On Interactive Brokers

I am the resident Interactive Brokers Cheerleader.  Voted #1 in the world by Baron's Magazine, IB kicks butt over TD and Questrade.  I have had experience with all three.  Consider this, brokers fee contract less than 2.00.   2.50 per currency trade, traded directly on the spot market.  .0005 /share trades.  Trade easily on every market in the world.  24 hour/day support.  They have offices all around the world.  So ie when Singapore's trading, very good english speaking chinese brokers assist you,   The customer support is 2nd to none.  I have a friend with the TD this summer wanted to trade less than 50 contracts.  TD informed him it would cost him over 300.00 in fees!--unless he had 50,000 in a TD account.  On top of that he cannot make covered calls or spreads.  It really is pathetic.  Questrade is good if you want to buy and hold 1000 shares of x.  But they kill daytrading and any sort of frequency trading is doomed by the fee structure.

I am open to learning about any Canadian brokerages.  But my experience hasn't found anything that can come close to IB.

Drawbacks:  IB's platform is massive.  I can't say for sure it is larger than Think or Swim, but it as at least as big.  If you can imagine doing something with securities and forex, IB can probably be made to do it, whether it might be contingency trading, or futures options on Forex.  Therefore, IB's platform has a very large learning curve.  It isn't insurmountable, because they have a video library that is equally extraordinary.  They have a special team for new clients moving their positions into IB, to make sure your questions are adequately cared for.

Conclusion?  I love IB.  I don't know any TSU students that I have referred that are unhappy with them.  I, and they do get a perk for every referral so that is a disclaimer.  It could appear I am pro IB just because of the perk.  I don't believe so but in the name of transparency I give that to you.  If it is ok with you that a fellow TSU student gets a small benefit, then find someone who is an IB client to get you a referral invitation.  (If you can't find anyone else, I would be happy to do that for you... :) ).