IBKR - Interactive Brokers

[writser]

Really? Is there a minimum portfolio size or minimum number of trades per month?

 

What are your fees on top of the 70 and 30 cents?

 

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks2

 

Maybe you should do some research first. They literally created this page to answer your questions. First hit on Google for 'IB tiered pricing'.

[wachtwoord]

Really? Is there a minimum portfolio size or minimum number of trades per month?

 

What are your fees on top of the 70 and 30 cents?

 

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks2

 

Maybe you should do some research first. They literally created this page to answer your questions. First hit on Google for 'IB tiered pricing'.

 

Of course I read that. If you check the (sourced) quote in my previous post you'll find the result a few lines down on the same Google query.

 

It didnt answer my question however. I think Hielko forgot his additional costs over the 70 cents in the tiered model.

[Hielko]

Really? Is there a minimum portfolio size or minimum number of trades per month?

 

What are your fees on top of the 70 and 30 cents?

 

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks2

 

Maybe you should do some research first. They literally created this page to answer your questions. First hit on Google for 'IB tiered pricing'.

 

Of course I read that. If you check the (sourced) quote in my previous post you'll find the result a few lines down on the same Google query.

 

It didnt answer my question however. I think Hielko forgot his additional costs over the 70 cents in the tiered model.

I didn't.

[wachtwoord]

Really? Is there a minimum portfolio size or minimum number of trades per month?

 

What are your fees on top of the 70 and 30 cents?

 

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks2

 

Maybe you should do some research first. They literally created this page to answer your questions. First hit on Google for 'IB tiered pricing'.

 

Of course I read that. If you check the (sourced) quote in my previous post you'll find the result a few lines down on the same Google query.

 

It didnt answer my question however. I think Hielko forgot his additional costs over the 70 cents in the tiered model.

I didn't.

 

Cool thanks! Then I probably need to change (if the additional routing costs and such are indeed 0)

[writser]

To answer your question: the clearing & transaction fees are orders of magnitudes smaller than the exchange fees so these are not very relevant. VAT treatment is the same for both fixed and tiered pricing so in practice you only have to take into account the exchange fees. If you mostly provide liquidity you are definitely cheaper off with the tiered structure. So yes, you should probably switch unless you prefer the transparency of the fixed option. Again, all this information was on the IB tiered pricing information page.

 

I'm wondering why you even bother to give your own opinion about this trade-off because it is obvious that you A) don't understand the tiered pricing structure and B) have never tried it.

[Ross812]

I rarely go over the $10 minimum monthly charge anyway... I may switch to tiered pricing for a few months and compare the cost differences. Right now I stick with 200 share orders for $1 and make ten or less trades a month...

[rpadebet]

I rarely go over the $10 minimum monthly charge anyway... I may switch to tiered pricing for a few months and compare the cost differences. Right now I stick with 200 share orders for $1 and make ten or less trades a month...

 

They have taken out the 10$ minimum for portfolios >$100K. So in that case tiered pricing works out better if u trade less frequently like few times a month.

[Ross812]

I rarely go over the $10 minimum monthly charge anyway... I may switch to tiered pricing for a few months and compare the cost differences. Right now I stick with 200 share orders for $1 and make ten or less trades a month...

 

They have taken out the 10$ minimum for portfolios >$100K. So in that case tiered pricing works out better if u trade less frequently like few times a month.

 

Nice. I didn't notice. One of my on gripes about IB compared to other brokers is how all account systems are separated. Outside of running my yearly portfolio analysis I don't get into the 'Account Management' portal much as contributions are automatic. Is there a ledger of account actions on the 'Web Trader' portal or smartphone app? I used to use TWS for option trading but now 'web trader' is sufficient for what i need as far as order complexity. I wish the securities lending program was transparent within the trading portals as well. Accrued Interest is shown but I have to run a report to see what is currently being lent and at what rate.   

[rpadebet]

I rarely go over the $10 minimum monthly charge anyway... I may switch to tiered pricing for a few months and compare the cost differences. Right now I stick with 200 share orders for $1 and make ten or less trades a month...

 

They have taken out the 10$ minimum for portfolios >$100K. So in that case tiered pricing works out better if u trade less frequently like few times a month.

