Interactive Brokers Australia Review
- Interactive Brokers AU provides independent market research and news called Interactive Brokers Information System (IBIS).
- IBIS has a free trial for evaluation before purchase.
- The Option Labs offers an advanced selection of tools for trading.
- Interactive Brokers AU provides access to 120 markets with thousands of assets.
- Interactive Brokers AU offers a secure and regulated environment for trading.
- Offers several market research reports.
- Traders can subscribe to the Thomas Reuters news feed and get the same news as institutional traders.
- Provides an investors’ marketplace where traders can purchase more than 500 investment services, over 300 market research services and over 420 business and technology development services.
- Interactive Brokers AU are geared towards institutional traders and as such the platforms are not very user-friendly for retail traders.
- A lot of the add-on services are not free and the prices may mean they are out of reach for many retail traders.
- IBIS is not free with the price for this tool starting at $69.00 per month.
Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd is the Australian brand of the financial brokerage company known as the Interactive Brokers Group. They provide a direct access online trading portal that offers trade execution and clearing support to institutional investors. Australian securities laws require that only companies with a local presence in Australia can offer financial trading products to the local market. So even though Interactive Brokers AU is part of the Interactive Brokers Group, it has to operate as a semi-autonomous entity within Australia.
Interactive Brokers Australia does not provide investment advice. It only provides brokerage services as well as the popular news service platform, IBIS.
Trading Platforms
Interactive Brokers Australia offers a set of in-house trading platforms designed to suit the uniqueness of the products on offer. To help cover the needs of as many clients as possible, Interactive Brokers Australia has three versions of their trading platforms:
IB Trader TWS
The Interactive Brokers Australia desktop version is Trader Workstation (TWS) which is a unique market maker-design. The Trader Workstation desktop software gives traders, investors and institutions the ability to trade assets including forex, stocks, futures, options, funds and bonds in over 120 markets worldwide from one online account.
The Interactive Brokers Australia Trader Workstation offers these features:
- Up to date market research, data and news.
- Asset monitoring in real-time monitoring.
- Algos and various order types support.
- Risk management trading tools.
- Paper trading with a global trading system.
IB Trader Web
Interactive Brokers Australia also offers a browser-based version of its software called IB Webtrader, The Webtrader platform provides all the charts, tools and resources required for technical analysis without needing to download and install the desktop software. The web version has a tabbed modular design that gives traders the option to only display features they would like to see. Traders can view metrics including market volumes and values for specific time frames with dynamic charts.
Market Pulse is one of the best features available in the Interactive Brokers Australia Webtrader. Market Pulse is a sentiment indicator, it shows where buyers and sellers are positioning themselves on various assets.
IB TWS Mobile
Like most good brokers, Interactive Brokers AU gives clients the option to use their mobile devices with Android and iOS app versions of the Trader Workstation software. Traders can download the mobile apps from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Some notable features of the Interactive Brokers Australia Mobile apps are:
- Secure login system that uses authentication from the IB Key digital security application or a physical device.
- Real-time streaming of charts and quotes.
- IB’s SmartRouting™ technology for routing orders.
- Independent analyst reports, data, trade reports, portfolio and account information.
- Email notifications for price alerts.
- Able to reconnect to the software without needing to login again after receiving a call.
Trading Markets
Traders with Interactive Brokers Australia are able to trade more than 100 assets across a number of markets including:
- Forex
- ETFs
- CFDs on stocks
- CFDs on indices
- CFDs on commodities
- Structure Products (Turbos and certificates)
- FOPs (Futures Options)
- Bonds
- Warrants
- Single Stock Futures (SSFs)
- Bitcoin futures (via CME Group)
Support
Interactive Brokers Australia has dedicated support for their Australian clients:
- Phone: +61 (2) 8093 7300 (Direct dial for clients services).
- Live chat
- Physical Address: Registered Office is located at level 40, Grosvenor Place, 225 George Street, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia.
- Email (sent through online contact form).
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/ibkr
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/interactivebrokers
Security and Fairness
Companies operating in Australia as financial services companies must be licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The license is referred to as the AFSL (Australian Financial Services License). Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 98 166 929 568) holds the AFSL no. 245574, and is a participant of the markets operated by ASX, ASX 24 and Chi-X Australia and of the clearing facilities operated by ASX Clear and ASX Clear (Futures).
Conclusion
Interactive Brokers Australia is suited specifically for the Australian and New Zealand markets. The platform and features are tailored to this audience to give them a homegrown feel. For those retail traders who want to step up to trade like the pros in an Aussie-style regulated environment, this is the brokerage of choice.
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