Broker Rundown: Interactive Brokers
Love Them Or Hate Them
Brokers. People either love them or hate them, but rarely do you find someone tepid on the topic. The Options Insider, ever curious about the state of retail brokerages, thought it would be interesting to do some comparison shopping. We hit the Internet and set to work comparing online brokerages. Over the next few days, we'll post our findings so that you can see if you're paying more than you should, or if there is a firm that might better serve your needs.
A few things to take into account:
- This list is not intended to act as a recommendation of any particular brokerage firm.
- All of this information was taken from the firms' respective websites, and does not reflect any special information given to The Options Insider as a result of any professional relationships. We wanted to see what the average trader would see on each of the sites.
- While we have made every attempt to ensure that we gathered the most recent rate information, this information is not guaranteed to be up-to-date, as rates are subject to change without our knowledge. If you believe the information here to be incorrect, please contact dmaillette@theoptionsinsider.
- The rates presented are only for plain, vanilla options trades. Very often, complex trades will have a different fee structure.
- There will likely be other fees added to your trades based on where your trade is executed. Each exchange has a different fee model. Please see exchange websites for further details.
If your broker is not on this list, we'll be happy to make additions. Just send an email to dmaillette@theoptionsinsider.com.
Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get to it. Up next, Interactive Brokers.
| Commissions & Other Fees | Interactive Brokers |
| Online options base commission rate....................... | See below |
| Online stock base commission rate (bundled).......... | Non-Smart Routed API Orders: |
| < = 500 shares..... | $0.013/share - $1.30 minimum, 0.5% of trade value maximum |
| > 500 Shares..... | $0.008/share - $1.30 minimum, 0.5% of trade value maximum |
| VWAP Orders..... | $0.01/share - $1.00 minimum, 0.5% of trade value maximum |
| All Others..... | $0.005/share - $1.00 Minimum, 0.5% of trade value maximum |
| Online stock base commission rate (unbundled)..... | |
| < = 300,000 Shares..... | $0.0035/share |
| 300,000 - 3,000,000 shares..... | $0.002/share |
| 3,000,001 - 20,000,000 shares..... | $0.0015/share |
| > 20,000,000 shares..... | $0.001/share |
| Options commission break...................................... | Smart Routed <=10,000 Monthly Contracts |
| Premium = > $0.10..... | $0.70/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| $0.05 = < Premium < $0.10..... | $0.50/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| Premium < $0.05..... | $0.25/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| Options commission break...................................... | Smart Routed 10,001 - 50,000 monthly contracts |
| Premium = > $0.05..... | $0.50/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| Premium < $0.05..... | $0.25/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| Options commission break...................................... | Smart Routed 50,001 - 100,000 Monthly Contracts |
| All Premiums..... | $0.25/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| Options commission break...................................... | Smart Routed > 100,000 Monthly Contracts |
| All Premiums..... | $0.15/contract; $1.00 minimum |
| Options commission break...................................... | Direct Routed |
| All Premiums..... | $1.75/contract: $1.75 minimum |
| Exercise/Assignment.............................................. | $0.00 |
| Maintenance/Inactivity fee...................................... | Not listed on website |
Please let us know if there is information you would like to see thatisn't listed here. We want this to be a useful resource for ourreaders, so please let us know what you want to see listed about onlinebrokers.
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