59.7% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
- Experts rate Interactive Brokers Options Trading highly, awarding it a total rating of 4.9/5. They commend its extensive market access, low fees, and advanced platform features that cater to both beginners and professional traders. However, they note the platform's complexity and the requirement for trading permissions as potential drawbacks.
- Across 1375 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 4.6/5, customers frequently highlight the platform's low costs, broad global market access, and advanced trading tools. Many users appreciate the user-friendly interface and efficient execution of trades, while some express concerns about the complexity of the platform and slower customer support responses.
Interactive Brokers Options Trading Expert rating
Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.Our experts have rated Interactive Brokers Options Trading across five key areas of our review framework.
- Pricing5.0
- Market Access5.0
- App & Platform5.0
- Customer Service4.5
- Research & Analysis5.0
Pros
- Simple to use for beginners
- Global market access
- Expert tools for professionals
Cons
- Complex product
- Need to request trading permissions
- High minimum deposit
See full expert review
Our verdict
IBKR has one of the best options trading platforms for all types of clients because of their market range and strategy builders let you create options trading strategies visually and with AI.
59.7% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
Is Interactive Brokers good for options trading?
Interactive Brokers won "best options broker" in our 2025 and 2023 awards. They offer a huge range of markets to trade options on, low fees and platform features that enable you to easily create options strategies.
IBKR offers one of the most, if not the most, advanced options trading platforms for private clients, both for derivatives markets (indices, commodities, and forex) and stocks and shares. They provide access to a huge number of UK and international stock options, but where they really win business is through their execution capabilities.
Their strategy builder tool automatically creates the legs for spreads based on what you think is going to happen to the market and you can set your profit and loss visually through drag and drop charts.
For this review, I spent an hour or so talking to Steve Sanders, who runs product development for IBKR and it's epic. There is far too much to go into for a short piffy review and even an a options broker myself I found some of it overwhelming. If you are a professional options trader, I would say there is no better platform out there.
However, if you are just getting started trading option, IBKR has a new options tool called Options Wizard, which identifies options strategies according to market outlook, as well as the ability to add option chains into layouts and customise the data that is shown.
What's great about this is that it will create strategies around what you think will happen in the market rather than having to work it out longhand yourself. For exmaple, one of the most popular pieces of analysis we write is about whether or not the Lloyds share price will reach £1 in 2025. So to test IBKR's Options Wizard I asked it on the GlobalTrader app to to come up with an options strategy that would make me the most money if Lloyds reached £1 before the end of the year. 
Users can also now make use of options screeners, which sort and scan for option data within new dedicated sections and sub-tabs.
Options Wizard: Identify options strategies that match a market outlook.
Option Chain in Custom Layouts: Add one or multiple option chains into layouts and customize data columns to show option-specific data, such as the Greeks or Implied Volatility, and use color grouping to connect to other tools in the custom layout area, such as the Rapid Order Entry, to create trades.
Options Screeners: Sort and scan for option data with new dedicated sections and sub-tabs that offer complex combination strategies volume and trades for the day, among other features.
Customer reviews for Interactive Brokers
Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.Based on 1,375 reviews
- Excellent74%
- Very good14%
- Basic7%
- Poor2%
- Bad2%
Read customer reviews
Excellent broker
Excellent broker with good interfaces.
GFIS Datafeed quality is questionable in recent years. IBKR were unresponsive when queried
Review of IB
easy to use with strong functionality
Great trading platform
Very good for beginner and professional investors as well. Wide range of trading opportunities with low fees also available.
Sipp at IB
Excellent value trading for a SIPP account. Highly recommended. I also have a normal account with IB
Great trading platform
Interactive Brokers provides a terrific and flexible trading platform to individual investors that can be tailored to your needs. The trading fees are so much lower than other platforms. If you have problems setting it up, their customer service will guide you and help you in setting it up.
Interactive Brokers is an exceptional brokerage for active traders
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) stands out as one of the most powerful and versatile brokerage platforms available today. Catering to both professional traders and sophisticated retail investors, IBKR offers a robust trading infrastructure, low fees, and access to global markets.
Professional and Cost-effective
I’ve been using IB for 15 years and over that time the quality and breadth of offering has continued to expand. I appreciate the costeffectiveness, sophistication and professionalism of the platform.
Excelent trading platforms
Have had an account a few years. Costs of trading are minimal and the share prices obtained by the system are really good. Quick to places orders and they offer a variety of available investments modes on several stock exchanges. Research offered is also good.
Only slight weakness is it is sometimes difficult to get personal help when a technical problem arises. However very few problems crop up.
Great Trading and Investment Platform
IB is a very flexible platform, user friendly, includes many financial instruments and very low fees, efficient and trustworthy
Private Client Trader
A great and super functional platform for trading futures and FX. Instant execution and live mark to mark pricing and account margin valuations. Transparent and very competitive pricing are hard to beat.
Unilateral termination
Closed my account without explanation after three years. Most likely because I’m Russian.
A platform for the serious investor.
I have a share dealing account with IBKR. The free research information available is comprehensive, and the margin facility very useful.
Way better than Hargreaves Lansdown
I have used HL for years but opened an account at IBKR about 7 years ago. I rate Interactive Brokers on multiple counts:
- dealing costs
- customer service
- foreign exchange charges
- ability to hold forex AND earn interest
- breadth of available investments including options, futures, bonds etc.
- superb, easy to use mobile app
- ISA friendly
- overall way more sophisticated offering than the competition
Professional low-cost platform
I have held a joint account with Interactive Brokers for over 10 years. Having worked for stock exchanges, I can verify that IB knows the eccentricities of individual markets and offers excellent interfaces at a low-cost. They offer a great range of asset classes across all global markets that anyone could want to trade on.
Solid Broker
Been with them for over 15 years, never really had any issues. Support can be good and you can trade almost anything.
the best broker there is
top broker, low fees, tremendous power at one's hand, i really cannot fault IBKR, i look forward to the future with this broker.
Comprehensive user function and reasonable charge
The foreign currency exchange charge is very competitive. The types of stock, etf and crypto to trade are very comprehensive.
Good for experienced investors
I use IB for US listed securities, futures and options. Contract notes are available immediately after a deal; spreads are tight; money transfer is efficient.
best value for money for advanced traders
I have accounts with 4 brokers. IBKR has by far the most advanced platform of the four with the greatest range of tools All provided with the most competitive charges.
Does everything I need
As a retired trader I feared losing touch with the market but IBs functionality and breadth has pleasantly surprised me and made it my main platform for actively managing my savings.
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.