IBKR

andeffect

IBKR

McKoijion

If you're not using IBKR for cheap margin, switch to Robinhood. They have no commission options trades, and better execution than IBKR's free and paid versions (according to a UC-Irvine study). Also, I'd put most of your money in Vanguard index funds and only buy options when you have an edge. The Bogleheads philosophy is that you can win on a given coin flip, but for the most part, you're going to get 50% heads and 50% tails. The only thing you can control is your costs, fees, commissions, taxes, etc. Pros can sometimes beat the market, but only a tiny percentage can beat it by more than the costs/commissions that they pay. And even those top tier traders can only do it for a short time when the market presents an opportunity that matches their trading style. Trading for the sake of trading is a bad move. You don't have to swing at every pitch.

Potential_Project_48

IBKR, I guess it didn't help that I've bought 500k in call option contracts this month alone. I'm done with options from here on out, shit barely pays me from all the fees and theta eating my ass.

Cadenca

Does IBKR sell my in the money calls automatically if I don't close them at the end of the day?

mr_smeagle

I do this sometimes with IBKR Pro, to enter quickly go to order types and select Algos, from there select Adaptive. For the limit price select MARKET. When I’m entering a position I usually put the priority/urgency to patient. When I’m exiting I use normal/urgent. The fills are pretty good and your not worrying about what ur limit price should be since ur scalping on a short time frame.

diqster

23.7% short fee rate on IBKR for FRC. I also loved selling puts on SIVB until I didn't. I won't be able to sit down for years.

faggie_dees

IBKR.

faggie_dees

IBKR.

TheDaddyShip

Lots of solid advice in here, but I’ll pile-on some. Get a real broker if you want to trade for real. IBKR, TDA, TastyTrade or ETrade. Pay commission. Get better fills. Profit. Plan to learn for 2 years first and don’t plan to be at it full time or profit much. Always have a trade plan. When to enter, when to exit, under what criteria. Consider a single product like SPY or SPX. I like SPX for section 1256 benefits. Pay for a backtester (I am a big OptionOmega fan). Try out a whole lot of crappy ideas first with a quicker feedback loop and less pain. Keep $30K in to keep you above PDT limits, but only trade a bit of it - ESPECIALLY at first.

R3makea

Hello, quick question from a newbie: what specific assets do you need to buy to get a 4-5% yearly yield for 3/6 month treasury bonds? I am purchasing from IBKR and I wanna know what specific things to buy for those returns/time.

promonalg

Stupid IBKR, they liquidated all my positions even though I was able to cover with my put.. they didn't exercise my put and force all my liquidation.. good thing I didn't keep too much in this account

TheOtherPete

You don't pay interest on short positions, you pay a borrow fee and that fee is based on the current stock value x the borrow fee rate so with these two trading for pennies the borrow fee is insignificant. At IBKR the borrow fee rate is 8.6% for SBNY and 5.3% for SIVBQ - those are annual percentages, the borrow fee is charged daily based on the current value and current borrow fee.

RNGesusDoesntLoveMe

As a Canadian I have no choice but to use IBKR, I can say that it is better than all of the other brokers I used, but specifically for options ThinkorSwim is better, but not by much. I would definitely recommend IBKR to other people.

ProsaicPansy

You can papertrade with many brokers, too. Other than the stat arb trade, the freely available tools should let you play around with these strategies. IBKR let’s you use an API to place trades, which would allow for using algos, but not sure if you can use it for paper trading or not.

iamtracefree

Schwab or IBKR?

hatetheproject

The only two sites I've ever used both offer fractional shares, Trading212 and IBKR. There are many more places that do than there are that don't.

BenRobNU

The number isn't even correct for IBKR unless you have 200k in Idle cash.

thetwaddler

Looking at switching from Fidelity to a different broker with better desktop and app platforms. Think I'm down to TDA/TOS or IBKR. Any opinions on these two? Mostly selling options with occasional futures trades. I like tastyworks interface, but I'm looking to have most cash at a place where I can earn something while it's sitting as collateral.

cenkna

I’m trying to understand historical volatility. I calculated AAPL historic volatility in python as annualized and over 60 days. In the photo, IBKR shows a historic volatility for AAPL. My annualize volatility is 29 while 60 day volatility is about 12. But IBKR shows 23. Which period used when it is calculated? It is annualized or something else? Is there any idea? [photo](https://ibb.co/gw2SpVZ)

cenkna

I’m trying to understand historical volatility. I calculated AAPL historic volatility in python as annualized and over 60 days. In the photo, IBKR shows a historic volatility for AAPL. My annualize volatility is 29 while 60 day volatility is about 12. But IBKR shows 23. Which period used when it is calculated? It is annualized or something else? Is there any idea?

