Interactive Brokers review 2026

What is Interactive Brokers ForecastTrader?

ForecastTrader is Interactive Brokers’ prediction-market platform, where you trade yes/no “forecast contracts” on economic data, weather, elections and more. Its own contracts list on ForecastEx, a CFTC-regulated exchange that Interactive Brokers owns. It’s #5 in our ranking of the best US prediction markets and our pick for earning interest.

ForecastEx LLC is a Chicago-based, wholly owned subsidiary of Interactive Brokers Group (Nasdaq: IBKR), the broker founded by Thomas Peterffy, which had 5.19 million customer accounts at the end of June 2026. The CFTC designated ForecastEx as a contract market and registered it as a clearinghouse in June 2024, and it started operating on August 1, 2024. You trade through Interactive Brokers LLC, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, and the web platform is now branded IBKR Prediction Markets.

Since May 14, 2026, the platform also routes orders to Kalshi and CME Group, sending each order to whichever exchange offers the best net price after fees. ForecastEx contracts are also offered through other brokers, including Robinhood. New to event contracts? Read how prediction markets work.

Is ForecastTrader legal in the US?

Yes. ForecastEx is a CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, and as of September 30, 2026, we found no US state exclusions published by Interactive Brokers or ForecastEx for its contracts. We also found no state lawsuits or enforcement actions against either company.

Most state challenges target sports contracts, on which federal appeals courts are split as of September 30, 2026: the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi against New Jersey, while the Ninth and Sixth Circuits sided with Nevada, Ohio and Tennessee, and the Supreme Court hasn’t taken up any of the three pending petitions. ForecastEx lists no sports and isn’t party to those cases, though we couldn’t confirm whether IBKR applies state blocks to the Kalshi and CME contracts it routes. Our guide to whether prediction markets are legal tracks the cases.

You must be 21 or older (the other four platforms we rank generally start at 18) and an eligible client of Interactive Brokers in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland or Singapore; US election contracts are for eligible US residents only. IBKR says existing clients’ event-contract permissions are usually approved immediately.

Don’t treat a prediction market as a way around your state’s gambling rules. Trade only what’s offered where you are, and don’t use a VPN or false details to get access.

What can you trade on ForecastTrader?

ForecastEx is built around economic, climate and political questions rather than sports. Its contracts trade between 1¢ and 99¢ and pay $1 if correct, in categories including economic indicators, elections, climate and weather, financial markets, government and technology.

By our tally of ForecastEx’s public daily data, climate and weather contracts made up 63.6% of contracts traded in September 2026 (through the 29th), followed by financial markets (18.9%), economic indicators (14.0%) and elections (3.4%).

• No sports: NFL game-winner contracts traded from November 6, 2025 to January 19, 2026 and NBA ones from January 15 to February 13, 2026, with none since. We couldn’t confirm whether Kalshi’s sports contracts are reachable through IBKR.
• Combos and conditionals: listed by the exchange, such as a Fed decision combo, rather than built by you. Conditional contracts first traded on September 22, 2026.
• Tools and hours: limit orders, TWS algos, Web and TWS APIs and a free paper-trading simulator, with the exchange open 24/7 apart from a 15-minute break at 2am CT on Wednesdays, though individual products can set their own hours.
• Exiting early: there’s no selling; to close a position, you buy the opposite side.

Liquidity is the weak spot. By the same tally, ForecastEx traded about 197 million contracts in December 2025, 120 million of them sports, but only about 19 million in September 2026 through the 29th, figures that include an affiliated market maker’s trades. Open interest has grown, though, from 4.1 million contracts at the end of 2025 to about 9.8 million.

The interest coupon

ForecastEx’s standout feature is an interest-like “incentive coupon” on the daily closing value of your positions, Yes or No, accrued daily and paid monthly. IBKR quoted 3.38% APY as of September 30, 2026, slightly above the 3.25% variable APY in Kalshi’s help center, and says rates can change. Positions worth $1,000 held for a year would earn about $33.80 at that rate, if their value stayed the same.

Since August 17, 2026, ForecastEx has withheld a 50-basis-point administrative clearing fee from the interest before paying coupons; its notices word the calculation differently, so the exact effect on your coupon is unclear.

