Interactive Brokers vs TradeStation, my 6 week test with real money

I ran the same 20 stock trades through both platforms over 6 weeks to see which one actually saved me money. Interactive Brokers came out ahead on fees, about $47 less total, but TradeStation's execution was noticeably faster on fast moving small caps. The real kicker was the mobile app, Interactive Brokers kept logging me out mid trade while TradeStation never dropped a single session. I also checked their fill prices on the same limit orders and TradeStation got better prices on 14 of the 20 trades. If you trade a lot of small volume, the fee gap matters, but for active day traders the execution speed might be worth the extra cost. Anyone else run a similar comparison and land on one over the other?

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wood.andrew23d ago

Did you try their web platforms too or just the apps? I had the exact same issue with IBKR, it logged me out during a news spike and I missed my exit by like 4 minutes, drove me NUTS. TradeStation just feels way more solid for the fast stuff, even if I pay a bit more per trade.