Worked example
Practising on Interactive Brokers's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Interactive Brokers publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
Interactive Brokers does not publish a EUR/USD spread we were able to verify, so there is no honest arithmetic to do on this page. Do not substitute a number you read on a comparison site: an unverified spread quietly becomes an unverified cost, and then an unverified plan. Use one of the other examples on the practice index for this exercise and come back to this file for the account ladder below.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. Interactive Brokers offers 3 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
- IBKR Lite (US)The entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- IBKR ProA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- InstitutionalA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
Account names as published: IBKR Lite (US), IBKR Pro, Institutional. Platforms listed: Trader Workstation (TWS), IBKR Desktop, Client Portal, IBKR Mobile, API/FIX.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are Interactive Brokers's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEC/CFTC/NFA · USA | Interactive Brokers LLC | NFA ID 0258600 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
| FCA · UK | Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited | 208159 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
| Central Bank of Ireland · Ireland | Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited | C423427 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
| ASIC · Australia | Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd | AFSL 453554 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
4 of these lines are top-tier — held by Interactive Brokers LLC, Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited, Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited, Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd. If you are onboarded to a different entity than those, the protections attached to the top-tier line are not yours, however prominently the regulator's initials appear in the marketing.
The record behind these numbers
- Interactive Brokers traces its origins to 1978 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.
- Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker IBKR and is a component of the S&P 500.
- Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited is authorised by the FCA with register entry number 208159.
- Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland under reference C423427.
- IBKR prices spot FX on a commission basis (quoted in basis points of trade value) rather than a marked-up spread.
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: spreadEurusd — IBKR charges commission on raw interbank quotes, so no comparable single spread figure is published; Negative balance protection applies to UK/EU retail entities under regulatory rules; not verified for all entities. Confidence in this file overall: high. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
PipMentor does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.