Interactive Brokers Online Brokerage Account Review IB

Interactive Brokers Review is one of the best online brokerages. It offers low commission rates for customers. There are two main trading platforms. More review can be found in this post.

Interactive Brokers (IB)

Interactive Brokers (IB) is popular among active traders, experience and professional investors and hedge fund. It was established and began executing trades for public in 1994. It offered its own clearing trading in 1998. Interactive Brokers Group is traded publicly on the NASDAQ under IBKR ticker. It has a market capitalization of $710 million. The current headquarter is located in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Chairman and CEO is Thomas Peterffy.

As one of the best brokerages, IB offers stock trading, option trades, ETF, mutual funds, future, Forex, CFDs, and bonds. It offers global products. You can trades in over 100 market centers in 19 countries using single IB Universal Account. There are 2 types of trading platforms: Trader Workstation (TWS), and WebTrader. Trader Workstation is one of the best desktop applications for trading. It also offers advance tools such as BookTrader, OptionTrader, BasketTrader, ScaleTrader Algo, Accumulate/Distribute algo, FXTrader, and SpreadTrader. There are 50 order types and algos supported.

The WebTrader is a web based trading platform. It is a scaled-down version of TWS with simplified interface. It offers in fourteen languages. As an online discount brokerage, it provides 11 supported order types.

Opening an account with IB can take a little longer than typical online broker. You need to fill your application online, and then you need to verify two deposits IB makes into your bank account. Then, Interactive Brokers will send you a code through a regular mail to start trading. You also need to deposit $10,000 initial funding to open an account. Most traders choose bundled commission to get the lowest cost for trading.

Products and Services

• Products: Stocks, bonds, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, options, foreign investments, currency
• Market Orders: $0.005 per shares ($1.00 minimum)
• Limit Orders: $0.005 per shares ($1.00 minimum)
• Broker-Assisted Orders: $0.01 per shares ($100.00 min)
• Mutual Funds: $14.95/ trade
• Options: $0.70/contract
• Minimum to Open: $10,000 for US-based accounts; varied for foreign accounts
• Account Maintenance Fee: $10.00 - $20.00
• IRA maintenance Fee: $7.50 per quarter
• Some Other Fees: Wire Transfer outgoing: $10.00 per transfer.
• ACH Transfer Fee: $1.00 per transfer.
• Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate

Pros:

• Low commissions for stocks and option trading
• Low margin rates
• Offers several trading platform

Cons:

• High minimum requirement to open an account ($10,000)
• There is a commission fee of $10/month if you don’t trades more than $30 commission fee per month
• It can get quite expense for trades over 1,500 shares
• There is a quarterly IRA fee

Top 10 Popular Taxable Investment Grade Bond Closed End Funds

This article will be all about Top 10 popular Investment Grade Taxable Bond Closed End Funds. The fund providers include Western Asset, Eaton Vance, Federated, John Hancock, PIMCO, BlackRock and MFS. The list also include Western Asset Premier Bond, PIMCO Corporate Opportunity and more.

The following is the Top 10 Best Taxable Investment Grade Bond Closed End Funds:

1. Western Asset Premier Bond (WEA)
2. EV Limited Duration Income (EVV)
3. Federated Enhanced Treasury Income (FTT)
4. John Hancock Income Securities
5. PIMCO Corporate Opportunity
6. Franklin Limited Duration Inc
7. BlackRock Credit Alloc II
8. Blackrock Credit Allocation IV
9. MFS Government Markets Income
10. BlackRock Credit Alloc III

Best National Municipal Bond Closed End Funds

Closed End Funds or CEFs can provide an attractive alternative for investors to invest in municipal bond. These municipal debt funds provide tax free income for investors. Some of the best municipal bond closed end funds are: PIMCO Municipal Income III, EV Municipal Income, Invesco VK Muni Opps. Trust, etc.

Municipal Bond Fund

Closed end funds are not very popular in investment world and they rarely will get any respects. The closed end funds unlike mutual fund are being traded like stock. This article will provide top 10 national municipal bond closed end funds (CEF) which are tax free. The CEF sponsors include PIMCO, Eaton Vance, BlackRock, Invesco.

The following is the Top 10 Best National Municipal Bond Closed-End Funds:

1. PIMCO Municipal Income III - PMX
2. EV Municipal Income - EVN
3. Invesco VK Muni Opps. Trust - VMO
4. Invesco VK Muni Invst. Grade T - VGM
5. EV Municipal Bond II - EIV
6. BlackRock MuniVest Fund II - MVT
7. Invesco VK Adv Muni Inc II - VKI
8. Putnam Managed Muni Income - PMM
9. Invesco VK Select Sector Muni - VKL
10. PIMCO Municipal Income - PMF

updated on 11/27/2010

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a safe holidays!

Turkey anyone?

Top 8 Best Municipal Bond Mutual Funds

The following article will provide top 10 list of municipal bond mutual funds also known as non taxable bond funds. The non taxable bonds consist mainly the municipal bonds either investment grade municipal bond or non investment grade municipal bond. The list include Vanguard Intermediate Term Tax Exempt, Vanguard Limited Term Tax Exempt, American Funds Tax Exempt Bond, and more.

