Interactive Brokers has been a successful stock agency in the United States (and several other countries, as well) for the past 34 years.

The company is based entirely online and still serves as one of the largest stock distributors in the world.  Interactive Brokers instigates broker, dealer and proprietary trading businesses throughout 90 markets on a national scale. They offer direct access, online trading and clearing services to both institutional and professional traders alike for products traded online, including but not limited to stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, CFDs and funds.

Furthermore they engage in self-market making for roughly 6,500 different electronically traded products. They and their affiliates bring in nearly 1,000,000 trades every day.

Simply put, they’re in the fore-front when it comes to online stock and trade distribution.

Their electronic trading actually pre-dates the prominence of the internet, meaning that they’re extremely ahead of the curve and know what they’re doing.  Since they’ve been trading electronically for so long, the rise of the internet age has only given them an appropriate outlet to reach out on an international level.

Their website spells it all out for you—they connect you to what it is you’re looking for with a wide variety of options.  They offer multiple trading platforms to fit your specific needs, as well as applications to install to further interact with your online trading experience.

IB offers access to electronic records of stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds that originate from a wide variety of continents and countries, meaning you have the full palate when it comes time to buy or trade stock.

Since the site acts as a broker, connecting the investor or buyer with an investment, they tend to take a cut off the top.  Any broker site is going to do this—that’s how they make money.  However, given IB’s large volume of clients they’re able to keep these expenses down low, meaning that you aren’t paying heavily for your investments.

For those uncertain of what they’re doing or what to do, IB also offers somewhat of a tutorial course.  This course is offered limitlessly and you can always download it from their website.  It runs you through how to account for inflation, currency differences, and any number of other external factors—many of which are extremely complicated for the layperson to understand.

Because of this, they’re managed to hold onto a top spot in the world’s trading market.  Their site also features up-to-the-minute updates so you can keep a close watch on the stocks in your portfolio.

IB also offers trade confirmation, so you aren’t kept in the dark about your important transactions and investments.  This is a given of any company of the like, but definitely comes in handy.

Generally speaking, all user reviews of Interactive Brokers are positive.  People commend the site’s accessibility, their vast array of information regarding current stocks, bonds and so on, and their customer service.

Specifically, people favor the interactive features of the site, including the installable applications and tutorial sessions.  With these added features, the communication flow is at its highest and customers don’t feel overwhelmed by the process and thus are more likely to use and reuse the service.

And like similar services, IB keeps their fees and taxes low, so the consumer’s getting set up with the appropriate stock option and not losing a chunk of change in the process.

However, there are some drawbacks of the service, including its high start-up fee.  In many cases, it requires you to begin with a $10,000 portfolio and isn’t easily accessible for those with lower incomes looking to trade.

This alienates lower-income customers but it’s not always a deciding factor—many people are still able to invest and trade.  It does ring among one of the only cons of IB.