Interactive Brokers vs AvaTrade 2024

Interactive Brokers is publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by nine Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulator (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and zero Tier-4 regulators (High Risk). Interactive Brokers is authorised by the following Tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), Securities Futures Commission (SFC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system.

AvaTrade is not publicly-traded and does not operate a bank. AvaTrade is authorised by four Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), three Tier-2 regulators (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and one Tier-4 regulator (High Risk). AvaTrade is authorised by the following Tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), the Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) via Friedberg Direct, and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system.

Interactive Brokers is a highly trusted multi-asset broker with an extensive offering of tradeable global markets. It delivers competitive fees and high-quality research and education, as well as a modern, institutional-grade trading platform suite.

AvaTrade is a trusted global brand best known for offering an extensive selection of trading platforms for forex and CFD traders, as well as exceptional educational content that helped it nab Best in Class honors for Beginners in the ForexBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards.

To open a trading account with Interactive Brokers, you'll need to make an initial minimum deposit of $0.

AvaTrade requires a minimum deposit of $100 before you can open an account and start trading.

It's important to make sure that your forex broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. Interactive Brokers offers Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) for banking, whereas AvaTrade provides Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw), Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) and Neteller (Deposit/Withdraw).

Comparing the trading costs of forex and CFDs is not easy. Not every broker publishes average spread data, and pricing structures vary. Based on our thorough, data-driven testing of each broker's commissions and fees, we found that Interactive Brokers offers better pricing overall for traders.

Methodology: When testing each broker's commissions, fees, and pricing, we analyze multiple trade scenarios and award points based on the expansiveness (or inexpensiveness) of the broker's spreads. We then run multiple scenarios for different investor types, incorporating any miscellaneous fees, to determine an "all-in" cost per trade. Learn more about how we test.

At ForexBrokers.com, we track over 110 international regulatory agencies and sort them by tiers (Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3, Tier-4, and Tier-5) to help you choose well-regulated, highly trusted forex brokers. Learn more about our proprietary Trust Score rating system. Based on our research on the regulatory status of over 60 brokers, we've found that Interactive Brokers holds 9 global Tier-1 licenses, while AvaTrade holds 4. AvaTrade holds 3 global Tier-2 licenses, while Interactive Brokers holds 1.

After evaluating each broker based on their number of held licenses, years in business, and a range of other data-driven variables, we've determined that Interactive Brokers (99) earned a higher Trust Score than AvaTrade (94).

To compare the trading platforms of both Interactive Brokers and AvaTrade, we tested each broker's trading tools, research capabilities, and mobile apps. For trading tools, Interactive Brokers offers a better experience. With research, Interactive Brokers offers superior market research. Finally, we found Interactive Brokers to provide better mobile trading apps.

Here’s what trading platforms are available at Interactive Brokers:

• Proprietary Platform - Yes
• Web Platform - Yes
• cTrader - No
• DupliTrade - No
• MT4 - No
• MT5 - No
• ZuluTrade - No
• TradingView - Yes

Here’s what trading platforms are available at AvaTrade:

• Proprietary Platform - Yes
• Web Platform - Yes
• cTrader - No
• DupliTrade - Yes
• MT4 - Yes
• MT5 - Yes
• ZuluTrade - Yes
• TradingView - No

The MetaTrader trading platform suite is wildly popular among forex and CFD traders across the globe. AvaTrade offers MetaTrader 4 (MT4), while Interactive Brokers does not. Forex traders also appreciate the ability to engage in social copy trading. While AvaTrade offers copy trading, Interactive Brokers does not.

Interactive Brokers provides traders 90 currency pairs (e.g., EUR/USD) compared to AvaTrade's 55 available pairs. If you are interested in trading a full range of securities, Interactive Brokers offers traders access to 8500 tradeable symbols, while AvaTrade offers access to 1260 tradeable symbols; so Interactive Brokers offers 7240 more tradeable symbols than AvaTrade.

We found in our testing that Interactive Brokers offers a more diverse selection of investment options than AvaTrade, allowing you to trade Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), U.S. Stocks (CFD), Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) and Cryptocurrency (Physical).