I was thinking of the general case where someone who holds stocks a long time places a buy limit order on something like DIS at 130.00 GTC. It's unlikely that the stock would just touch that price, never trade 129.99 and then never revisit that price for several months. That said, several times, I have placed limit orders with pre-market execution enabled that executed pre-market, but would not have executed if I used regular trading hours. Not sure if IBKR Lite covers that execution option. It's nice to have from time to time.
Looks like they do pay some amount on idle cash balances provided Fed Funds stays above 1.5%. They also provide the option to trade options, futures, forex, and other products. Not sure if the alternatives do that. Also, the IBKR Mobile app is not bad. At first I liked ThinkorSwim better, but now I like IBKR's app better.
The most important piece of information to gauge the attractiveness of zero commission is: What payment per share does the broker receive when selling your order? Anyone?
Etrade Ameritrade and the rest if the group of online brokers are done. This was it. Within the year I believe stock trading at all online brokerages will be free Took long enough. If it were not for Robin hood this would have never taken place. Amazing how this industry has turned. I still have my Ameritrade and old online accounts that I haven't traded with since I started using Robin hood and webull. I refuse to pay commission in today's markets..
This is just the start. They will offer their free commission for options and futures sooner than you think.
I do both short and long term and usually every single trade I make is using a limit order. I haven't had a problem getting fills. A few times a fraction of trades in my limit order were sold but I trade in small lots so it doesn't effect me as much. Many people who dont use Robin hood have said yes it's free but fillls aren't what you would expect as compared to a full service broker. Doesn't bother me and I have saved probably over $5000;worth of commissions so I'm a very happy free trader.