The multinational financial company Interactive Brokers LLC provides its own platform that is available as desktop, web and mobile versions. The company warns that its platforms are intended for ‘sophisticated traders and investors’ and the broker has tough minimum requirements – USD10,000. Although platforms offer forex trading, they are designed for trading mostly with other types of assets such as stocks and options. If you want to trade forex only, you can use the additional module called FXTrader. The web version of the terminal is called ‘IB WebTrader’ and runs on every modern browser. It is HTML based and is intended for users who do not need the complexity of the desktop version called Trader Workstation (TWS).
The workspace is organized in tabs with resizable modules. The first active tab is called Market. The default instrument list is shown in the Market View window. All the instrument properties are displayed here. You can also add a customized instrument list (Watchlist). The Edit button allows the instruments to be rearranged, added or removed. Clicking the bid and ask prices invokes the Order management module. The parameters of orders are set in the New Order tab. The position is prepared to be filled and appears in the Orders tab where you can modify or cancel it. When executed, its status changes to Filled and is displayed in the Trades tab. The Account tab from the main window shows all account related information such as Account balance, Margin requirements, Positions, Portfolio and Market value.
You can set properties of each module through the Preferences button. Charts are also added from this section but unfortunately, they are flash-based and are informative only.
As mentioned earlier, this platform is not for the average trader. It has many features, but only an enthusiast can handle it.
