Vintage Broker With a Once Great History Broker with a great history facing fierce competition in peculiar ways. Commissions are average to expensive, given a vast movement of retail brokers that offer low cost trading these days. That is OK though if you like their Trader Work Station TWS, a powerful piece of software that is as easy to handle as flying a Jumbo Jet. It can get you to a lot of places if you know what you are doing. IBKR is still a decent broker if you are a professional or semi professional trader with a good volume of daily trades. If you are, you probably have no need to read this review. If you are retail and if you are considering to trade volumes below 1 Mio $ a year, the following might concern you. I am slightly below that margin with IBKR, so the following comes from personal experience. According to IBKR customer service, regulators do not allow IBKR to display delayed market data for free anymore. I am not talking about top secret stuff. I am talking about charts of stocks that that can be seen pretty much anywhere for free. With IBKR you need to either pay extra for looking at charts of your own investments or keep trading in high volumes. This is new. In the past you were able to see charts of your stocks just like with every other broker. When I asked IBKR about this change, they answered that turning off free charts for clients was due to "regulatory guidance" and in "compliance with FINRA's policy." This is my second effort to review IBKR. The first one was deleted through Interactive Brokers, claiming my review was colliding with the rules of Trustpilot. If it was, it might have been because I was speculating why IBKR was imposed such harsh restrictions by regulators after their transfer from the UK to Luxembourg. I actually felt sorry for a company that I thought did well in the past. After all, restrictions like this may bring a company in a disadvantageous position relative to its competitors. This time I am not speculating and I am not giving you my subjective impression. Instead I let speak facts for themselves. Here is what they say: "IBKR is no longer able to offer delayed quotes for major stock exchanges such as NYSE and NASDAQ." Of course customers are still able to see charts of their investments. They need to subscribe market data through something called Market Data Assistant, a rather complicated toolbox for something that is on open display at any other shopping window down Broker Alley. To find the right key for this magic box, you need to first subscribe a "US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle" for 10 USD per month that is waived for months with commissions exceeding 30$. Once you have subscribed this bundle, you may subscribe additional bundles that give you a chance to see your investments in classic chart view. Sounds complicated? Go on and read what they have to say: "In order to know what market data you are required to subscribe, you can use the market data assistant tool for the same. You need to enter the Region, Exchange name and Symbol. Once entered the tool will give you list of market data to be subscribed."

Large broker but not for < $100k… Large broker but not for < $100k client. Heavy commissions for today's choice of brokers. TWS platform old and freezes. Have to really pay for each extra (Ryanair experience): market data - can't plot charts without subscription, inactivity fees, third-rated quality news. Adds up to real cost of $300-$500 per year (Lite version not available outside the US). Support tickets closed at will. Phone assistance useless and makes issues worse (eg, by resetting passwords where not asked). Forms/requests not processed. Customer never right -- forget about 'compensation' even if mistake is made by IBKR. Customers are treated obnoxiously, the company refuses to accept any errors. You will always be 'wrong'. Noticeable how IBKR in-house traders/trading systems are trying to fleece you on option spreads and limit orders. IBKR does makes markets against their client positions. Also, IBKR forcibly closes-out one leg of combo trades to manage their own book and profitability (not your risk!) leaving you with the market exposure in the wrong way.

Terrible broker Terrible broker, I have $27000 in my account, it's NOT allowing me to purchase stocks, available funds in my account and I cant buy. Do yourself a favour, search for something better. Customer service = non-existent Search for reviews online, you will know what I'm saying.

As others have said...they are awful As others have said...they are awful. I posted about them before and will post again. I only use IB for stocks I can't get elsewhere and only have positions open in 1 stock. I wanted to open another one today, so I deposited money, converted it to dollars and when the market opened I was ready to buy a new stock that I can't find anywhere else.. Went through all the process and right after clicking buy IB told me the stock can only be sold not bought. What the hell? I can't wait to transfer out but I suspect that will be impossible going off other reviews. UPDATE: In reply to their response....Sorry you're 15 months late to the game, I've moved on already. You didn't reach out to solve my issue so don't lie. You reached out to prove the review wasn't a bot and there's no way I'm giving my phone number just to do that.

Unable to sell my holdings on the market I am really begining to wonder what has happened to this company . I have been a customer for a number of years and things worked out fine until recent times and now customer service has gone down the pan . Example - on Jan 14 this year I bought a holding in a large silver EFT (not a small unknown stock .) . Two weeks ago I decided to sell part of it . I tried to put in a sell order. The system would not accept it . The latest message reads ... This product is currently unavailable to clients classified as retail clients . I understand that I cannot buy them but do not understand the ban on selling them After all IBKR sold them to me in the first place In other words I would seem to be stuck with these shares and can not sell them. Even though they were sold to me only 6 weeks ago . Out of my portfolio of 8 holdings 2 are blocked from selling . I can't be the only one thus effected . I have been trying to contact IBKR many times by phone . Hours spent hanging on the phone to no avail , which is very irritating and somewhat worrying. Meanwhile I have lost all confidence in this organisation . Surely the most important aspect of their business is customer service ? What is the problem ? Now what to do ? Any ideas ?