option strategies for a specific ticker, the Option Strategy Activity Scanner also allows you to search by other options-related indicators such as volume and open interest.

With IBKR's Mutual Fund scanner (which was introduced in 2020), you may search for mutual funds and filter them using over 170 variables. It is accessible in both the Mosaic and Advanced Scanners in TWS. Furthermore, a Mutual Fund Replicator monitors the market for lower-cost ETFs that mimic the performance of a certain mutual fund, which is available on the platform. IBKR offers more than 26,500 mutual funds and around 1,200 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) accessible for search. Customers may also get thorough information about mutual funds using the Fundamentals Explorer tool, which includes information on expenditures, performance, Lipper ratings, and other factors.

Bond Scanner, which was developed in 2019, searches through IBKR's full fixed-income portfolio, which is extensive. Among other things, you may search by asset type, include or exclude certain industries, identify state-specific munis, and do other searches. This tool is not accessible for use on mobile devices.

Charting aids in the transformation of market data into something comprehensible. IBKR's charts are completely configurable, and you can specify chart parameters, alter them from inside a chart using the Edit menu, and save a chart layout as a template. You can also export a chart layout as an XML document. Choose the time period, primary display, bar type (Line, Bar, Candle, Historical Volatility, Implied Volatility, Option Open Interest, Option Volume, Heikin-Ashi, and Hollow Candles are among the options available in TWS native charting), height of the volume plot, dividends, number of bars to display, and vertical scale, among a slew of other chart parameters. More than 120 technical indicators, as well as a collection of simple-to-use sketching tools, will be available to technical traders.

A wide variety of calculators are provided across all platforms, including options-related calculators, margin calculations, order quantity calculators, interest calculators, and finance calculators.

Customers of IBKR can generate ideas by using Capitalise11, IBKR Market Signals, Benzinga, and Refinitiv Significant Developments, among other tools. In addition, trading ideas can be found on the blogs.

All platforms have access to dozens of real-time news sources in real time. 24/7 Wall Street, AccessWire, Benzinga Pro News, Benzinga Crypto News, Briefing.com, China Perspective, China Investment Insight, Dow Jones North American Briefing, IBKR Market Signals, IBKR Quant Blog, IBKR Traders' Insight, Insider Insight, Market Realist, Morningstar Insider Trade Log, Seeking Alpha, StreetInsider.com Top News and Analyst Actions, The Motley Fool, Thomson Reuters A monthly fee is charged for access to premium news content on the internet.

Customer access to dozens of free and premium market research and news providers, including AltaVista Research (ETF and mutual funds), Edison Investment Research, EventShares Research, ETF Guide, Morningstar Equity Ownership, Reuters Stockreports+, ValuEngine, and Zachs are all available to IBKR subscribers.

The Fundamentals Explorer has been completely overhauled and is now accessible on all IBKR trading platforms. Using this tool, you may delve into hundreds of data points including historical trends, industry comparisons, critical ratios, projections and other information. On the basis of several data points, you can examine how a firm compares to its rivals and to industry averages. You can also see how the company has done over time in terms of historical patterns.

IBKR clients have the option of setting a default for the reinvestment of dividends on qualified equities throughout their entire account.

IBKR does not provide a cash sweep programme, and there is no interest paid on cash amounts that are sitting idle.

The Impact Dashboard, which is accessible via TWS, the Client Portal, and the mobile app, assists you in evaluating and investing in firms that share your values. You can choose from 13 impact values and principles, including clean air, pure water, ocean life, land health, consumer safety, ethical leadership, gender equality, racial equality, LGBTQ inclusion, company transparency, sustainable product lifecycle, mindful business models, fair labour, and thriving communities, to guide your investment decisions. You can also exclude investments based on a list of ten criteria: animal testing, business ethics controversies, corporate political spending and lobbying, energy-intensive, fossil fuels, greenhouse emissions, hazardous waste, high water usage, tobacco, alcohol, and gambling, and weapons and gun manufacturers, among other things.

