TDAmeritrade vs. Interactive Brokers. Opinions?

[Learning134]

I’m looking to use NT8 for stock trading and wondering if anyone has experience with and opinions about these two Brokers I’m trying to choose from.

What are your experiences and advice with these two Brokerages with NT8?

Thanks in advance!

[MicroTrends]

I’m looking to use NT8 for stock trading and wondering if anyone has experience with and opinions about these two Brokers I’m trying to choose from.
What are your experiences and advice with these two Brokerages with NT8?
Thanks in advance!

From what i gather over the years IB would be the preferred choice to TD - i cant vouch never touched TD.
TD sold off the futures arm to charles schwab... IB seems to be very robust as a brokerage company with their offerings too on ETFs

[QuantKey_Bruce]

Another thing to think about is IB has a universal account in which you can trade equities, futures, options, forex, bonds, etc. in one account with portfolio margins. TDA does not do all that. In some cases, the margin requirements are lower on one or the other because of how they rate risk, or one or the other will let you use securities as collateral for your other positions - it varies by instrument. If in doubt you should call them and ask about your specific instruments to get a handle on all of the considerations which are sometimes quite complicated.

[Learning134]

Thank you MicroTrends and QuantKey_Bruce! Seems like a consensus. Now do either of you have experience with the Forex Brokerages?

IB vs Forex.com vs FXCM?

Thanks in advance.

[QuantKey_Bruce]

Forex.com has a lot more symbols available than FXCM. They both have lots of reviews online - I would start by reading up on that. Interactive Brokers is not really the same kind of broker. They do support spot forex trading, but they're not a forex broker per se... they just let you buy/sell other currencies in your universal account. I don't know anyone personally who has an account at IB just for trading spot forex but perhaps someone else can speak to that possibility.

[tickets2themoon]

Really depends on what you plan on trading.
If you are trading SPX options you can trade "round the clock" on IB. TD is regular trading hours.

[jeronymite]

Learning134 Depends on where you live, as much as anything. US residents cannot (legally) use FXCM. They are limited to IB or FOREX.com.

As for which is better for Forex if all are legitimately available to you, my personal experience is that each has good aspects, and each has "less than good" aspects.

All are available to me. My own order of preference is FXCM, then IB.

TD recently started offering Forex, but only 23x5, not 24x5. And NinjaTrader does not support TD for Forex.

Thanks.

[MicroTrends]

Thank you MicroTrends and QuantKey_Bruce! Seems like a consensus. Now do either of you have experience with the Forex Brokerages?

IB vs Forex.com vs FXCM?

Thanks in advance.

i did tinker about with FCM a few years ago - yup all good.. im my experience worked great with nt8
never tried the others for FX

[Learning134]

Ah, this one doesn’t seem to be as clear cut. I am in the US so FXCM is out (thanks for informing me jeronymite). Which is too bad because it seems to be the preferred broker.

So it’s IB or Forex.com for spot forex trading.

I think I’ll start another thread to see if other’s have experience with them.

Thanks everyone.