In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. Eightcap and Interactive Brokers are two popular options, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. This comparison will dive into the key features of both platforms,helping you decide which one best suits your trading style and goals.
The radar chart above illustrates the comparison between Eightcap and Interactive Brokers across several key metrics, with the highest possible score being 100 in each category.
At FxScouts, our mission is to assist traders in finding the broker that best suits their needs. Comparing brokers side-by-side is an effective method to achieve this goal. We evaluated Eightcap and Interactive Brokers, using our standard criteria: trust and regulation, trading platforms, costs and trading conditions, and educational and market analysis resources.
Trust and regulation are crucial when selecting a Forex broker. A broker’s credibility is largely built on its regulatory status. We spend considerable time verifying the safety of each broker by examining their regulatory licenses. We also consider numerous factors when deciding which tier a regulator belongs to. Regulators that we rank as the world’s top regulators, gets a tier 1 rank, while regulators who only scores a tier 5-rank, provide virtually no regulatory oversight. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating. Read more about regulation and our tier system here.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, Interactive Brokers earned a higher trust rating than Eightcap.
When comparing brokers, trading costs are a significant factor. We consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and ongoing costs, including spreads and commissions. We measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit, including both the spread and any commission charged.
We found that Interactive Brokers has overall lower trading costs than Eightcap.
Trading Platforms Offered Traders prefer brokers that offer a variety of trading platforms. We rate brokers higher if they support multiple platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, and proprietary platforms.
Copy trading is beneficial for beginner traders or those unable to trade full-time. In this case both Eightcap and Interactive Brokers offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. Interactive Brokers offers a greater variety of instruments compared to Eightcap:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, Eightcap offers 100 cryptocurrencies, while Interactive Brokers offers 4 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, Eightcap is the better choice for cryptocurrency trading.
Traders prefer brokers with quick and cost-effective deposit and withdrawal processes. We favor brokers that process withdrawals within 24 hours using multiple methods without charging fees.We found that Interactive Brokers charges a withdrawal fee and Eightcap does not. Overall, Eightcap has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Interactive Brokers.Â
We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas.Â
Interactive Brokers has better educational support than Eightcap. Both Eightcap and Interactive Brokers offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that Eightcap offers better research analysis than Interactive Brokers and that both Eightcap and Interactive Brokers offer frequent webinars.
With two simple low deposit accounts, Eightcap offers appeals to cryptocurrency traders who are familiar with the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms looking for a large range of cryptocurrency options.
A well-regulated broker, Eightcap offers trading on Forex, indices, commodities, share CFDs, and over 250 cryptocurrencies, the largest set in the industry.
Eightcap offers two live accounts and a demo account. Both of its live accounts have a minimum deposit of 100 USD (or currency equivalent), making them appealing to beginner traders. The Standard Account has fees included in its variable spreads, which average at 1 pip on the EUR/USD, while its Raw Spread Account offers competitive spreads of 0.1 pips (EUR/USD) in exchange for a commission of 7 USD (round turn).
Both MT4 and MT5 are fully supported, and Eightcap offers a premium toolset by FX Blue Labs that includes an array of sophisticated alarms and messaging systems, and live sentiment and correlation tracking. It also offers Capitalise.ai, a platform that helps customers create automated trading strategies using intuitive non-coding language.
While Forex education and analysis are not as comprehensive as some of Eightcap’s larger competitors, customer service is available in 10 languages and is responsive and knowledgeable.
Founded in 1977 and listed on the NASDAQ, Interactive Brokers is one of the best-regulated brokers in the industry. Ideal for sophisticated, active traders, Interactive Brokers is in a league of its own with the astounding number of assets on its books and its feature-rich platforms. However, its website, complicated account structure, and unusual trading rules may leave less experienced Filipino traders reeling.Â
Interactive Brokers’ world-class research, trading tools, and education will leave traders of all experience levels satisfied, and consistent with its excellent reputation, Interactive Brokers’ trading costs are some of the lowest in the industry. Spreads start at 0.1 pips (EUR/USD) in exchange for a round turn commission of 4.4 USD.
However, because Filipino traders will be trading under the Interactive Brokers’ subsidiary based in Connecticut, USA, they will only be able to open a margin day trading account if they deposit more than 25,000 USD. Another complaint traders may have is that it does not offer third-party platforms like MT4 and MT5, and traders can only fund their accounts by bank transfer.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of Eightcap and Interactive Brokers.
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Broker | Countries Regulated | Minimum Spread EUR/USD | Minimum Deposit | Trading cost/lot EURUSD Total trading cost at the time of last update, for 1 lot of EUR/USD using the account with the lowest minimum deposit. Includes spread and commission. | Broker Score | Broker Website | Select and Compare |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.10 pips | USD 3 | USD 7 | |||||
0 pips | USD 0 | USD 10 | |||||
0.10 pips | USD 200 | USD 8 | |||||
0.70 pips | USD 10 | USD 17 | |||||
0 pips | AUD 0 | USD 4.50 | |||||
0.90 pips | USD 100 | USD 9 | |||||
0.60 pips | USD 5 | USD 6 | |||||
0 pips | USD 0 | USD 10 | |||||
0.70 pips | USD 5 | USD 7 | |||||
0 pips | USD 100 | USD 6 |
Alison and Chris cover a range of topics, including how to choose a Forex broker, safety and regulation, how to reduce your risk, trading psychology, trading platforms, and trading strategies, among others.
The FxScouts podcast helps beginner Forex traders get the best start to their trading careers.