 

Nice. I didn't notice. One of my on gripes about IB compared to other brokers is how all account systems are separated. Outside of running my yearly portfolio analysis I don't get into the 'Account Management' portal much as contributions are automatic. Is there a ledger of account actions on the 'Web Trader' portal or smartphone app? I used to use TWS for option trading but now 'web trader' is sufficient for what i need as far as order complexity. I wish the securities lending program was transparent within the trading portals as well. Accrued Interest is shown but I have to run a report to see what is currently being lent and at what rate. 

 

 

I have not done any securities lending yet, but as i see in the full TWS app you can configure to see live rebate rates. Not sure if you are referring to that. And as far as the Account management section goes, can't you setup automatic reports to be generated and emailed to you each day, so that you can refer to it directly? I do that and rarely log on to either TWS or account management unless i need to trade. The mobile TWS app is also very nice. paired with the SecurID app, I don't even have to use the cumbersome security card thingy. Its pretty automatic and you can enter read only mode if thats what you want. They have a in built link to mobile account management as well, although the reporting there is pretty basic.

[wachtwoord]

 

I'm wondering why you even bother to give your own opinion about this trade-off because it is obvious that you A) don't understand the tiered pricing structure and B) have never tried it.

 

See my first post in this topic. Tiered is a fixed plus a variable amount where the variable amount is impossible to estimate. Because the amount of trades I make is low I guessed that fixed would be better for me but I still have no idea how you are even estimating the variable costs per trade of the tiered system.

[Hielko]

 

I'm wondering why you even bother to give your own opinion about this trade-off because it is obvious that you A) don't understand the tiered pricing structure and B) have never tried it.

 

See my first post in this topic. Tiered is a fixed plus a variable amount where the variable amount is impossible to estimate. Because the amount of trades I make is low I guessed that fixed would be better for me but I still have no idea how you are even estimating the variable costs per trade of the tiered system.

You can take the worst case scenario when estimating the variable fees, which would be the case when you take liquidity at the most expensive exchange. When you switch to variable rate you see an estimated fee range when you try to submit an order to IB:

 

For example:

 

buying 100 BRK shares @ 141 would cost between 0.01 and 0.67 USD

buying 100 CNRD shares @ 31 would cost between -0.63 and 0.67 USD

 

[writser]

See my first post in this topic. Tiered is a fixed plus a variable amount where the variable amount is impossible to estimate. Because the amount of trades I make is low I guessed that fixed would be better for me but I still have no idea how you are even estimating the variable costs per trade of the tiered system.

 

First of all, that just not true. You can determine variable costs exactly using the information in the IB pricing page. And second, as opposed to you I don't make random assumptions, I actually use the tiered structure. A few posts before I gave a detailed breakdown of variable costs and explained to you why they are largely irrelevant. I also explained to you that in practice the only relevant variable costs are the per-exchange liquidity charges / rebates and you can look these up. A couple of examples:

 

Remove liquidity @ NYSE: .0035 (tiered level 1 fee) + remove liquidity NYSE fee: .0027 (look up on website) + clearing fee: .0002 (look up on website) = .0064 cent / share. The FINRA fees etc. add up to ~ .0001 cent / share (again, look up on website). I just bought 100 lots of an unnamed stock on NYSE today and that cost me 64 cent. Exactly the calculated amount.

 

Add liquidity @ NASDAQ: .0035 (tiered level 1 fee) - add liquidity NASDAQ rebate: .0021 (look up on website) + clearing fee: .0002 (again, look up on website) = .0016 cent / share. Today I bought 500 shares MCGC (free idea) and it cost me exactly 80 ct. Again, exactly the calculated amount

 

Selling is slightly more expensive because of extra transaction fees (again, as is mentioned on the IB pricing info page).

 

Multiple people here have been using the tiered system and have been clearly explaining that tiered pricing would be cheaper for you but you are too stubborn to do the actual calculations and keep repeating claims about 'unknown hidden costs' while you have never even tried it. I'll stop trying to convince you. Just stick to the fixed pricing - much cheaper. ::)

[Txvestor]

Can any of you speak to the benefits other than trading costs with interactive brokers. I currently am with a brokerage that offers me $0 trades but the other charges and fees have been adding up to around $200 a year. I am also not real happy with their order execution as I sometimes see trades execute at prices just below or above my limit orders.

Finally there is no option to lend shorts etc. so thinking about making a move.

