I've used IB for almost 9 years now, and I've traded almost every type of security during that time, but these days it's mostly for futures trading; here is a longer review if you're interested in IB.
First of all, IB is definitely what I would call a "self-service" broker... there are a lot of rules to follow and minimums to meet if you want to truly keep your costs low. If you trade a couple times a week, that's usually enough to meet the monthly minimums, though. If you trade options, I assume you can meet the minimum monthly commission ($30) even faster. Customer service has been fine... I usually just use the online live chat or send them a secure message for stuff that's not urgent... those usually get answered in < 1 hour anyway. I haven't had to call them very often (I'd say 2-3 times over the past 9 years) and that was usually when I couldn't get something to work quite right on their website.
While they do like to charge small (and sometimes not so small) fees for just about anything, I've found the convenience of having trading access to everything in one platform to be very useful. You can find even lower commissions than IB and better margin ratios if you look around, though. The firms are usually small and may not offer SIPC protection, though. And they don't offer all products in one place.
In practice, I'm well over the monthly minimum commission, and I don't often need to withdraw money from my account... 1 free wire transfer per month, in the currency of my choice, to any of my bank accounts in the world has been more than enough for my needs (and I have indeed used it to send money to myself abroad... a nice bonus if you can make use of it, I guess). If you need to make more withdrawals, it's only like $3 for an ACH withdrawal though. Kind of odd since most banks provide this for free, but it's not a huge amount, and I've never actually needed to pay this... If you make frequent withdrawals on a monthly basis though, this might not work for you.
As for using the trading software, there are tutorials on it on their website... I've found it to be a great way to quickly enter/modify orders compared to the web-interface that my old broker used. Once you get used to it, I don't think you'll want to go back... although you can use the browser-based version to place trades if you're away from your main computer.
However, note that if you opt for the
secure login program (a card with a set of numbers and codes on it), you'll have to enter that information every time you login to trade. Don't do this if you need to login quickly from the office or your phone on a regular basis as it will just slow you down. I use this program and I'm OK with it because I don't need to trade away from my computer usually... and your phone/tablet will allow you to stay logged in after you login once, but in a mode that disables you from trading until you enter the codes again. Useful if you're simply checking quotes/balances/positions on the go (and you're protected in case of theft or misplacing your phone).
OK, now a quick review of my experience with different products:
- Equities: Low costs and allows me to choose between routing my order manually to the exchange with the lowest fees, or letting the computer route it automatically to the exchange with the best available price. When I traded equities, I always used limit orders and directed the order myself to the exchange with the lowest fees. This usually isn't an issue with getting fills, as other brokers normally route orders to the exchange with the best price. If your bid/ask is the best available price, it will get filled, with very rare exceptions (like the potential counterparty to your trade also manually routing their order to a different exchange.. this is really only an issue in practice outside of regular trading hours where volume is low). Margin requirements are normally 25% intraday, 50% overnight... standard industry rates. Of note is that TSLA requires 100% initial margin, but has only 40% maintenance requirement.
- Options: Costs are pretty low. Like with equities, you have the ability to route your order to a specific options exchange or let the computer route it automatically. Unlike with equities, you're more likely to run into issues with getting your orders filled if you route manually. The cost differences between exchanges aren't really worth it unless you've gone though the trouble to research which have the lowest fees and most liquidity... not really worth it unless you do a ton of options trading (like 1000+ contracts/month).
- Forex: The commissions are not the lowest, but they're much better than most. Their spreads are very reasonable (maybe the best in the industry?) because IB is an ECN broker and not a market maker. I don't trade forex anymore... I only use their service to convert any foreign currency profits (or losses) from futures trading, so I can't really give you much more information about this.
- Fixed Income: I think I only ever did a handful of corporate bond trades... this was around the time of GM going bankrupt and I gambled a bit on the government bailing out GM bondholders. It worked out OK... I made like 15-20% or something after I held for ~1 yr, on a very small "fun" investment. The trades required me to call in and request a quote when I wanted to sell. If you trade treasuries or liquid corporate bonds, that shouldn't be a problem...
- Futures/Futures Options: This is the bulk of my trading now... the commissions aren't the lowest out there, but I've been with IB for a long time and I've really learned their system; I also like the ability to trade contracts from all the major markets in the world. I most actively trade ES (S&P500 Mini), NQ (Nasdaq 100 Mini), ESTX50 (Euro STOXX 50), and N225M (Nikkei 225 Mini), but also regularly trade Z, CAC40, SPI, K200, NIFTY, and HSI. Margin calls can be brutal, but this is just a fact of life in trading... you have to develop better money management skills if you don't want to get margin calls all the time. In my experience, fills are OK... there is a lot of latency between the US (Ohio anyway) and Asia so sometimes I'm not happy with the fills; also, as a US resident, I can't trade European or Asian futures options/warrants (aside from the Nikkei 225 on SGX)... but I can't really change either of these things unless I move.
- Commodities: I used to trade CL (light sweet crude) and COIL (Brent crude)... was happy with the fills I got and the low costs. Occasionally traded GC (Gold) and never had any complaints with that either. You can also get quotes for the spot metals market, but AFAIK, as a US resident you can't trade in the spot market. Oh, you can also trade agricultural futures and a bunch of others... I don't know where you live, but maybe you have some "insider" info on the corn or soybean harvests...
I know they offer low margin rates as well, I used them when I was trading equities and it was a bargain... I don't use this feature anymore with futures. Their interest rates on cash are pretty competitive too, although nowadays interest rates are close to 0% everywhere so it's not much.
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I think that's pretty much the gist of using IB... If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.
EDIT: Mods, I realize this isn't related solely to options trading... perhaps you could merge this discussion to here:
Brokerages Trading Tools
