IG
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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

Vs.

Interactive Brokers
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Investing in financial products involves taking risk.

IG Vs. Interactive Brokers - Compare Trustworthiness, Capabilities, Fees and Legitimacy

Updated Oct 13 2023

Visit

79% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

Visit

Investing in financial products involves taking risk.

Overview

IG is a global broker established in 1974 that holds 8 reputable financial licenses and provides CFD trading on stocks, commodities, ETFs, indices, cryptocurrencies, bonds, futures, options along with real stocks through their share dealing account.

Interactive Brokers is a global brokerage founded in 1978 that holds 11+ high tier financial licenses and provides discounted electronic trading services in nearly all the globe with access to more than 100,000+ financial instruments.

Best For
  • Professional traders looking to exploit their customisable platform and broad asset offering
  • High volume traders that can offset their commission costs by trading in larger volumes
  • Seasoned investors looking for a one-stop shop to cover a variety of needs
  • Global investors who seek the most reliable discount service available
  • Traders from intermediate to advanced level
Licenses

Financial
Licenses

Regulation

Regulated

Top-tier Licenses

8

Other Licenses

2

Provided by
TheTradingBible.com

Learn More

Financial
Licenses

Regulation

Regulated

Top-tier Licenses

10

Other Licenses

1

Provided by
TheTradingBible.com

Learn More
🏛 Financial Regulators
  • ASIC (Australia)
  • FMA (New Zealand)
  • NFA (United States)
  • DFSA (United Arab Emirates)
  • FINMA (Switzerland)
  • MAS (Singapore)
  • FFAJ (Japan)
  • FSCA (South Africa)
  • BMA (Bermuda)
  • SEC (United States)
  • FINRA (United States)
  • FCA (United Kingdom)
  • ASIC (Australia)
  • IIROC (Canada)
  • MNB (Hungary)
  • BSE (India)
  • CBI (Ireland)
  • FSA (Japan)
  • CSSF (Luxembourg) CSSF
  • MAS (Singapore)
The Good
  • Broad platform offering with high customisability and integrated news feeds
  • Comprehensive asset offering with more than 10,000 + CFDs or real stocks and ETFs
  • High regulation
  • Exceptional number of investment instruments (Above 100,000+)
  • Competitive discount fees
The Bad
  • There are too many small costs such as custody, in-and-out-commissions in some cases, management fees, etc
  • Their standard contracts can be too large some times for low volume traders
  • Complicated account opening process
  • Platforms are not beginner friendly
  • Narrow choice of deposit options (Mostly bank transfers)
Status
Operational Operational
Recent News

No fresh news at the moment. Check again soon!

No fresh news at the moment. Check again soon!

Key Data
⌛ Account Opening Time
1 day 1 day
📋 Documents Required
  • Valid identity document (Passport, ID Card, etc)
  • Valid proof of residence document (Bank statement, utility bills)

All documents must be under the account holder's name.

  • Valid identity document (Passport, ID Card, etc)
  • Valid proof of residence document (Bank statement, utility bills)

All documents must be under the account holder's name.

📍 Year Founded
1974 1978
💳 Minimum Deposit Range
From $10 to $450. 0
💰 Payment Methods
  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • Bank Transfer
  • Paypal
  • Bank Transfer
  • ACH (US only)
  • Check (US only)
  • Debit Card (US only)
  • BPAY (Australia only)
💵 Account Base Currencies
6 - AUD, EUR, GBP, HKD, SGD, USD. 23 - USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, CHF, CNY, CZK, DK, HKD, HUF, INR, ILS, JPY, MXN, NZD, NOK, PLN, RUB, SGD, ZAR, KRW, SEK.
🗽 Available to U.S Citizens
Yes Yes
❌ Restricted Countries

SY, IR.

AF, SY, SO, SD, LY, NG, BI.

