Brokerage Recommendation

[wachtwoord]

 

My first impression of IB is that it is geared for the professional, which I am not,

 

Are you depositing real money? Then you are a professional. Get over it ;)

[cobafdek]

Maybe it's a generation issue? (I'm under 30).

 

You may have hit the jackpot:  I'm over 50.  But the more I use IB, the more I like it.

 

Are you depositing real money? Then you are a professional. Get over it ;)

 

"If it doesn't fit, you must acquit"!

[watsa_is_a_randian_hero]

I love IB. However there is one thing that you cannot do with IB, which is a real pain for me because I do a lot of option trading. You cannot download from IB, like you can from Schwab, your transactions into Turbo tax.

 

This is wrong.  See photo attached.

[tede02]

I have experience with Ameritrade, Schwab and Fidelity.  Honestly, I've been happy with them all.  However, I don't do a lot of fancy trading.  Mostly long positions. 

[100 Shares]

Definitely IB.  But, I remember there was a tech start up trying to create a free brokerage.  I signed up with their beta accounts alerts, and now I haven't heard about them in awhile.

 

Was it this one:

 

https://www.robinhood.com/

 

Robinhood was launched today. I'm personally not that interested since I get free trades with Bank of America Preferred Rewards, but this certainly could be disruptive for the brokerage industry. They are backed by Google and the potential savings for small time investors is incentive enough to ditch their traditional brokerage and give it a try, that how BOA got me to switch over to them from my old brokerage.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/11/robinhood-free-stock-trading/

[compoundinglife]

Is IB ending "quick trade"? The last few times I have logged in and tried to use it, it has said the service is temporarily unavailable. Had to use WebTrader which is fine but overkill for what I do.

 

[compoundinglife]

I use accounts at Etrade, Fidelity, Schwab, TDAmeritrade, IB and CapOne Sharebuilder.

 

My personal fav is Schwab. It has IMO the best user interface, very simple but not limiting. The color scheme and layout of the site is very easy on the eyes, not very busy. They also allow me to do rights subscriptions online and lend securities online without having to talk to a human. Also Schwab's IOS app is the best in my opinion. I am not making trades all the time, but there have been a few instances where something happens and I would like to buy something but I am not near my computer. Schwab's IOS app is the only brokerage app where I am not paranoid that I am going to fat finger or screw up the order. Very clear what you are doing.

 

Quick notes on the others:

 

Etrade: I don't mind the Etrade UI its a little dated but easy to navigate and understand. Customer support has always been super helpful when ever I needed them. They even pulled up a phone recording of a previous call once when they told me that a phone rep "would never have said that" and I argued he did. Turns out I was right :) Have not been able to rights or tender's online, need to call.

 

Sharebuilder: Don't bother. Its really for people that are new to investing or just want to do dollar cost averaging on popular stocks or index funds. Very limited selection of securities available to trade if you are into OTC stocks or warrants or prefs.

 

TDAmeritrade: UI is horrible IMO. Very confusing, poorly laid out. Hard to find what your looking for. I use it because its the only option for linking brokerage to my HSA account.

 

Fidelity: UI is not quite as bad as TD but its still klunky and hard to use IMO. This account is now a full brokerage account but it was previously a "net benefits" account for my retirement plan and they required your SSN as a username, this always pissed me off and left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

IB: Super cheap, best margin rates, they have an API if you are interested in developing some software. Others have spoken to the UI. Its klunky. I keep this account around for the cheap margin in case I ever want to use it. Also keep meaning to enroll in their lending program since the rates appear to be better than Schwab. For everything I do, the "quick trade" tool is fine. But have been unable to use it recently. So I need to load up the WebTrader app.

[Mephistopheles]

I found IB's platform extremely confusing, and not user friendly. I also don't like the login process, involving the security code and matching it with your card.

 

I have 100% the opposite experience. Best in town by far. Maybe it's a generation issue? (I'm under 30).

 

I'm under 30 too lol, but have never been very tech savy. Though I'll probably give it another shot in the future. Seems like it's a steeper learning curve as others here have mentioned. I have Merrill Edge which isn't very user friendly itself, but I felt IB was much worse.

 

I found IB's platform extremely confusing, and not user friendly. I also don't like the login process, involving the security code and matching it with your card.

 

The matching to the card is just a temporary measure, once you fund your account they will send a security device to replace the card.

 

+1 IB

 

I don't think they will if you have under $100k in your account.

 

That explains it, I hadn't transferred too much money because the only reason I had the account was to make an international trade.

 

Having said that, why is this device only for accounts over $100k?! It doesn't seem like it would be that expensive.

[randomep]

 

 

That explains it, I hadn't transferred too much money because the only reason I had the account was to make an international trade.

 

Having said that, why is this device only for accounts over $100k?! It doesn't seem like it would be that expensive.

 

International trading is the biggest issue for me, by far more important than getting used to some UI. In that case fidelity can do 25 markets online plus several others by phone....

 

Does IB do all that?

 

 

[Hielko]

 

 

That explains it, I hadn't transferred too much money because the only reason I had the account was to make an international trade.

 

Having said that, why is this device only for accounts over $100k?! It doesn't seem like it would be that expensive.

 

International trading is the biggest issue for me, by far more important than getting used to some UI. In that case fidelity can do 25 markets online plus several others by phone....

 

Does IB do all that?

They do have access to decent number of foreign markets, but probably a bit less than Fidelity. See: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/?f=1323&ib_entity=uk

 

But it cannot be repeated enough how awesome IB is compared to other brokers in almost every other aspect. Better trade execution, extremely low cost trades (you can even get paid if you provide liquidity), very low margin interest rates, good with corporate actions and other special events (and no related fees). Easy to short and borrow stocks. Good performance reporting tools. FX conversions can be done very cheap.

 

I do most of my trading/investing at IB, but do use some other brokers as well. Mostly to get access to markets that IB doesn't support. And every time I use another broker I realize how far behind they are compared to IB.

[rmitz]

That explains it, I hadn't transferred too much money because the only reason I had the account was to make an international trade.

 

Having said that, why is this device only for accounts over $100k?! It doesn't seem like it would be that expensive.

 

You can request one for a small fee otherwise.  IB is based much more around “pay for what the actual costs are” rather than bundling.  I do like that they waived the inactivity fees for accounts over 100k though.

[Ham Hockers]

Sorry if this has been answered here or on another thread, but IB looks incredibly expensive if you are making big trades in liquid stocks? For example, trading $250k worth of stock with a p.s. price of $10 is either $87.50 or $125 under the tiered or fixed pricing plan. Are there rebates or something that make this lower, or is IB just more focused on other types of trading?