Interactive Brokers vs. TD Ameritrade: Do you want to explore the trading market and are confused between choosing one of the two best trading solutions? Then you must be thinking about Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade. These are the best trading platforms that expose you to the market with a unique trading style.
Interactive Brokers has been leading the active investing space since its inception which was in the year 1993. Even though there are many such platforms but Interactive Brokers has always stood out the most. In the meantime, TD Ameritrade, which is one of the innovators of online brokerage firms, helps in providing intuitive platforms as well as educational resources that have been usually headed for the beginner investor. Although both have many similarities but still outshine each other with the way they provide their trading services.
Today, in this article we are going to discuss about Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade by comparing these two trading platforms in order to get you to know which one is a better choice for you.
Interactive Brokers vs TD Ameritrade
Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade allows traders to double in a short sale, options, futures, complex options, and mutual funds. Interactive Brokers is best for accessing the foreign markets while TD Ameritrade bests for Novice Investors. Interactive Brokers gives access to a variety of tradable assets and suitable for all types of trades including forex traders. TD Ameritrade works well for both beginners and advanced traders. the topmost feature of TD Ameritrade is that it offers high-quality portfolio-building advice and management services.
Who’s Interactive Brokers And TD Ameritrade For?
Interactive Brokers is mainly for successful or experienced day traders. It is a trading solution that provides you with many tradable assets and is probably suitable for every kind of trader such as forex traders. If you are into experience trading and like advanced charting tools, a surplus of trading windows, and comprehensive indicators, then Interactive Brokers will top your list of trading platforms.
TD Ameritrade provides one of the best services by offering high-quality portfolio-building advice and management services. It works for both beginners and advanced traders. Its website is very easy to explore and has a very user-friendly interface with an advanced platform. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a pro, you can operate TD Ameritrade with ease.
Platform and Tools offered by Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade
Here is the list of platform and tools that have been offered by Interactive Brokers Offers:
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Mobile Trading Platform
It is very basic and shows only the essential things that a trader needs. It has a news feed and charting tools. It also sends notifications on your device.
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Web-based Trading Platforms
Well, if you are a beginner and you don’t want to download any software then you can go to the browser and open WebTrader. It is a web-based interactive brokers platform that you can easily Operate.
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Desktop Trading Platform
It has very advanced trading tools and features that a trader would require. It has module-based charting elements, screeners, rich historical data, advanced risk management tools, Various alerts, market watch tools, and many more features. Interactive brokers have a very good desktop platform, trader workstations, and TWS.
If you are an experienced trader, you’ll get used to the platform after some time and would find it pretty amazing. Whereas beginners will find it hard but will get hang of TWS.
Here is the list of Platform and Tools that have been offered by TD Ameritrade:
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Smartwatch Trading Platform
You can monitor the market and trade through your smartwatch. It offers limited and basic features.
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Mobile Trading Platform
It is a basic app to operate but a little complex than a smartwatch. It carries some basic research tools, alerts, and commentary. It has more features and is very simple.
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Web Trading Platform
It is one of the best web trading platforms as it allows the traders to customize their interface and can align it by their choice. Its interface is so friendly that it is good for beginners and pro traders.
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Desktop Trading Platform
Its desktop trading platform is very advanced and is better than other desktop trading platforms. Yet, its interface is user-friendly and is advanced but easy to learn. Its desktop platform is known as Thinkorswim. It is suitable for any kind of mobile device. It offers advanced features such as comprehensive charting features, economic indicators, economic data tools and calendars, alerts, social sentiment on different securities, and a built-in chat.
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Trade Architect
It is a special research platform that is offered to every TD client. It has live data, video streams, advanced research, trade ideas, and more.
What Interactive Brokers And TD Ameritrade Offers?
While comparing these two, you may possibly find Interactive Brokers is missing the diverse research offerings. Taking a look at other brokers, Interactive Brokers seems to be quite basic. The research strength of Interactive Brokers comes in when you will choose to use a number of its third-party integrations. However, everything is not for free, you have to pay charges for some others. One of the third-party integration for Interactive Brokers is Benzinga that offers some of its features for free of cost.
On the other hand, TD Ameritrade is not that basic such as Interactive Brokers and it is quite comprehensive when it comes to its market research. It consists of many highly advanced informational tools that it provides from high-quality sources. A few of these resources take in social sentiments, analyst insights, advanced screeners, and signals. In addition to that, the Trade Architect software comes with a separate research section which consists of a big set of these tools.
Overall, if we compare both, the TD Ameritrade comes with a more comprehensive research section as compared to the Interactive Brokers. However, Interactive Brokers still helps you in providing some of the research features that are very crucial for each trader.
Conclusion: Who Should Use Interactive Brokers And TD Ameritrade?
There’s no doubt that both Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade are powerhouse platforms in the industry that helps in providing a wide range of trading products that can easily fit several different types of needs of the investors. Whether it’s Interactive Brokers or TD Ameritrade, both offer low-cost personalized platforms and consist of some crucial trading apps.
However, comparing these two (Interactive Brokers vs TD Ameritrade) on the basis of what to use, Interactive Brokers seems to be more of a better platform for the professionals or in simple words for the active traders. Therefore, it is a better choice for institutional traders as well as investors. On the other hand, TD Ameritrade seems to be a great platform or perfect option for the investors who are just a beginner.