📊 STP Account
No Yes
📊 DMA Account
Yes Yes
📊 ECN Account
Yes Yes
Banking License
No No
Debit Card
No Yes
Assets
📚 Assets Type
Hybrid Hybrid
Total Asset Offering
35,227 173,105
Exchange Access
8 78
📙 Real Stocks
15,000 100,000
📙 Stock CFDs
15,000 0
📘 Currency Pairs
0 105
📘 Currency Pair CFDs
80 0
📗 Commodities
0 0
📗 Commodities CFDs
37 0
📕 Indices
0 0
📕 Indices CFDs
76 0
📔 ETFs
2,000 13,000
📔 ETFs CFDs
2,000 0
💸 Cryptocurrencies
0 0
💸 Cryptocurrency CFDs
15 0
📒 Bonds
0 60,000
📒 Bonds CFDs
19 0
📓 Options
0 0
📓 Options CFDs
1,000 0
📗 Futures
0 0
📗 Futures CFDs
0 0
Trading Experience
📈 Minimum Stock Trade Size
1/10 of Contract (5,000 Notional) Variable - Fractions Allowed
📉 Minimum ETFs Trade Size
1/10 of Contract (5,000 Notional) Variable - Fractions Allowed
📈 Minimum Crypto Trade Size
0.01 Contracts Unavailable
📉 Minimum FX Trade Size
1 Contract $25,000 (0.25 lots)
📈 Minimum Commodities Trade Size
1 Contract Varies per commodity (eg: 1 Ounce of Gold)
📉 Minimum Bonds Trade Size
1 Contract $1,000 for corporate/muni bonds, $1 million for treasury bonds
📈 Minimum Futures Trade Size
1 Contract 1 Contract
📉 Minimum Options Trade Size
1 Contract 1 Contract
💪 Retail Leverage
30 Unavailable
💪 Professional Leverage
250 Unavailable
✍ Customisable Leverage
No No
🎲 Deleveraged Trading
No Yes
🎓 Demo Account
Yes Yes
📱 IOS App
Yes Yes
📱 Android App
Yes Yes
📺 MetaTrader 4
Yes No
📺 MetaTrader 5
No No
📺 cTrader
No No
💻 Web trader
Yes Yes
💻 TradingView Platform
No No
💻 Proprietary Platform
Yes Yes
📊 Multi-chart Tools
Yes Yes
👬 Copy Trading
No No
👫 Social Trading
No No
🔑 Guaranteed Stop-loss
Yes No
🔨 Trailing Stop-loss
Yes Yes
Fees
💰 Inactivity Fee

After 24 months of inactivity, IG charges an $18 monthly fee.

None
💰 Deposit Fees
None None
💰 Withdrawal Fees
None

One free withdrawal per month, subsequent are $10 per withdrawal or equivalent

💰 Commissions

Yes, they charge depending on the client’s account base currency and exchange location of the shares being traded. For example, for some clients US shares can have a minimum charge of $10 in-and-out.

Commissions depend on market and residency:

  • US residents are eligible for zero commission US stock trading. Else, for US stocks it is $0.005/share with a minimum $1 and maximum 1% of the trade value.
  • European stocks have €3 minimum and 0.05% trade value.
  • Forex commissions are volume based starting at 0.20 basis points of trade value or $2 minimum per trade, and going low as 0.08 basis points and $1.
  • Options start at $0.25 per contract and go as low as $0.15 per contract.
  • Futures start at $0.85 per contract and go as low as $0.25 per contract
Spreads
📈 EUR/USD
Dynamic - From 0.6 Pips Dynamic - From 0.1 Pips
📉 SP500
Dynamic - From 40 Pips Dynamic - From 01 Pip
📈 GOLD
Dynamic - From 30 Pips Unavailable
📉 TSLA (Stock CFD)
Dynamic - Market Spread Dynamic - From $0.50
📈 XLK (ETF - CFD)
Dynamic - Market Spread Unavailable
📉 BTC
Dynamic - From $90 Unavailable
Research and Analysis
⭐ Watchlists
Yes Yes
🔭 Stock Screener
No Yes
🗓 Economic Calendar
Yes Yes
📜 Integrated Newsfeed
Yes Yes
📡 Reuters Feed
Yes Yes
📡 Educational Content
Yes No
📡 Live Chat Support
Yes Yes
📡 Video Tutorials
No No
📡 Account Management
No Yes
📡 Webinars
Yes No