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In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade are two popular options, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. This comparison will dive into the key features of both platforms,helping you decide which one best suits your trading style and goals.
The radar chart above illustrates the comparison between Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade across several key metrics, with the highest possible score being 100 in each category.
At FxScouts, our mission is to assist traders in finding the broker that best suits their needs. Comparing brokers side-by-side is an effective method to achieve this goal. We evaluated Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade, using our standard criteria: trust and regulation, trading platforms, costs and trading conditions, and educational and market analysis resources.
Trust and regulation are crucial when selecting a Forex broker. A broker’s credibility is largely built on its regulatory status. We spend considerable time verifying the safety of each broker by examining their regulatory licenses. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, Interactive Brokers earned a higher trust rating than TD Ameritrade.
When comparing brokers, trading costs are a significant factor. We consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and ongoing costs, including spreads and commissions. We measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit, including both the spread and any commission charged.
We found that Interactive Brokers has overall lower trading costs than TD Ameritrade.
Trading Platforms Offered Traders prefer brokers that offer a variety of trading platforms. We rate brokers higher if they support multiple platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, and proprietary platforms.
Copy trading is beneficial for beginner traders or those unable to trade full-time. In this case both Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. Interactive Brokers offers a greater variety of instruments compared to TD Ameritrade:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, Interactive Brokers offers 4 cryptocurrencies, while TD Ameritrade offers 0 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, Interactive Brokers is the better choice for cryptocurrency trading.
Traders prefer brokers with quick and cost-effective deposit and withdrawal processes. We favor brokers that process withdrawals within 24 hours using multiple methods without charging fees.We found that Interactive Brokers charges a withdrawal fee and TD Ameritrade does not. Overall, TD Ameritrade has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Interactive Brokers.
We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas.
Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade both have very good educational support. Both Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that Interactive Brokers offers better research analysis than TD Ameritrade and that both Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade offer frequent webinars.
Founded in 1977 and listed on the NASDAQ, Interactive Brokers is one of the best-regulated brokers in the industry. Ideal for sophisticated, active traders, Interactive Brokers is in a league of its own with the astounding number of assets on its books and its feature-rich platforms. However, its website, complicated account structure, and unusual trading rules may leave less experienced traders reeling.
Interactive Brokers’ world-class research, trading tools, and education will leave traders of all experience levels satisfied, and consistent with its excellent reputation, Interactive Brokers’ trading costs are some of the lowest in the industry. Spreads start at 0.1 pips (EUR/USD) in exchange for a round turn commission of 4.4 USD.
However, under the U.S.-regulated entity, traders will only be able to open a margin day trading account if they deposit more than 25,000 USD. Another complaint traders may have is that Interactive Brokers does not offer third-party platforms like MT4 and MT5.
Founded in 1975 and CFTC-regulated, TD Ameritrade is a popular U.S. broker listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Known for its award-winning thinkorswim platform, TD Ameritrade caters to traders with different experience levels and different financial goals.
Forex traders can open an individual account with no minimum deposit requirement (unless trading with margin) with a spread of 1.2 pips (EUR/USD) and no commissions. These trading costs are around the industry average.
TD Ameritrade has solid educational resources, including a learning center with instructional videos, online courses, and trading demonstrations. It also offers a wealth of market highlights and analyst reports from Dow Jones and Benzinga, among others.
The only drawbacks of an otherwise excellent offering is the lack of funding methods, limited to bank-related transfers and that no support is offered for popular third-party platforms like MT4 and MT5.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade.
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Broker | Regulated by FCA | Licenced by | Min. Deposit | Cost of Trading | Broker Score | Official Site | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Yes |        | USD 0 | USD 6 | |||
 | Yes | | USD 1 | USD 5.40 | |||
 | No | | USD 0 | USD 12 | |||
 | Yes |   | USD 0 | USD 10 |
Alison and Chris cover a range of topics, including how to choose a Forex broker, safety and regulation, how to reduce your risk, trading psychology, trading platforms, and trading strategies, among others.
The FxScouts podcast helps beginner Forex traders get the best start to their trading careers.
