One of the first online brokerages in the United States, Interactive Brokers was established in 1977 and has been publicly traded since 2007 (NASDAQ: IBKR). With 1.73 million clients and USD 373.8 billion in client equity, Interactive Brokers is well-capitalized. It has $7.1 billion in excess regulatory capital.

In addition to offering equities, options, forex, futures, and bonds across 135 market centers in 33 countries and 23 currencies from a single trading account, Interactive Brokers was one of the first brokers to offer a multi-asset solution.

A well-known multi-asset broker with a wide selection of tradeable international markets is Interactive Brokers. Along with a cutting-edge, institutional-grade trading platform suite, it offers competitive fees, top-notch research, and education.

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Trading Instruments

A wide variety of accessible international markets are provided by Interactive Brokers. However, depending on where you live and which Interactive Brokers entity manages your account, those markets may not be accessible to you. For instance, clients in the United States, Canada, or Hong Kong cannot trade CFDs, and residents of the United States cannot engage in retail spot forex trading (unless Interactive Brokers has designated them as “Eligible Contract Participants”). See our U.S. forex brokers guide for information on trading in US currency.

Cryptocurrency: Interactive Brokers does not offer cryptocurrency trading through CFDs, but rather through trading the underlying asset (such as purchasing Bitcoin) thanks to Interactive Brokers’ partnership with Paxos. Notably, neither U.K. residents nor retail traders from any broker’s U.K. entity are permitted to trade cryptocurrency CFDs.

• Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) Yes
• Tradeable Symbols (Total) 8500
• Forex Pairs (Total) 90
• U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) Yes
• Int’l Stock Trading (Non CFD) Yes
• Social Trading / Copy Trading No
• Cryptocurrency (Physical) Yes

Fees and commissions

However, it is challenging to draw exact comparisons because Interactive Brokers doesn’t disclose its average forex spreads. Interactive Brokers does appear to offer competitive pricing. In spite of this, we were able to collect a sample of a week’s worth of average spread data for the EUR/USD, which came to a total of 0.6 pips after commission.

Commissions per side for forex trading start at 0.00002 (0.2 basis points) of the U.S. dollar trade value with a minimum of $2 per order ($4 per round turn), but they can go as low as 0.08 basis points for traders who are particularly active.

Example of a forex account: Interactive Brokers would charge a commission-equivalent of roughly 0.40 pips in addition to any current spreads for buying and selling $100,000 worth of EUR/USD. Overall, that represents a low commission rate for forex trading (note that while they do support forex trading, IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro accounts are not commission-free).

Minimum charge per trade: Trading less than 100,000 units of currency is proportionally more expensive due to the $2 minimum commission per side. The $3 per-order fee levied by Saxo Bank when trading less than 50,000 units of currency is comparable to Interactive Brokers’ $3 minimum charge for forex transactions.

Commissions and method of execution: Interactive Brokers collects prices for forex traders from 17 of the biggest interbank forex dealers in the world. Instead of marking up spreads, Interactive Brokers assesses a commission per trade that ranges from $8 to $20 per side to a maximum of $40 per million round turns. This cost is comparable to that of brokers who provide commission-based agency execution for forex trading.

Active traders: When certain monthly trading volume minimums are met, discounts for active traders become available. For instance, if you trade $1 billion or more in forex, the minimum fee drops to $1.5, and when you trade $5 billion or more per month, it drops to just $1 per order. Additionally, Interactive Brokers offers large order sizes on a Request For Quote (RFQ) basis to lessen market impact and provide clients with the best execution possible.

Apps for mobile trading

IBKR Mobile offers a robust trading experience that competes with the market’s best multi-asset brokers, but customizing the app for forex trading can be a time-consuming process. Our award for innovation went to the just-released IMPACT app from Interactive Brokers.

Overview of apps: The main mobile app from Interactive Brokers for forex and CFD trading is called IBKR and is accessible for iOS users on the Apple App Store and for Android users on Google Play. Interactive Brokers offers its IMPACT app for stocks and cryptocurrency. The app has many features that are similar to those found on the web platform.

