The longtime leader in low-cost trading, Interactive Brokers had positioned itself as the go-to broker for sophisticated, frequent traders. To drive that point home, new customers had to deposit a minimum of $10,000 to open an account, which was one of the highest minimums in the industry for retail investors and traders. But IB has been transforming itself into a kinder, gentler brokerage over the last few years, reaching out to the mass affluent and going out of its way to bring in new customers who aren’t primarily traders. The most recent step in this transformation is the elimination of the $10,000 account ... (full story)