[wachtwoord]

Multiple people here have been using the tiered system and have been clearly explaining that tiered pricing would be cheaper for you but you are too stubborn to do the actual calculations and keep repeating claims about 'unknown hidden costs' while you have never even tried it. I'll stop trying to convince you. Just stick to the fixed pricing - much cheaper. ::)

 

You should have started with reading my posts. Since Hielko replied I have assumed his experience is correct and waited until I get home to figure out how to switch. Thanks Hielko!

 

The rest of the posts I've just been defending myself from your unfunded attacks. In the first post you make here you already started, get out at the wrong side of the bed much. I actually started to post here to help the people investigating the stock because I looked up how the tiered approach works and I thought others could benefit (I also explicitly sourced my finding so you can decide whether my source is trustworthy). After that I just asked how people are sure how much the additional costs are as they are described quite imprecisely by IB, and in general I would not think it would make sense for the tiered approach to be beneficial to me (because of my low volume) without looking it up. I mean why does the fixed approach even exist and who would use it. Of course I didn't try out the tiered approach yet as I believed it would be more expensive. I think all I asked were valid questions and you got your panties in a bunch.

 

Thanks again Hielko. I'm going to go look up how to switch :)

[benhacker]

Can any of you speak to the benefits other than trading costs with interactive brokers. I currently am with a brokerage that offers me $0 trades but the other charges and fees have been adding up to around $200 a year. I am also not real happy with their order execution as I sometimes see trades execute at prices just below or above my limit orders.

Finally there is no option to lend shorts etc. so thinking about making a move.

 

I think this has been covered a few times over the years, but I'll reiterate my "pitch" for IB at the risk of being branded a zealot. :)

 

Cons:

1) Generally mediocre web interface for basic function (reports are not simple, webtrader is the web equivalent to Fido or Schwab, but it's not great).

2) Customer support while improving is much worse than other brokers.

3) Minimum account fees need to be factored in to any savings you expect ($20 / month for a <$10k account, $10 / month for a 10k - 100k account, $0 above.... for any IRA, add on an additional $7.5 / quarter)

4) For Foreign withholding of dividends, at least for US customers, IB withholds on IRAs in addition to taxable accounts.  This should be fixed some day, but basically is annoying and either you have to increase audit risk on your taxes by reclaiming the dividends, or writing it off.

5) Most don't like two factor login (edit)

6) No free real time quotes (edit)

 

Pros - Individual Investor:

1) Cost - Margin rates

2) Cost - commissions (both stock, option, currency, and future commissions are in the vast majority of real world experience lower.  You can do the math on their fees + commissions to see if you are in the vast majority I describe above)

3) Cost - Corporate actions (no BS corporate re-org fees)

4) Cost - Ability to lend out shares and capture part of borrow fees

5) Cost Transparency - Ability to see exact borrow rate costs on short sales in real time

6) Access - international and product access is *almost* unparalleled (exceptions are South African equities, Korean equities, and a few others.  I would bet money this will be solved in 2 years).

7) Features - For those wishing to do advanced stuff, IB is pretty amazing.  They have access to algos, automated trading tools, a probability tool for future stock price distribution at certain dates (based on option markets) and tools to tailor strategies to exploit a divergent view.

8) History of lowering costs to customers and being rationale about pricing - removed $10 / month fee for $100k accounts for example... and in general is just a cost plus model which I think is more fair.

9) I continue to get what I consider excellent fills at IB, I frequently get executed better than my limit and ask/bid.  I can't remember the last time something traded through my price and I didn't get filled.

 

Pros - Institutional Investor:

1) No minimums

2) Fully electronic sign up for clients which is pretty simple

3) Access to IB marketplace (maybe a pro for retail as well)

4) Block trading, rebalance tool, and other services like billing, etc seem well designed and simple from my experience.

5) Ability to have a trade-away account if you run a fund

 

Hope that helps.

 

Ben

 

 

[tombgrt]

6) Access - international and product access is *almost* unparalleled (exceptions are South African equities, Korean equities, and a few others.  I would bet money this will be solved in 2 years).

 

 

 

This would be so sweet given the relative cheapness of those markets. I'm a customer through Lynx in Belgium (they use the ib platform) and am very happy, no other broker available comes close here in Belgium imo. Service (both ib and Lynx) is great as well which is very important to me.