IBKR's PortfolioAnalyst consolidates, tracks, and analyses your entire financial performance in one convenient location. Your investment, bank, and savings accounts, as well as annuities, incentive plans, and credit card accounts, may all be linked together to provide you a comprehensive picture of your financial situation—and help you prepare for the future. Using the tool is completely free (even if you don't have an IBKR account), but only clients have access to the sophisticated features and real-time portfolio updates available via PortfolioAnalyst.

All balances, margins, and purchasing power computations are performed in real time. Also available in real time is the ability to calculate your internal rate of return. IBKR's unique Tax Optimizer tool allows you to define a default matching technique, which you can then alter for individual symbols if necessary using the program's settings. To assist you in maximising tax efficiency, the Tax Optimizer has a "what-if" feature that displays a preview of the profit and loss statement for each of the matching techniques.

The Trader's Journal is a note-taking function available in IBKR's TWS that allows you to capture and preserve trading notes and thoughts on any product you choose. The ability to store screenshots as part of a note, attach notes to transactions, and set charts to show both orders and performed trades are all features available in the platform. This is one of the most thorough trade diaries accessible from any brokerage firm today.

IBKR offers a wide variety of investor education programmes to its clients as well as the general public. A structured and rigorous curriculum is offered through the IBKR Traders Academy (which will be revamped in 2020), which is available online and on-demand. It is designed for financial professionals, investors, educators, and students who want to learn about asset classes, markets, currencies, tools, and functionality available on IBKR's trading platforms. IBKR Traders Academy (which will be revamped in 2020)

Quizzes and exams are used to assess students' progress in relation to learning goals and to enable them to study at their own speed if necessary. Introductions to asset classes such as options, futures, currency, international trading, and bonds, as well as how to utilise margin, are just a few examples of what you may learn in these courses. Some courses address the major IBKR technological platforms and tools, while others are more general. A dictionary of trading terms and a frequently asked questions section are available on the website.

Daily webinars are offered by IBKR and industry professionals. There are a variety of subjects covered at these events, including how-tos for platforms and tools, options education, trading overseas goods, and other topics. In addition to English, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and French, there are hundreds of recordings accessible on-demand in a variety of other languages as well.

IBKR has long been criticised for providing poor customer service, but the corporation is making strides to change that perception. There is one feature that was introduced a couple of years ago: an IBot service, which is driven by an artificial intelligence engine that responds to inquiries that are posed in plain English. IBot is accessible across the website and trading platforms, and it may assist clients in finding answers without the need to wait in lengthy lines.

IBKR complies with or surpasses the security requirements set by the industry. This includes the following:

Users of the mobile app may log in using biometric (facial or fingerprint) identification.

There are many different types of two-factor authentication.

Investing in securities accounts at Interactive Brokers LLC is covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) up to a total of $500,000, with a $250,000 cash sublimit. Up to an extra $30 million in SIPC coverage (with a cash sublimit of $900,000), subject to a total aggregate limit of $150 million, is available via excess SIPC coverage.

The Bank Deposit Sweep programme offered by Interactive Brokers allows customers to enhance their current $250,000 SIPC coverage with an additional $2,500,000 in FDIC protection on qualified cash balances.

Interactive Brokers said that it did not have any significant platform outages in 2020. In March, IBKR faced difficulties with its European systems, which resulted in login problems and outages on Trader Workstation for less than 90 minutes; IBKR Mobile was also unavailable for a limited period of time on same day. During that period, however, the business points out, customers had access to other trading platforms as well as the company's own. Various IBKR customers noticed a slowness on some IBKR platforms in November, when numerous brokers encountered outages at the same time. Trader Workstation, the company's trading platform, was recommended to customers during the short time when the slowness occurred.

According to the Identity Theft Research Center, there have been no notable data breaches at any IBKR site recorded by the organisation until 2020.