One such comprehensive feature is its most recent Impact dashboard, which allows you to compare portfolio metrics to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. Additionally, there is a lengthy list of predefined watchlists (two of which are tailored specifically for forex), as well as an economic calendar with the option of adding alerts and the ability to limit its display to events that are specifically related to forex.

Rich charting and trade execution from within the charts are both features of the IBKR mobile app. Although there are only 127 available indicators, I was happy to discover that they automatically sync with the TWS desktop platform despite the absence of drawing tools.

Trading Platforms

For its trading platforms, Interactive Brokers stands out. These include its flagship desktop software and web trading app, both of which give access to sophisticated trading tools and international financial markets (such as forex and CFDs). The web-based platform of Interactive Brokers is designed for regular retail traders, whereas the desktop platform is complicated and difficult to use and customize, even for professionals.

Overview of platforms: The best way to describe Trader Workstation (TWS), Interactive Brokers’ premier desktop trading platform, is knotty. Despite having a ton of features that cover the full range of trading products, its complexity may prevent new traders from using it.

The Client Portal from Interactive Brokers is a web-based trading platform with a good mix of features, including trading, synchronizing watch lists, and forex news headlines and events related to the economic calendar. This platform is much more approachable for novice investors, and during my testing, I enjoyed using it.

The primary forex trading terminal in TWS is called FXTrader, and it gives users access to 105 cash forex pairs or 91 forex CFDs offered by Interactive Brokers. Users can choose between spot forex cash rates and forex CFDs from the IDEALPRO or SMART venue when adding forex pairs to a watch list.

Market research

IBKR offers 220 services from 86 news and research providers, 21 of which directly cover forex news and research (some of which require a monthly subscription fee). Although Interactive Brokers offers excellent research overall, I’d like to see more of its forex-specific material.

Overview of research: The vast majority of traders will be satisfied by the research content provided by Interactive Brokers, but you must know where to look. The Client Portal and the Trader Workstation (TWS) both have access to a large amount of third-party research. The Traders’ Insight blog features content from in-house and guest authors with articles released throughout the trading week. Additionally, Interactive Brokers streams market news and headlines from outlets like Reuters, Dow Jones, and Market News International (MNI), and it uses services like Econoday to power its economic calendar. Institutional investors finally have access to UBS Live Desk market research.
Market news and analysis: Interactive Brokers offers both free and premium (paid) subscriptions to forex research that is authored in-house as well as from dozens of third-party providers. On the Traders Insights blog, there is also an expanding collection of articles that are specifically about forex and other related writing.

Interactive Brokers Education

With a wide range of high-quality educational materials (including a growing collection of forex-specific materials), Interactive Brokers comes close to being the education sector’s leader. However, the stock market (share trading)—rather than forex or CFDs—is the primary focus of Interactive Brokers’ educational offerings.

The learning center at Interactive Brokers includes the Traders’ Academy portal, the IBKR Quant blog, and the IBKR Campus. I discovered the content to be abundant, diverse, and of the highest caliber, produced by internal staff and outside educators.

With lessons and accompanying videos arranged by experience level, the Traders’ Academy portal effectively covers broader financial market sectors. A small but growing number of forex courses are also available, including two that were just added in 2021. These courses come with quizzes and progress tracking, and Interactive Brokers has also created a Coursera course with a university-style syllabus.

Conclusion on Interactive Brokers

Professional traders and experienced traders will find Interactive Brokers’ proprietary Trader Workstation platform, competitive commissions, and diverse global product offering to be an excellent fit.

IBKR is the best option for institutional clients. For its Investments Offering, Platforms & Tools, Mobile Trading Apps, Education, Research, Commissions & Fees, Crypto Trading, Professional Trading, Trust Score, and Overall in 2023, Interactive Brokers came in first place.

However, low-volume or novice forex and CFD traders should take note; when determining whether Interactive Brokers will be a good fit for your trading style, you should take into account miscellaneous fees, such as market data subscriptions, as well as the complexity of its proprietary platforms.