# Interactive Brokers Online Sharedealing



## ronaldo (21 Nov 2008)

Hi,

Just thought I'd post my thoughts as someone who's just opened an Interactive Brokers Sharedealing Account.

First of all, if your considering a cheap online stockbroker but have less than the Euro equivelant of $10,000, you're better going with the likes of Firstrade (for US shares) as Interactive Brokers require this as a minimum initial balance - the exception is if you are under 21 in which case the minimum drops to $3,000.

With Interactive Brokers, there is a minimum charge of $10 per month ($3 for those under 25). This does not mean that you have to pay $10 per month on top of their commisions. It just means that, if your commisions for a month are below $10, you will be charged a total of $10 for the month. Therefore, as purchasing up to €4,000 of European shares only costs €4 ($5), you could transfer whatever funds you have for the month over to Interactive Brokers, purchase a number of 2 different European shares and your *total *commisions for the month would be $10 (or €8). Trading US shares is cheaper at $1 per trade of 200 or less shares.

Regarding the opening of the account, it is relatively straightforward. Everything is done online - including the signatures they require which are just typed. The only other thing you have to do is fax, email or post a copy of two identification documents - I used a passport and a utility bill. A drivers licence and bank statement also works.

Transfering the money to your account is easy - I'm with AIB and just went into the branch (although I think you can do it online) with the sheet I printed out from Interactive Brokers website. It costs €24.95 for a next day transfer or €0.75 for a 3-day transfer. I used the 3-day transfer on Wednesday afternoon at 12.15 and the funds were in my account today.

I plan to purchase US shares as I belive their economy will be first out of this mess. Therefore, the first thing I had to do was to transfer my Euros to US Dollars. Interactive Brokers are one of the best (possibly the best) for this as you can lodge your money to a Euro account and transfer the money to dollars using their *very* low commission foreign exchange - exchanging $10,000 will cost you $2.50.

This is one of the main reasons I went with Interactive Brokers - I'm not 100% sure but I think that, with Firstrade, you have to lodge your money in USD which would probably involve exchanging the EUR to USD in your bank at their commission rates (and a €20 transfer charge as opposed to €0.75). Then you'd have the $6.95 charge for US shares as opposed to IB's $1 charge.

Another reason is IB's flexibility - you can trade markets all over the world.

Anyway, I've my Euros changed to USD and the US market will be opening shortly so I better get researching. I'll post more info after I've but some shares - I'm already €31 down on my USD change


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## ronaldo (21 Nov 2008)

Bought all my share selections earlier today. It was quite easy - just a matter of entering the stock symbol, e.g. CL, and selecting the SMART routed option from the selection provided. Then enter the number of shares required and your limit you're willing to pay for them - as far as I hear, you should always provide this just in case your stock jumps immediately in value by a large amount and you're left owning a very expensive stock.

By the way, to change Euros to Dollars, you need to do a search for EUR and select FOREX from the drop-down list. Then select the EUR.USD IDEAL option (not IDEALPRO) and select SELL. Then enter the amount of Euros you want to change (but leave 2.50 Euro for every 10,000 Euro you want to change in your account for commissions) and execute the trade.


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## ned (16 Oct 2009)

Ronaldo,
I'm in the process of opening an account with I.B.. i had one with Sharewatch. it was a complete disaster. Now that you have been using I.B for a while, what are your impressions....marks out of 10? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.


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## BIG (16 Oct 2009)

This is one of the main reasons I went with Interactive Brokers - I'm not 100% sure but I think that, with Firstrade, you have to lodge your money in USD which would probably involve exchanging the EUR to USD in your bank at their commission rates (and a €20 transfer charge as opposed to €0.75). Then you'd have the $6.95 charge for US shares as opposed to IB's $1 charge 

Yes, with firstrade you have to convert to Euros here then transfer to US and costs ~25-30Euro. Its 6.95$ per trade, but no maintenance fee, so probably works out cheaper if you dont trade much.
Minimum yearly a/c feee is 12x10 =120$ per year with Interactive Brokers?

Can you buy Irish Shares with Interactive Brokers?


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## BIG (16 Oct 2009)

Yes, with firstrade you have to convert to Euros here then transfer to US and costs ~25-30Euro. Its 6.95$ per trade, but no maintenance fee, so probably works out cheaper if you dont trade much.
Minimum yearly a/c feee is 12x10 =120$ per year with Interactive Brokers?

Can you buy Irish Shares with Interactive Brokers?


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## croker (17 Oct 2009)

> Can you buy Irish Shares with Interactive Brokers?


 
[broken link removed]


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