The IBKR Securities Class Action Recovery service will be introduced in May 2020, according to the company. It is an automated programme meant to relieve participants of the administrative burden associated with joining in a securities class action lawsuit, according to the company.

The tool automatically determines whether or not you are entitled to make a claim for stocks that you have purchased or sold at IBKR in the past using the information you provide. On your behalf, the service files documents to claims administrators and attempts to collect monies for compensation, if appropriate. A 20 percent contingency charge is deducted from any recovered funds before they are electronically transferred into your IBKR account.

A punishment of $15 million was levied on Interactive Brokers LLC by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on August 10, 2020, for significant failings in the firm's anti-money laundering (AML) program14, according to the announcement. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) both issued disciplinary measures and fines on the same day, resulting in a total of $38 million in penalties being paid to the three regulatory authorities in the United States.

The price structure of IBKR is complicated, however the specifics may be found under the Pricing option on the company's web site. Divided by asset class (for example, stocks, ETFs, and warrants, vs options, futures, and FOPs), and by plan (whether tiered, fixed, or free (IBKR Lite) pricing, commissions are broken down even further.

Interactive Brokers has a lot to offer in terms of goods, tools, and technological capabilities. On the whole, we discovered that IBKR is the ideal option for professional traders and skilled, active traders who wish to take use of a robust array of tools and worldwide access to a diverse selection of assets. The fact that you may trade any of those assets from a single, integrated account is noteworthy; this is a convenience that not all brokers can provide.

However, even while IBKR is working to make its technology more accessible to the general public, the plethora of tools and information may still be intimidating to many prospective investors. However, if you have outgrown the services of your present broker—or if you anticipate doing so in the near future—Interactive Brokers may be a logical next step.

What Kind of Interactive Brokers Account Do I Need to Get Started? Individual and joint taxable accounts, trusts, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and custodial accounts are all available with Interactive Brokers (UGMA & UTMA).

Customers from the United States are the only ones who may create a defined contribution IRA account, since the tax treatment of these accounts is only applicable in the United States. Traditional, rollover, Roth, and simplified employee pension (SEP) IRAs are all available via Interactive Brokers if you're in the market for one.

Consequently, the most fundamental issue is what you are doing with the account. In the event that you are saving for retirement and are a client in the United States, one of the IRAs will meet your demands. Individual, joint, and trust taxable accounts will be the accounts of choice for the majority of investors if this is not the case.

While this is the case, Interactive Brokers also offer accounts that are not geared at individuals, each with their own set of terms and conditions. Family office accounts, advisor accounts, money manager accounts, proprietary trading group accounts, and other types of accounts are available.

Even though these will not apply to the majority of ordinary investors, it is just another evidence of the breadth and depth of Interactive Brokers' trading platform.

IB is a strong brokerage for active and skilled traders who are searching for a trading platform that is geared to their specific trading methods as well as pricing that is tailored to their specific trading strategies.

You may find Interactive Brokers to be a suitable match if you are a frequent trader with sophisticated trading requirements. In addition to providing competitive pricing choices that are suited to the demands of active individual, professional and institutional traders as well as top-tier trading tools and platforms to assist them in executing precise trading strategies, it also provides a variety of other services. Individuals account for 50% of our clientele.

Active traders who want to have expenses broken out per share rather than pay a flat price each transaction may find Interactive Brokers' pricing to be quite competitive, especially when compared to other brokers. It features excellent trading platforms as well as trading flexibility. On marketplaces all across the globe, you may purchase and sell a huge variety of different assets.

Interactive Brokers provides commissions and costs that are competitive in the industry. You may choose between Fixed Rate and Tiered, volume-based pricing structures.

You have the option of choosing between fixed and tiered pricing plans at Interactive Brokers. Fixed pricing for equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is 0.005 cents a share, with a $1 minimum order per order. Tiered pricing begins at 0.0035 cents per share with a 0.35 cent minimum for transactions of up to 300,000 shares per month, with a 0.0035 cent maximum.

