Holy cow, that sounds horrible!
I’m really happy with IBKR now.
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Yeap… honestly is just crazy that one broker cannot have everything 
Really…
The interface, information, tools, aspect, etc…in TD is much better that IB. The web page is much, much faster, easy to use but for transfers… No…
IB is better on that. The CHF and EUR transfers in local IBANs… the withdraws, etc… In TD, several things must be done by paper, sign and send back to them…They told me that they are working to make everything online but for the moment, nothing.
It’s clear that if you have a USA Bank account, then, perfect. They link with your bank, send, receive money practically instantaneously but if you don’t have a US account…
I did 2 more tests with Revolut -> Wire and TW -> ACH. Next week I’ll know if is working… if not… To think about.
Thanks for your feedback. That’s why I was asking for some first hand experience of other brokers. We all know that IB works, and I mean it, it works really well. It seems to me that since IB is catered to advanced traders, it allows you to do more, even if the experience is not “friendly”. And the other conclusion is that American brokers do not care much about foreign customers. They just allow us to have an account, but it’s all far from smooth sailing.
I wonder if anybody can give a first hand experience from a US broker that would not be much more expensive than IB, when counting all costs, bank transfers & FX included.
I feel much better having an account with an UK company than a US company. Just a gut feeling.
Hi!
I wanted to ask if you have any news regarding this??
For me TD Ameritrade is very interesting in case you want to try some actual trading instead of just buy and hold.
From what I understand, for US stocks TD is completely free, while IB still makes you pay minimum 1chf/trade… Imagine in a day-trading session I sometimes buy and sell 10 or 20 times! a few days a month makes IBRK pretty expensive, and TD would be completely free!!
Any comments on this welcome 
Hi there,
Well, after some weeks using both brokers I would maintain both 
I think that in general, TD is better. Better interface, quicker, cheaper etc… But… there is always a “but”
TD: (+ and -)
The (+):
- Cheap, 0$ in all the transactions I did. Just one they took 0.12 $ because something related with the SEC… Nothing related with TD.
- Cheap in options: 0.65 $ for 1 option. Really cheap.
- Web interface less “nice” than IB but quicker and more useful… I prefer the functionality over the cosmetics…
- Thinkorswim software… my good… years light better than Trade Workstation! Launching, using, etc…
- They promise me a gift of 600$ for passing my portfolio there. I think the offer is still running. This money will cover all the fees for withdraw or small fees I’ll have with them.
The (-):
- Withdraw money is really expensive but more or less like others. It’s 25$ for each withdraw. Since I don’t plan to withdraw any money I don’t care but if you want to take money every month…hummmm…
- Only USD as currency! You cannot wire CHF or EUR…
- Only US Market. For me is OK because the European companies I have they are available in ADR, so I don’t pay the stupid taxes of France or Switzerland and I buy them in USD.
- No interest in USD not used in your account… or really small. No interest in short positions neither. Any payment for lending stocks. I don’t know if the lend our positions, I think not, but I’m not sure. In IB you have money for all those concepts. Not too much but some.
Why I’ll maintain IB?: Because the multicurrency system at IB, because I’d like to have more than one broker just in case and because the changing, deposit currency of IB. I send the money to IB, exchange to USD and with ACH (Free) I send the money to TD.
Regards.
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Cost is 0.0035 USD per share with a minimum of 0.35 USD per order.
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I don’t get it. The + that you listed are mostly irrelevant. Cheaper? By how much? I pay a few bucks per year for IB, so how could this be the point? But the - seem like a big deal. Withdrawal, no currency converter, that all costs a lot of money, so again, I don’t see how you can say it’s cheaper.
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Bojack, I’m not selling to anybody TD or whatever. I have an affiliate link but I didn’t post here, so no reason for promoting TD.
You don’t see any advantage? Very well… stay in IB! I had more than 300 USD this year in commissions, so for me, there is important.
I trade options and I sell put options for 50, 60, 100 USD of reward. You don’t trade options? Ok, but me yes, and 5, 6 USD of fees for 50 USD of benefits is not a correct reward/risk/fee ratio… but 0.65 for 50 it’s OK for me.
If you are buying 3 VT per year, yes, stay in IB and don’t go anywhere else. But for me and people that do more than that, the difference could be more than 500 USD per year.
I just tried to help the community with a test in another platform, just that.
Regards.
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fair enough, I didn’t know you invest in such advanced products.
Using DKB for several years now, but only for GER-GER money transfer. Great bank, low costs, easy to handle. Just checked how the “Wertpapiersparplan” works and I have to say it looks super easy. You chose your ETF (or other), the interval, the date and the amount you want to buy - that’s it. Actually everything you would need to “fire and forget”. The selection is big, but mostly in EUR. Also no equities, but only funds, ETF and certificates.
IB do not make you pay a minimum. Unless you use fixed pricing.
Interesting… I can’t find those costs for trading Options on IB, but tbh I didn’t try. I’m just checking their site.
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1590&p=options1
I am really confused about their pricing to be honest…
Let’s say I trade 5 days a month, and each of these days I make 10x full trades (10 buy, 10 sell). Let’s say only in the US stock market, 50 stocks@$100, total $5000 per trade.
Then should I get the tiered or the fixed plan? How much would it cost?
Heheh, yes, this is where I am confused 
. For fixed pricing it is easy:
It is 20 chf/trading day which means 100 chf/month (this is a lot!!)
So the question was more, if the tiered pricing is any cheaper for my case!
But from what it seems, the tiered pricing makes sense when you trade like 300000 shares each time, not 50 
There is a correlation between the frequency of trading and the return. Someone who trades more will very likely have a worse outcome than someone who trades less.
Yes, we know that 95% of day-traders fail :). The rest make all the money ;). But it is not about the frequency, it is about the skill and the strategy.
It’s probably less than 5% that beat the market over a longer period of time, even less of them achieve that with skill. But most daytraders believe that they are better than the average investor
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