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Plus500 vs Interactive Brokers 2019
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
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Overall Rating
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
| Overall | ||
| Plus500 Review | Interactive Brokers Review | |
| 76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money | 63.5% of retail CFD accounts lose money |
Regulation
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
| Trust Score | 93 | 91 |
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Year Founded |
2008 | 1977 |
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Publicly Traded (Listed) |
Yes | Yes |
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Bank |
No | No |
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Tier-1 Licenses |
2 | 5 |
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Tier-2 Licenses |
3 | 0 |
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Tier-3 Licenses |
0 | 0 |
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Authorised in the European Union |
Yes | Yes |
Tier-1 Licenses
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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ASIC Authorised (Australia) |
Yes | No |
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IIROC Authorised (Canada) |
No | Yes |
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SFC Authorised (Hong Kong) |
No | Yes |
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FSA Authorised (Japan) |
No | Yes |
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MAS Authorised (Singapore) |
Yes | No |
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FINMA Authorised (Switzerland) |
No | Yes |
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FCA Authorised (UK) |
Yes | Yes |
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CFTC Registered (USA) |
No | Yes |
Investments
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Forex: Spot Trading |
Yes | Yes |
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Social Trading / Copy-Trading |
No | No |
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Currency Pairs (Total Forex pairs) |
50 | 105 |
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CFDs - Total Offered |
2033 | 6100 |
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Cryptocurrency traded as actual |
No | No |
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Cryptocurrency traded as CFD |
Yes | Yes |
| Offering of Investments | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
Cost
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard |
0.6 (as of Aug 2018) | N/A |
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All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active |
N/A | N/A |
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Active Trader or VIP Discounts |
No | Yes |
| Commissions & Fees | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
Funding
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Minimum Initial Deposit |
€100 | $0 |
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Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) |
Yes | Yes |
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Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) |
Yes | No |
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PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) |
Yes | No |
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Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) |
Yes | No |
Trading Platforms
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Proprietary Platform |
Yes | Yes |
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Desktop Platform (Windows) |
Yes | Yes |
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Web Platform |
Yes | Yes |
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Social Trading / Copy-Trading |
No | No |
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MetaTrader 4 (MT4) |
No | No |
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MetaTrader 5 (MT5) |
No | No |
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cTrader |
No | No |
Trading Tools
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Virtual Trading (Demo) |
Yes | Yes |
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Alerts - Basic Fields |
Yes | Yes |
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Watchlists - Total Fields |
10 | 300 |
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Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) |
103 | 121 |
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Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) |
21 | 9 |
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Charting - Trade From Chart |
No | Yes |
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Charting - Drawings Autosave |
No | Yes |
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Order Type - Trailing Stop |
Yes | Yes |
| Platform & Tools | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
Mobile Trading
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Android App |
Yes | Yes |
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Apple iOS App |
Yes | Yes |
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Trading - Forex |
Yes | Yes |
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Trading - CFDs |
Yes | Yes |
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Alerts - Basic Fields |
Yes | Yes |
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Watch List |
Yes | Yes |
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Watch List Syncing |
Yes | Yes |
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Charting - Indicators / Studies |
18 | 68 |
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Charting - Draw Trend Lines |
No | No |
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Charting - Trend Lines Moveable |
No | No |
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Charting - Multiple Time Frames |
Yes | Yes |
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Charting - Drawings Autosave |
No | Yes |
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Forex Calendar |
No | No |
| Mobile Trading | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
Research
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Daily Market Commentary |
No | Yes |
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Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) |
No | Yes |
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Weekly Webinars |
No | No |
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AutoChartist |
No | No |
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Trading Central (Recognia) |
No | Yes |
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Delkos Research |
No | No |
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Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs |
No | No |
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Economic Calendar |
Yes | Yes |
| Research | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
Education
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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Has Education - Forex |
No | Yes |
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Has Education - CFDs |
No | Yes |
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Client Webinars |
No | Yes |
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Client Webinars (Archived) |
No | Yes |
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Videos - Beginner Trading Videos |
No | No |
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Videos - Advanced Trading Videos |
No | Yes |
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Investor Dictionary (Glossary) |
No | Yes |
| Education | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
Major Forex Pairs
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
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GBP/USD |
Yes | Yes |
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USD/JPY |
Yes | Yes |
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EUR/USD |
Yes | Yes |
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USD/CHF |
Yes | Yes |
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USD/CAD |
Yes | Yes |
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NZD/USD |
Yes | Yes |
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AUD/USD |
Yes | Yes |
Overall
| Feature | Plus500 | Interactive Brokers |
| Plus500 Review | Interactive Brokers Review | |
| Overall | ||
| Winner | check_circle |
To compare these two FX brokers, we will first take a look at the fees charged for trading (no easy task). Not every forex broker publicizes their average spreads, spreads data can vary, as can execution policies and how commissions are charged. Specifically, is the broker a dealing desk (market maker), no dealing desk (agency broker) or are both execution methods offered (dealing desk + STP/ECN)? To simplify this research, we assessed everything for you and provide a single star rating for cost. Both Interactive Brokers and Plus500 hold a 4.00 star rating.
Commissions and fees aside, let's take a look at regulation and currency availability. Trust is critical, and you should highly consider choosing a broker that regulated in a major hub. Both Interactive Brokers and Plus500 are regulated in a major hub. Interactive Brokers and Plus500 are publicly traded companies. As far as how many currency pairs are available for trading, here's the answer. Interactive Brokers offers its clients access to 115 different currency pairs while Plus500 has 60 available pairs, a difference of 55.
Next, let's look at the tools and features fx traders desire. With trading platforms, forex traders are all familiar with MetaTrader. Neither Interactive Brokers and Plus500 offer Meta Trader. Regardless of the trading platform you use, charting should be feature rich. To help compare these two brokers, we counted the number of drawing tools and total technical indicators made available. Interactive Brokers boasts an offering of 9 charting tools compared to Plus500's 0 available charting tools. Plus500 trails Interactive Brokers by 18 total different indicators (for example, moving averages), with Interactive Brokers offering 121 and Plus500 offering 103.
Interactive Brokers Review
Plus500 Review
Trading CFDs, FX, and cryptocurrencies involves a high degree of risk. All providers have a percentage of retail investor accounts that lose money when trading CFDs with their company. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money and whether you understand how CFDs, FX, and cryptocurrencies work. All data was obtained from a published web site as of 02/18/2019 and is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. The ForexBrokers.com staff is constantly working with its online broker representatives to obtain the latest data. If you believe any data listed above is inaccurate, please contact us using the link at the bottom of this page.
Plus500UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909).