Exchange, regulatory, and clearing costs are not included in the tiered price structure. Fixed pricing incorporates all costs, making it a little more predictable and, thus, more appropriate for traders who deal in smaller volumes.

Depending on the amount of trades, the costs for options trading in the United States vary from 0.70 cents per contract to 0.25 cents per contract, respectively. With direct routing, you'll just have to pay a one-time fee of $1 per contract. The majority of mutual fund transactions involving North American funds are priced at $14.95 per transaction.

Bonds are priced at 0.1 percent of face value for the first $10,000 exchanged and 0.025 percent of face value for each successive $10,000 transferred, with a $1 minimum per transaction. Futures transactions begin at 0.85 cents per contract for traders who do less than 1,000 contracts per month in futures trading. Forex trading begin at 0.20 basis points, with a $2 minimum order size per transaction.

When considering the many levels available for each product, pricing might get quite complicated. High-volume traders, on the other hand, will almost certainly save money if they take advantage of the unbundled, tiered pricing structure.

Accounts for high-net-worth individuals and professional investors such as family offices and hedge funds are available through Interactive Brokers, which also offers personal and business accounts as well as some more unique accounts.

The company Interactive Brokers allows you to open both personal and professional accounts. The majority of people will find that an individual, joint, trust, IRA, or UGMA/UTMA account for minors is the best fit for them.

There are also investment advisor, hedge fund, family office, money manager, and business accounts available to customers. The "friends and family advisor" account is one of the more unusual types of accounts. This sort of account enables you to manage several connected accounts from a single central login screen, saving you time and effort.

Securities offered by this brokerage include stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), options, futures, foreign exchange, metals, fixed income (bonds), and mutual funds, among other things.

Customers may choose from a wide variety of assets that are accessible for active trading via this brokerage. 135 different markets are represented by stocks, providing you with an enormous number of options for investing in global markets. In a similar vein, other investment products are becoming more flexible and offering more options.

There are 23 currencies available for forex trading. Futures trading provides you with access to a wide range of markets, including currencies, agricultural commodities, energy, metals, volatility indices, and a variety of other securities. You can even purchase physical precious metals if you so desire (storage fees apply).

When it comes to the sheer number of unique assets available for purchase and trading, Interactive Brokers does an excellent job and is difficult to beat.

International users in a variety of areas throughout the globe may sign up for accounts. Users in the United States may easily register a new account online by providing just the most basic of contact and financial information.

Some financial institutions, such as banks and brokerage firms, need you to go through a lengthy process in order to create a new account. Opening a new account with Interactive Brokers is a very simple and easy process. You will almost certainly not be required to submit any paper or physical documentation because all of your information will be verified electronically.





You will be required to provide your contact information, Social Security number, job information, and bank account information in order to fund your account throughout the application process. Identity verification is done digitally, so you shouldn't have to submit anything else unless anything doesn't match up.

International and entity accounts have different requirements, but personal accounts couldn't be any easier to set up than they already are.

Interactive Brokers focuses on skilled traders and does an excellent job of creating a trading platform that satisfies the demands of these traders.

In terms of trading platforms, Interactive Brokers provides a top-of-the-line experience for Windows and Mac users. Aside from trading on the company's flagship Trader Workstation, Interactive Brokers also offers the opportunity to trade on its client website, the IBKR Mobile app, via a bot that understands natural language orders, through a web-based trading platform, and through APIs.

The desktop platform is intended for traders with a high level of knowledge and expertise. With such a large number of professional-level users, it is not surprising to find a platform that is a touch too complicated for younger traders to utilise. Anyone with prior trading expertise, on the other hand, should be able to get up and running fast.

There is a demo account accessible, as well as paper trading on real accounts, if you wish to try it out for free first.