Tax Free Muni Bond Funds

My list mainly consists of 3 or more star of Morningstar rating and big asset underlying the municipal bond mutual funds. Usually, big asset means lot of confident by investor as well constitutional to invest in these funds. With 3 or more star rating, this means the fund has consistently perform under any market condition and should perform better or at least average compare to many of its index benchmark. I also provide list that doesn’t include only 1 state municipal bond funds, this means the list is more diversify and includes multiple states in US.

The following is the Top 8 Best Municipal Bond mutual funds:

1. Vanguard Intermediate Term Tax Exempt Fund - VWITX
2. Vanguard Limited Term Tax Exempt Fund - VMLTX
3. Franklin Federal Tax Free Income - FKTIX
4. American Funds Tax Exempt Bond - AFTEX
5. Franklin High Yield Tax Free Income Fund - FRHIX
6. Vanguard Long Term Tax Exempt Fund - VWLTX
7. Wells Fargo Advantage Ultra Short Term Municipal Income Fund - SMAVX
8. Vanguard High Yield Tax Exempt Fund - VWAHX

Top 5 Vanguard Mutual Funds

The following article will provide top 10 popular Vanguard Mutual Funds list including stock and bond fund. The list is as follows: Vanguard Total Stock Market,Total Bond Market Index, Emerging Markets Stock Index, Vanguard Wellington and more. Top 5 Vanguard Mutual Funds are:

1. Vanguard Total Stock Market - VTSMX
2. Vanguard 500 Index Fund - VFINX
3. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index - VBMFX
4. Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index
5. Vanguard Wellington

1. Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX)

This Vanguard Total Stock Market fund has $190 billion total net assets. As part of index fund, this large blend mutual fund has an expense ratio of 0.17%. The annual turnover holding rate is 5%. It is rated with 4 stars rating and gold rating by Morningstar. This fund is passively managed by Gerard C. O'Reilly. This domestic stock fund has returned 19.66% over the past 3 year, 1.27% over the past 5 year, and 4.82% over the past 10 year.

2. Vanguard 500 Index Fund (MUTF: VFINX)

This Vanguard 500 index fund's objective is to track the performance of he Standard & Poor's 500 index. This large blend fund has total net assets of $114 billion. The expense ratio is 0.17% per year. It also has a yield of 1.75%. Michael H. Buek is the fund manager. Investor can start buying this fund with $3,000 minimum initial investment. As of January 2012, the top 5 stocks in its assets are: Exxon Mobil Corporation, Apple Inc, International Business Machines Corp, Chevron Corp, and Microsoft Corp.

3. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (Ticker: VBMFX)

Rated with gold rating, this Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fund is another popular mutual fund offered by Vanguard. It has an expense ratio of 0.22%. This intermediate term bond fund has a yield of 2.98%. The average effective duration is 5 years and the average effective maturity is 7.2 years. Managed by Kenneth Volpert, this bond mutual fund has returned 7.68% over the past year, 6.89% over the past 3year, and 5.46% over the past decade. As of January 2012, the top 5 sectors are U.S. Treasury (35.65%), Agency MBS Pass-Through (25.60%), Corporate Bond (20.63%), U.S. Agency (4.15%), and Other Government Related (1.95%).

Reasons to buy

If you are interested in Vanguard Brokerage Services account to buy ETF, please check my previous article. There are several reasons why you should consider a Vanguard:

1. Vanguard is owned by its shareholders (i.e. not for profit company)
2. Most of the products whether ETFs or Mutual Funds have the lowest expenses in industry
3. As an investor, you can have many products to choose from whether they are stocks funds or bond funds.
4. Most of the fund follows index and passively managed which can provide a way to follow the market closely. There is less second guessing by its fund manager.

Disclosure: No Position updated on 4/20/2012

Best Taxable Diversified Bond Mutual Funds

The following article will provide top 10 taxable bond mutual funds list. Bond funds are another good way to diversify your investment portfolio since they are also less volatile than stock funds. The list include Pimco Total Return, Vanguard Total Bond Market Index and more.

Intro

Bond also known as fixed income can be classified into two main categories such as taxable bonds and non taxable bonds. Taxable bond can consist of short term bond, intermediate term bond, long term Bond, Investment Grade Corporate Bond, High Yield Corporate bond (Non Investment Grade corporate bond), Treasury Inflation Protected (TIP) Bond. These taxable bonds can be either domestic bonds or global bonds.

The non taxable bond consist mainly the municipal bonds either investment grade municipal bond or non investment grade municipal bond. Non taxable bond mutual funds dividend is usually non taxable. I will provide more details about non taxable bond in my later article. For this article I will focus on taxable bond mutual funds.

The following is the Top 10 list of taxable bond mutual funds:

1. Pimco Total Return
2. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index
3. Templeton Global Bond
4. Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade
5. Vanguard GNMA
6. Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities
7. Dodge & Cox Income
8. PIMCO Low Duration A
9. Vanguard Short-Term Bond
10. Loomis Sayles Bond

You can also check my other top bond funds article:

• Best Municipal Bond Mutual Funds September 2011
• Best International Bond Mutual Funds of 2011