 

Also agree on the fills btw which is extremely important when buying those more illiquid and smaller stocks. A bad or missed fill could cost you quite a bit more than a few trades.

[wachtwoord]

6) Access - international and product access is *almost* unparalleled (exceptions are South African equities, Korean equities, and a few others.  I would bet money this will be solved in 2 years).

 

 

 

This would be so sweet given the relative cheapness of those markets. I'm a customer through Lynx in Belgium (they use the ib platform) and am very happy, no other broker available comes close here in Belgium imo. Service (both ib and Lynx) is great as well which is very important to me.

 

Also agree on the fills btw which is extremely important when buying those more illiquid and smaller stocks. A bad or missed fill could cost you quite a bit more than a few trades.

 

Why don't you use IB directly? It's cheaper.

[undervalued]

I just moved to IBKR. Do you guys subscribe to real time quotes? I mainly invest in US companies but I don't want to pay a $10 monthly fee just to get the real time of stock prices. This is going to make it more expensive than other brokerages. I rarely trades.. Probably 10-20 trades per year.

[wachtwoord]

I just moved to IBKR. Do you guys subscribe to real time quotes? I mainly invest in US companies but I don't want to pay a $10 monthly fee just to get the real time of stock prices. This is going to make it more expensive than other brokerages. I rarely trades.. Probably 10-20 trades per year.

 

Yahoo finance has real-time quotes, I use that.

[tombgrt]

6) Access - international and product access is *almost* unparalleled (exceptions are South African equities, Korean equities, and a few others.  I would bet money this will be solved in 2 years).

 

 

 

This would be so sweet given the relative cheapness of those markets. I'm a customer through Lynx in Belgium (they use the ib platform) and am very happy, no other broker available comes close here in Belgium imo. Service (both ib and Lynx) is great as well which is very important to me.

 

Also agree on the fills btw which is extremely important when buying those more illiquid and smaller stocks. A bad or missed fill could cost you quite a bit more than a few trades.

 

Why don't you use IB directly? It's cheaper.

 

I probably should but haven't bothered yet so far. I got with Lynx through an acquaintance and am happy with their service so I stuck with them. I don't trade often so difference wouldn't be that big. One difference I've heard is that IB doesn't charge the Belgian stock tax (0.25%) and Lynx does. So in theory you could evade the tax I guess.

Also, if anything ever happened to me, I want to make it easier on my family to contact my broker and get things in order. Their HQ is basically located 2km from my home.  :)

[rpadebet]

I just moved to IBKR. Do you guys subscribe to real time quotes? I mainly invest in US companies but I don't want to pay a $10 monthly fee just to get the real time of stock prices. This is going to make it more expensive than other brokerages. I rarely trades.. Probably 10-20 trades per year.

 

I use my etrade account to get my free real time quotes when I want to trade. I have a ira there. I rarely trade and I am quite happy with 15 min delayed data on my portfolio at other times.

 

Btw if you don't mind delayed data on options and otc stocks most of which rarely trade anyway, you can build ala carte real time subscription for only US stocks around 4-5 bucks a month. Its cheaper than the 10$ option, but I don't know why you would need it when there are plenty of free options.

[rmitz]

I just moved to IBKR. Do you guys subscribe to real time quotes? I mainly invest in US companies but I don't want to pay a $10 monthly fee just to get the real time of stock prices. This is going to make it more expensive than other brokerages. I rarely trades.. Probably 10-20 trades per year.

 

I don’t.

 

[Hielko]

I just moved to IBKR. Do you guys subscribe to real time quotes? I mainly invest in US companies but I don't want to pay a $10 monthly fee just to get the real time of stock prices. This is going to make it more expensive than other brokerages. I rarely trades.. Probably 10-20 trades per year.

I do, but if you generate enough commissions ($30/month or something like that) you get the value bundle for free. I also pay for the NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX quotes, but that's mainly because I'm too lazy to look up real-time quotes at another broker since  I do almost all my trading at IB and it's just a couple of dollars a month.

[marazul]

This might be pretty obvious to some, but how does IBKR fund their margin loans? Thanks for the helpful information.

[kab60]

CEO recently asked why a lot of IBKR investors use another broker; having tried to sign up twice, I think I know why. It's such a fucking hassle compared to my other brokers. They've returned three different proofs of address with a generic comment. Oh well - guess it means there are some low hanging fruits.