Trader Workstation has customisable views and a window-style interface that makes it easy to use. In addition, it provides easy access to charts, a watchlist, current positions, and other information that may be relevant to your trading approach

Using natural language text, you may ask inquiries and manage your account with the iBot, which is a first for the industry. When you say anything like "What is the share price of Apple" or "Buy 10 shares of AMZN," the bot will take care of whatever you want it to do. This involves the retrieval of charts and data, as well as the input of orders.

The following confirmation shows after iBot has been instructed to "Buy 10 shares of AMZN." My market order was filled in a matter of seconds after I entered it into the demo system.

For those who want to delve deeper, the charting tools give you the ability to draw and customise your own view.

Option chains and other sophisticated tools are ideal for traders who want to take their strategies to the next level and make them more profitable and efficient.

The PortfolioAnalyst tool produces excellent portfolio visualisations of a level of quality that is suitable for distribution to clients by a financial advisor. This tool, Profitability Lab, is a probabilistic options analysis tool that may assist you in improving your performance by assessing trade profit possibilities without having to do the math yourself.

If you are not in front of your computer, you can manage your account using the IBKR Mobile app, which is available for both iPhone and Android devices.

Interactive Brokers is capable of handling the majority of standard and complex trade types. You may also use algorithmic trading using the Interactive Brokers API, which is available on the company's website.

With an account at Interactive Brokers, you have the ability to enter almost any type of trade. That means you have a lot more options than just placing a standard market order. The list is so long that it couldn't possibly be included here.

Advanced trades are permitted in order to assist you in limiting risk, capturing price improvements, and timing your trade entry. Algorithmic trading and other advanced trading strategies are also available.

This is another another area in which Interactive Brokers excels and distinguishes itself from the competition.

During the business week, customer service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There are direct phone numbers available for individuals, institutional customers, and the trade desks, as well as email addresses. Online chat and email are also accessible for customer service.

It's also possible to send a fax if you've forgotten that this isn't the 1990s.

The FAQ section is powered by a search bot that didn't perform particularly well when we tested it with a few questions. The Knowledge Base, on the other hand, was straightforward to access and packed with important material.

Interactive Brokers provides a great trading environment for both experienced traders and high-volume traders. Beginners and casual investors, on the other hand, may find the fees and platforms to be too expensive.

Interactive Brokers is a fantastic option if you want a powerful platform, the opportunity to enter practically any kind of transaction you can imagine, and inexpensive commissions and fees. Its distinguishing characteristics are particularly important to institutional and extremely active traders.

It is not the best brokerage for new traders or those who will only trade a couple of times per month, according to our research. However, if you trade on a weekly or more frequent basis, you should strongly consider Interactive Brokers.

Learn more about online trading brokers for UAE citizens and residents.

Sites like Interactive Brokers in the UAE

Here is a list of top online brokers to open an account for trading Forex, Bitcoin, CFDs and Stocks in the UAE. These brokers have above-average reviews on sites like Reddit, Quora and Trustpilot; and are totally legit, safe and trustworthy for UAE citizens and residents.

The brokers listed on this webpage accept clients from within the United Arab Emirates. Most of these companies provide an online trading platform for fiat currencies (such as Pound Sterling, the Euro, the US dollar, Japanese Yen etc.), buying and selling of cryptocurrencies (for example Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, XRP etc.), stocks (this includes listings on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Borse Dubai, Dubai Mercantile Exchange, Dubai Financial Market and NASDAQ Dubai), CFDs (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla etc.), UAE government and corporate bonds, and short-term to long-term fixed income securities.

 

Reviewed by Arpita Singh

Arpita SinghArpita Singh is the main writer at ForexBroker.ae. As a senior investment professional with 10+ years of experience working at top-tier Private Equity and Sovereign Wealth Fund; she is also responsible for fact-checking concepts, reviews, and related details about brokers and exchanges listed on this website. Full Bio.

 

 

 

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