Investment can be quite exciting when you start to understand the tricks of the trade. Thanks to the advancements of financial technology, there are now more ways for a beginner or even a seasoned investor to invest and trade more efficiently, and to add to the excitement, the ability to do it globally.
In this article, we will be talking about Interactive Brokers, a global brokerage firm that is well-known among investors around the world for its broad investment opportunities and features.
What are Interactive Brokers?
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is a Nasdaq-listed online trading platform founded in 1978. It offers access to more than 160 global markets, with a diverse range of investment products, including stocks, bonds, ETF, options, futures, and forex, making it an appealing single unified platform choice for individual traders and institutional investors worldwide. IBKR is also known for its low fees and advanced tools for investors to utilize.
Why invest with Interactive Brokers?
IBKR’s strength is that it provides everything under one roof - so to speak - where you have everything you need to make your investment decisions.
As mentioned earlier, the platform provides access to global markets, allowing investors to find the most attractive market to invest in. IBKR allows investors to fund account and trade assets using 28 world currencies as a base currency, with access to interbank currency trading quotes without any markups or hidden charges.
Another interesting thing to note about IBKR is that they are powered with so many tools to use - for example, the IBKR Global Analyst, where investors can scan for investment opportunities around the world before deciding where to invest.
Most importantly, IBKR can be relied on for security and trust. As a multiple award-winning broker, they take security seriously and are committed to protect clients from large trading losses through its strong capital position, conservative balance sheet and automated risk controls.
What are the fees?
IBKR has one of the lowest fees for brokerage out there, and the platform prides itself for professional pricing with low borrowing costs. Opening an account is free, while the trading fees differ by country and region.
Here is the Tiered fee structure for Malaysian investors, which varies from 0.03% - 0.08% depending on the trade value. Unfortunately there is no Fixed rate yet for Malaysia, but the Tiered price seems competitive enough. For withdrawals, IBKR provides one free withdrawal request per calendar month, but any additional ones made in the same month will incur fees. Other than these, IBKR does not impose any more fees, such as inactivity, custodian, dividend handling, maintenance fees of sorts.
Nevertheless, one important tip when selecting a broker is that they are transparent with their charges, and IBKR seems to do it quite well. You can find out a lot of information regarding pricing by checking their website here.
IBKR features, tools and learning resources
It does not matter if you are a newbie or a seasoned investor, you can make use of IBKR’s impressive features, tools and learning resources to grow your skills and knowledge of the field. There are tonnes of features and tools offered by IBKR, but we particularly appreciate these ones:
Client Portal
The Client Portal, which functions like a dashboard, offers a straightforward interface for users to view their portfolios and execute simple buy and sell orders. This is especially good for beginners - the interface is simple and clean, without being overwhelming.
IBKR Mobile
You can access IBKR on the go, or on your mobile devices via a simplified version of client portal, which is great for easy and quick trades.
IBKR Trader Workstation (TWS)
The Trader Workstation is perfect for the more seasoned traders. It provides in-depth customization and trading, as it has real-time market data, advanced charting, and risk management tools. TWS also offers tools for watchlists, order entry, portfolio monitoring, and more. The platform can be downloaded from the IBKR website, with no login free, although some advanced features may require a subscription.
IBKR Global Analyst
The Global Analyst feature allows traders to identify specific global stocks based on price-to-earnings ratios, market capitalization, growth rate, and so on. In fact, you can also customize what you want to see. It can easily find stocks that match investor’s strategies based on different variables and suggest suitable ones that match the investor’s goals. It can help to find stocks at potentially undervalued prices across the globe, saves time by allowing targeted searches, and simplifies comparison by presenting relevant data in one place.
IBKR Campus
The IBKR Campus provides an impressive and comprehensive learning environment which is great for beginners. Nevertheless, no matter what level you are, you can learn about finance, IBKR products and services, markets and technology. Resources are available for learners and educators, ranging from online courses, webinars, podcasts and more.
Besides the one we highlighted, IBKR also provides access to 200 free and premium research and news providers, which can be essential to get to know the climate of the market and current sentiments.
Pros and cons of IKBR:
To wrap up, here’s our honest take about IBKR in terms of its pros and cons:
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With that being said, if investment is your game and you are interested in taking it up a notch, Interactive Brokers is definitely a recommended and trusted broker.
Get started today and next, find out how to open your free account from our step-by-step guide!