Interactive Brokers Reviews

I just had 2 currency trades busted... i.e. revoked and no real explanation of what the hell happed and why they revoked them. In other words even if you managed to figure out what the hell was happening in your account the next day things may change without you having any say in the mater... as for them listening... hum I have more than 100K USD in there and they couldn't care less! Be careful record every separate trade independently.

Their customer service is horrendous. Their reps are argumentative and very obstinate. They are not able to answer questions and are all attitude.

Their accounting system is bizarre beyond belief and inaccurate. It is impossible to get tax information in a reportable fashion from them.

Their spreads are tight however.

It has been more than 5 years for me at IB. I've used their Forex frontend and had to just give up. There's too many other better alternatives (try MB's new MetaTrader frontend for forex). My trading has been in stocks for the most part, and all the ills mentioned before are true.

One thing that is a MUST know for any of you who is thinking about a new account is the fact that IB has officially took a stand that they are not responsible for your (Stops, or Limit) orders. In other words, I was recently notified that they would not necessarily fill my 'buy stop' placed on a short position. If you don't use a hard stop this is fine, but if you would like to buy something and place a stop, and go play, you may be unhappy with what you find on returning. How do I know? It has indeed happen to me. The stop was not filled, but price was very much past it, and the stop was still active in the software. This and similar problems has happened many times. So, when they warned of not honoring a stop, they meant it!

The low commissions sound great, but you'll do better shopping else ware.

Pros:
- fast (but starting the application can be very slow)
- plastic card with safety codes provided to log in

Cons
- very frustrating & buggy platform even with serious bugs (eg. it can happen you put command through the web platform and such command can not be found within java platform but the command is active still)
- there exists API allowing your application to connect but it is in terrible state and virtually is not functional (also many people complaining on forums)
- forex trading switches off for 15 minutes each day
- I pay at least $2,5 per contract made

First - IB's failure to execute stop loss orders during overnight trading on Aug 21-08. When I complained, 2 IB Canada representatives acknowledged receipt of my stop loss request but suggested that it was my fault it didn't get executed because I was trading "after hours". I also pointed out that the stop was actually hit at 1:15am but the position was still open at 7:00 am... lots of time to execute even in a fast market. This cost me $475.

Second - Somehow two positions opened around 30 minutes after midnight on Sep 3-08 while I was in bed sleeping on vacation. When I returned from vacation on Sep 11-08 and opened TWS to do some trading I was alarmed to see these positions. I immediately closed both positions and contacted IB Canada. After being on hold for 20 minutes, [name withheld] checked the audit trail for these trades and acknowledged that there was something inconsistent, but refused to tell me what that was, instead he said he would call me back... which of course didn't happen. This mysterious trade cost me $2,020.

FYI - since Aug 21-08, I've been performing a print screen of my account and portfolio page each day so that the date and time are visible and on Sep 2-08 there were no open positions or limit orders showing on the IB trading page.

I filed a complaint with CFTC Enforcement who responded by stating that IB Canada is not registered with the CFTC. They also suggested that I file a complaint with the National Futures Association (NFA) which I did but have not had any response from them as of this writing.

I have instructed IB Canada to close my account and transfer my remaining equity back into my bank account. I have been an IB Canada customer for over 2 years and can honestly say that I've never experienced a service work so hard at not providing customer support or mitigation... good bye and good riddance!

Slow, sometimes inept or non-existent customer service. Some bugs in the software.

I used to trade with OANDA, which has "friendlier" software, but was drawn to IB for a variety of reasons. It is probably worth adding, if it isn't already noted in another review, that their minimum account is $10,000 and FX leverage is 50:1. Also, the trade size minimums are substantial and will exclude small, recreational traders. The spreads are as small as I've seen anywhere; they state that they don't pad the spreads, but instead charge a flat, per-transaction fee. I haven't seen any reason to doubt this.

They had been a huge waste of my time and money.

Very bad experience.