Interactive Brokers Review
According to Barron’s statistics, the American company Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. over the past eight years has been a confident leader in the ranking of Forex brokers. Not only US citizens can register and open a trading account in it, but also representatives of any foreign state, including residents of Russia and the CIS countries.
History and features of the company
The company was founded in America in 1977 by Thomas Peterffy, who later became its executive director. At first, it traded options, but after 10 years it started to clearing stocks, and since 1998 it began to provide dealer services in the financial markets.
All the years of its existence, the company, constantly evolving, confidently keeps pace with the times. Today it is the most reliable American prime broker and one of the leading securities companies. Its equity has already exceeded $6 billion. For Interactive Brokers, the following activities are a priority:
- brokerage/dealership;
- proprietary trading;
- work with stocks and contracts;
They are carried out on hundreds of world exchanges and financial markets, including cryptocurrency futures. For this, the company provides its dealers with online access (liquidity) to clearing services. As a result, traders can withdraw orders to interbank exchanges and execute transactions with a wide range of instruments:
- stocks;
- bonds;
- options;
- futures;
- structured product;
- spot Forex;
- CFD and Funds.
Every day, more than a million transactions are conducted. Even on regional exchanges in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the USA, 22 currency pairs and many other assets are traded. No other broker in the world can provide as many financial services as Interactive Brokers does.
Trading nuances
The company is not registered in the offshore zone, so its work, depending on the region, is controlled by numerous regulators: CFTC, IIROC, AFSL, ASIC, SFC, FCA and others. All types of cash transactions (including replenishment and withdrawal of deposit) are possible using the following tools:
- bank transfer;
- international payment cards;
- branded brokers debit card;
The minimum deposit is:
- $3,000 — for people under 25 years old;
- $5,000 — for senior citizens;
- $10,000 — for ordinary traders;
- $25,000 — for day traders (who have more than 4 transactions per working week excluding futures and options).
Insurance for any deposit is $250,000. The balance sheet requirements are quite stringent if they are not respected outside the working day. The maximum leverage is 1:50. There are monthly commissions and collections, depending on the deposit amount. They can vary from $0 to $20. More details about all conditions can be found on the broker’s official website.
