Unlimited, Commission-Free Trading
Lite offers clients unlimited, commission-free trading on US listed stocks and ETFs, with low pricing on other products.3
No Account Minimums or Inactivity Fees
Whether you are new to investing or a seasoned investor, you shouldn’t have to pay your broker to hold your money. Lite Clients are not required to maintain account minimum balances and are not charged minimum activity fees.
Competitive Interest Rates
Earn competitive interest4 on the idle cash in your account and borrow against your account.
Earn Extra Income
Lite Clients can join our Stock Yield Enhancement Program. The Program lets IBKR borrow your fully paid stock in exchange for cash collateral. IBKR then loans the stock and shares half the interest earned with you. However, since it is your stock you can still trade your loaned stock with no restrictions.
Lite
Lite is best for retail investors, including financial advisors trading on behalf of their retail clients.1 IBKR Lite provides commission free trading in US exchange-listed stocks and ETFs, low cost access to global markets, no account minimums and no inactivity fees.
Pro
Pro is the traditional IBKR plan designed for sophisticated investors. IBKR Pro offers the lowest cost6 access to stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds on over 125 markets in 31 countries.
| Features | Lite | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Commissions | ||
| US Exchange-Listed Stocks / ETFs | Commission-free1 | Fixed or Tiered Pricing |
| Other Stocks / ETFs | Fixed Pricing | Fixed or Tiered Pricing |
| Options | Fixed Pricing2 | Fixed or Tiered Pricing |
| Futures | Fixed Pricing | Fixed or Tiered Pricing |
| Forex | Tiered Pricing | Tiered Pricing |
| Bonds | Tiered Pricing | Tiered Pricing |
| Mutual Funds | Fixed Pricing | Fixed or Tiered Pricing |
| Account Fees | ||
| Minimum Balance | USD 0 | USD 0 |
| Maintenance Fee | USD 0 | Up to USD 10 per month (less commission paid that month) |
| Interest Paid on Idle Cash Balances3 | Benchmark minus 1.5% | Benchmark minus 0.5% |
| Interest Charged for Margin Loan | Benchmark plus 2.5% | Begins at Benchmark plus 1.5%, with lower rates for higher loan values.4 |
| Eligible Accounts: |
||
| Retail Investors5 | ||
| Institutional Accounts6 | ||
| Advisors78 | ||
| Introducing Brokers91011 | ||
| Account Features: | ||
| Stock Yield Enhancement Program | ||
| FDIC Promontory Program | ||
| Market Data - US Listed Stock/ETFs | Free non-consolidated, real-time streaming data* for primary exchanges | Low-cost data bundles and a la carte subscriptions available. |
| Market Data - Other Products | Low-cost data bundles and a la carte subscriptions available. | Low-cost data bundles and a la carte subscriptions available. |
| Outside Regular Trading Hours12 | 07:00 - 20:00 | 04:00 - 20:00 |
| Trading Technology: | ||
| Client Portal | ||
| Mobile | ||
| IBot | ||
| Trader Workstation (TWS) | ||
| IBKR Web Trader | ||
| IBKR APIs | ||
| Algos | 1 | |
| Condition Orders & Advanced Order Types | 1 | |
| Paper Trading | ||
| Mutual Fund / ETF Replicator | ||
| Risk NavigatorSM | ||
| Back Testing | ||
Included
- IBKR Lite is meant for retail investors, including financial advisors trading on behalf of their retail clients. IBKR reserves the right to reject any IBKR Lite order or series of orders if IBKR determines the order(s) appear to show non-retail trading behavior. At the time an order is rejected, the client will be automatically presented the option to resubmit the rejected order on a Fixed commission basis.
- Where available in North America.
- Accounts with a NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or equivalent) will be paid at a rate proportional to accounts with a NAV of USD 100,000 (or equivalent) or more. The proportion is determined by the ratio of the account’s NAV to USD 100,000 (or equivalent). The negative rate applied to accounts holding these currencies is the same regardless of account size.
- For more information, see ibkr.com/interest
- Retail Investors includes individuals, joint, UGMA/UTMA, retirement and trust accounts.
- Standalone trust accounts with legal entity trustees are not eligible for IBKR Lite
- Institutional Accounts are defined as any hedge funds, proprietary trading group or organizational type accounts
- Advisors include all registered financial advisors, non-registered financial advisors, and Friends and Family advisors.
- To be eligible for IBKR Lite, advisors must be US domiciled and must have:
- Less than 15% of client accounts outside the US
- Less than 15% of client equity outside the US
- Less than 15% of client accounts as organization accounts
- No client accounts from Israel
- No partitioned client accounts
- No Separate Trading Limits (Proprietary Trading) accounts
- Introducing Brokers includes all Fully Disclosed and Non Disclosed accounts.
- Introducing Brokers cannot have both IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro clients under the same account structure. Separate accounts structures are required to facilitate.
- Introducing Brokers on the IBKR Lite plan cannot support the follow ing type of client sub accounts:
- Israel is the country of legal residence of the account holder
- Partitioned client accounts
- Three-tier hierarchies (no advisor or STL proprietary trading accounts)
- OMS clients
- Regular trading hours for IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro are 09:30 – 16:00
- * Excludes pink sheet data.
- † Will be available in December 2019 for a charge.
- ‡ Will be available in December 2019.
We understand your investment needs change over time. You can switch between the IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro plan at any time. Your first three reclassifications are processed on a daily basis while subsequent reclassifications happen on a quarterly basis.
Margin borrowing is only for sophisticated investors with high risk tolerance.
You may lose more than your initial investment.
- All sell orders are subject to small fees to offset the transactions fees imposed by regulators on the firm. For more information, see ibkr.com/liteinfo
- The IBKR Lite pricing plan can only be applied to the following account types: Individual, Joint, Trust and IRA. While investment advisors cannot sign up for IBKR Lite, they are free to encourage their clients to do so if appropriate.
- IBKR Lite provides commission-free trades in US exchange-listed stocks and ETFs routed to select market makers. IBKR may charge non-commission related fees. Trades in non-exchange-listed US stocks (e.g., Pink sheet and OTCBB) are subject to IBKR’s standard commission scheduled. For more information, see ibkr.com/liteinfo
- Accounts with a NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or equivalent) will be paid at a rate proportional to accounts with a NAV of USD 100,000 (or equivalent) or more. The proportion is determined by the ratio of the account’s NAV to USD 100,000 (or equivalent). The negative rate applied to accounts holding these currencies is the same regardless of account size.
- For more information on IBG’s financial strength, see ibkr.com/safety
- For more info, see ibkr.com/compare.
- Any trading symbols displayed are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to portray recommendations.
Yes, clients will be liable for the monthly activity fee if they were under the IBKR Pro offering at any time during the month.
Yes, IBKR Lite clients can use IBKR Mobile.
There is no free trial account available for IBKR Lite. Once you have opened an IBKR Lite account, you would be eligible to open a paper trading account.
No, IBKR Lite clients cannot use the WebTrader trading platform.
For negative rate currencies, IBKR Lite clients will get the same benefit as IBKR Pro clients of not being charged interest on the first tier. However, IBKR Lite clients will be charged on Tier 2 balances at a rate of the IBKR Pro rate minus 1%.