Interactive Brokers
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Investing in financial products involves taking risk.

Vs.

Forex.com
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67.6% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

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

Updated Oct 20 2022

Visit

Investing in financial products involves taking risk.

Visit

67.6% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

Overview

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.

Forex.com is a global broker headquartered in the U.S and part of StoneX (publicly traded company on NASDAQ) that specialises in offering CFDs based on commodities, currencies, indices, stocks, ETFs, shares, bonds and cryptocurrencies.

Best For
  • 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
  • Traders of all levels (beginner to advanced) looking for competitive pricing
  • Trades of all levels looking for a great platform variety
  • High volume traders looking for ECN or DMA accounts offering deep liquidity for large trades
Licenses

Financial
Licenses

Regulation

Regulated

Top-tier Licenses

10

Other Licenses

1

Provided by
TheTradingBible.com

Learn More

Financial
Licenses

Regulation

Regulated

Top-tier Licenses

4

Other Licenses

2

Provided by
TheTradingBible.com

Learn More
🏛 Financial Regulators
  • 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)
  • FINRA (United States)
  • FCA (UK)
  • FFAJ (Japan)
  • IIROC (Canada)
  • CySec (Cyprus)
  • CIMA (Cayman Islands)
The Good
  • High regulation
  • Exceptional number of investment instruments (Above 100,000+)
  • Competitive discount fees
  • Great platform offering (Proprietary, TradingView, MetaTrader 4 & 5)
  • Excellent asset offering (more than 5,000+ instruments)
  • Competitive spreads in some of their assets
The Bad
  • Complicated account opening process
  • Platforms are not beginner friendly
  • Narrow choice of deposit options (Mostly bank transfers)
  • Despite presenting a great customisable platform, it still feels messy and not intuitive to use
  • Commissions are expensive when compared to similar competitors 
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
1978 2001
💳 Minimum Deposit Range
0 $100
💰 Payment Methods
  • Bank Transfer
  • ACH (US only)
  • Check (US only)
  • Debit Card (US only)
  • BPAY (Australia only)
  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • Skrill
  • Neteller
  • Bank Transfer
💵 Account Base Currencies
23 - USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, CHF, CNY, CZK, DK, HKD, HUF, INR, ILS, JPY, MXN, NZD, NOK, PLN, RUB, SGD, ZAR, KRW, SEK. 6 - GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, JPY, CHF.
🗽 Available to U.S Citizens
Yes Yes
❌ Restricted Countries

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

None
📊 STP Account
Yes Yes
📊 DMA Account
Yes Yes
📊 ECN Account
Yes Yes
Banking License
No No
Debit Card
Yes No
Assets
📚 Assets Type
Hybrid CFDs
Total Asset Offering
173,105 5,371
Exchange Access
78 0
📙 Real Stocks
100,000 0
📙 Stock CFDs
0 4,500
📘 Currency Pairs
105 0
📘 Currency Pair CFDs
0 93
📗 Commodities
0 0
📗 Commodities CFDs
0 35
📕 Indices
0 0
📕 Indices CFDs
0 24
📔 ETFs
13,000 0
📔 ETFs CFDs
0 700
💸 Cryptocurrencies
0 0
💸 Cryptocurrency CFDs
0 5
📒 Bonds
60,000 0
📒 Bonds CFDs
0 14
📓 Options
0 0
📓 Options CFDs
0 0
📗 Futures
0 0
📗 Futures CFDs
0 0
Trading Experience
📈 Minimum Stock Trade Size
Variable - Fractions Allowed Varies per share (eg: 0.3 AMZN shares)
📉 Minimum ETFs Trade Size
Variable - Fractions Allowed Varies per ETF (eg: 5 contracts of XLK)
📈 Minimum Crypto Trade Size
Unavailable Varies per Cryptocurrency (eg: 0.01 BTC)
📉 Minimum FX Trade Size
$25,000 (0.25 lots) $1,000 (0.01 Lots)
📈 Minimum Commodities Trade Size
Varies per commodity (eg: 1 Ounce of Gold) Varies per commodity (eg: 1 contract of Gold)
📉 Minimum Bonds Trade Size
$1,000 for corporate/muni bonds, $1 million for treasury bonds Unavailable
📈 Minimum Futures Trade Size
1 Contract Unavailable
📉 Minimum Options Trade Size
1 Contract Unavailable
💪 Retail Leverage
Unavailable 30
💪 Professional Leverage
Unavailable 500
✍ Customisable Leverage
No No
🎲 Deleveraged Trading
Yes Yes
🎓 Demo Account
Yes Yes
📱 IOS App
Yes Yes
📱 Android App
Yes Yes
📺 MetaTrader 4
No Yes
📺 MetaTrader 5
No Yes
📺 cTrader
No No
💻 Web trader
Yes Yes
💻 TradingView Platform
No Yes
💻 Proprietary Platform
Yes Yes
📊 Multi-chart Tools
Yes Yes
👬 Copy Trading
No No
👫 Social Trading
No No
🔑 Guaranteed Stop-loss
No No
🔨 Trailing Stop-loss
Yes Yes
Fees
💰 Inactivity Fee
None

$15 monthly after 1 year of inactivity.

💰 Deposit Fees
None None
💰 Withdrawal Fees

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

None
💰 Commissions

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

Depending on account type.

  • Standard account has no commissions
  • “Commission Account” and “DMA Account” have a flat $5 fee commission per lot round turn
Spreads
📈 EUR/USD
Dynamic - From 0.1 Pips Dynamic - From 0.8 Pips
📉 SP500
Dynamic - From 01 Pip Dynamic - From 60 Pips
📈 GOLD
Unavailable Dynamic - From 50 Pips
📉 TSLA (Stock CFD)
Dynamic - From $0.50 Dynamic - Market Spread
📈 XLK (ETF - CFD)
Unavailable Dynamic - Market Spread
📉 BTC
Unavailable Dynamic - From $120
Research and Analysis
⭐ Watchlists
Yes Yes
🔭 Stock Screener
Yes No
🗓 Economic Calendar
Yes Yes
📜 Integrated Newsfeed
Yes Yes
📡 Reuters Feed
Yes Yes
📡 Educational Content
No Yes
📡 Live Chat Support
Yes Yes
📡 Video Tutorials
No Yes
📡 Account Management
Yes No
📡 Webinars
No No