ForecastTrader fees

For orders that fill immediately on mid-priced contracts, ForecastTrader usually costs the least of the platforms we rank. Interactive Brokers charges no commission on ForecastEx contracts, and ForecastEx charges a flat $0.01 exchange fee per contract on each side of every trade, however the contract resolves.

That flat fee beats the standard taker fees at Kalshi and Polymarket US on contracts priced between about 18¢ and 82¢, and loses near the extremes:

Makers do better elsewhere: most Kalshi maker orders are free, and Polymarket US pays makers a rebate. Kalshi and CME contracts routed through IBKR cost a $0.01 commission plus a $0.01 exchange fee, which IBKR says can be higher or lower in some cases.

Worked example: in ForecastEx’s own example, Yes on “Will US Building Permits exceed 1,510,000?” costs 76¢. The figure comes in at 1,522,000, so each Yes contract pays $1.00: a 24¢ profit before fees and 23¢ after the 1¢ fee. On 100 contracts, you’d pay $76 plus $1 in fees and make $23.

Other costs: USDC deposits carry a 0.30% conversion fee (minimum $1) from zerohash, and there’s no account minimum or inactivity fee. Use our odds calculator to convert prices, and see our guides to prediction market odds, fees on all five platforms and gambling taxes.

Deposits and withdrawals

You fund ForecastTrader through your Interactive Brokers account by ACH, wire, check or the USDC stablecoin, with no minimum deposit. USDC deposits work 24/7 and arrive near-instantly; IBKR’s ACH and wire timings couldn’t be confirmed for this review. We found no debit card, PayPal or Apple Pay option, so if you want those, look at Kalshi or OG.

App and experience

We found no standalone ForecastTrader app. You reach it with your IBKR login on the web (IBKR Prediction Markets), in IBKR Mobile, IBKR Desktop, Trader Workstation (TWS), Client Portal and IBKR GlobalTrader, or through the API. IBKR Mobile was rated 4.5 out of 5 on both Apple’s App Store (about 11,500 ratings) and Google Play (about 75,900 reviews) as of September 30, 2026, though those ratings cover the whole brokerage app.

Event contracts sit in the same account as your stocks, options, futures and crypto, and new customers can apply for a dedicated Prediction Market account.

Safety and customer support

ForecastTrader is among the safest options we rank: ForecastEx is a CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse owned by a large listed broker, contracts are fully collateralized with no margin, and we found no enforcement actions or lawsuits over its event contracts. A few things are worth knowing:

• Affiliated market maker: IB Global Investments LLC, which shares ForecastEx’s parent, quotes both sides of markets as an approved liquidity provider; ForecastEx says its bids don’t get price-time priority.
• Resolution delays: many contracts depend on government data, and the fall 2025 shutdown delayed resolutions; an August 2026 Weather Underground redesign also forced ForecastEx to clarify how temperature contracts resolve.
• Delistings: products and strikes are often delisted, such as crypto price-target contracts on July 9, 2026, and ForecastEx now runs paid liquidity programs.

Support is by phone around the clock from Sunday 1pm to Friday 7:30pm ET (1-877-442-2757 toll-free in the US), by Client Portal chat or by web ticket. We couldn’t confirm which responsible-gambling tools, such as deposit limits or self-exclusion, apply to ForecastTrader; our responsible gambling guide covers other ways to stay in control.

Who is ForecastTrader best for?

• Interest seekers, who earn a 3.38% APY coupon on positions while they wait for results.
• Existing IBKR clients, who can add event contracts to the account they already use.
• Macro and weather traders who follow economic releases, Fed decisions and temperatures.
• Algo and API traders, with TWS algos, two APIs and round-the-clock trading.

It isn’t for sports traders, anyone under 21, or people who want to fund by card or PayPal; our prediction markets vs sportsbooks guide covers the sports side.

Our verdict

Interactive Brokers ForecastTrader is our pick for earning interest, and one of the cheapest places to trade: no commission, a flat 1¢ per contract and a 3.38% APY coupon on positions, on a CFTC-regulated exchange owned by Interactive Brokers. Routing to Kalshi and CME since May 2026 also widens what one account can reach.

It ranks #5 because of what ForecastEx lacks: no sports contracts since February 2026, thin volume that’s down about 90% from its December 2025 peak, and a 21+ age limit. If you want sports or deeper markets, compare the best ForecastTrader alternatives or go back to our full ranking of US prediction markets.