TheoHornsby

I've used Interactive Brokers TWS for 20+ years. The platform isn't the most user friendly and the learning curve takes some time but once you figure it out, it's no problem. Instant execution if trading at the market. Confirms and account information are updated instantly. Once tickers are set up (equities, single options, combos), you can place trades in 3-4 clicks. Even faster if you use hot keys. I don't care for their web portal trading. The commissions are low (50 cents per 100 shares and 15 to 70 cents per option contract with a $1 minimum charge per trade). This favors my trading style of scaling in and out of positions. Option assignment and exercise are free.. They have a no commission LITE version but you give up some things with that (see their web site). They pass on ECN rebates for providing liquidity. Price improvement is common. Their margin rate are low and they make an effort to locate hard to borrow stocks, a good thing since I short frequently. While I no longer use it, their DDE connection allowed for having Excel spreadsheets update in real time so that enabled me to have my number crunching analysis in real time. 20 years ago customer service wasn't the best but in the past 10 years, I've never had a problem and they have efficiently solved every infrequent tech issue of mine. Before picking IBKR, take a look at ThinkOrSwim which is an excellent platform. Compare the two and pick what suits you the best.

Rino-feroce

There seems to be a problem with options chain / quotes across IBKR.

davidbigham

IBKR option chain is fked up. I cant see shit now.

DontDrinkBongWater

IBKR being shitty for anybody else and not loading data or am I the only one they're fucking today?

fuscosco

> IBKR: Use Split Spread, its better than market. Right, but I only use market orders when big movements happen or you shitstains dont execute my viable order.

SatisfactoryFinance

I use IBKR and I love it. It’s not easy to learn and you’ll need a secondary for charting (I use Koyfin) but overall it’s a great platform.

TorontoNewf

IBKR has a powerful platform, but with a steep learning curve. I seldom use it, opting for the web portal on my laptop. The portal is nowhere near as powerful, but is able to handle all I need for it. The one thing I don’t like in the portal is the inability to roll options; I have to do that as individual trades. It may be possible, but I have yet to discover it. Their iPad app is ok; nothing great, nothing bad. It is a convenient tool to monitor only, leaving actual trading to my laptop. No opinion on the charting side. Commissions are quite reasonable. Interest on funds are good (or so I hear). Fills are pretty good from what I hear, but as I generally go for monthly options, I place aggressive orders and don’t care if they’re not filled immediately. The reporting is also very acceptable, at least for me; I just do a dump to Google Sheets, and do my analysis there. They do have online help, as well as a live chat option, which I’ve used successfully. The one area that concerns me is getting overextended in my account; I understand that they don’t give you a huge warning before they start liquidating positions to bring the account to acceptable levels. I haven’t experienced that yet, and I don’t know which position(s) they will liquidate first. I just try to avoid being in such a position. Overall, I’d give it solid marks. Let me know if you want a referral link; I believe I get a small fee, and you get a 1% opening bonus. At least that’s what I got last year. And no, I don’t give it my recommendation because of the referral; I am very happy with it and have no intention of changing that.

TheDr0p

IBKR will give you quite some interest with that amount. It’s monthly payment so you can take it anytime. You can check the current interest with their simulator

MennisTeak

Your net position would be -15.8k GME, but you're still paying interest on the $2m worth of shares you borrowed, which would be \~4% on IBKR.

LagingRunaticReturns

Never fear IBKR to the rescue with more shares to short.

McKoijion

I saw a UC Irvine study that found Robinhood had better fills than IBKR’s paid and free versions. So I’m a bit skeptical. But maybe it was about the size of the average trades or something. IBKR still has the best deals for margin though.

McKoijion

How is IBKR? They’re one of the only major brokers that I haven’t used.

McKoijion

I have Schwab/TDA, Fidelity, and I just opened a Robinhood account. Schwab/TDA’s customer service is the best. Fidelity’s is ok, but it really tanked after Covid. Robinhood’s is minimal, but it’s a much cheaper platform as a result. Their app is also simple enough that there’s not as much need for questions, and they don’t upsell investment advice and expensive funds. Meanwhile, Fidelity’s website, app, and desktop software is absolutely terrible and unreliable. I switched to TDA after I lost a ton of money because of their bugs. Thinkorswim was the best trading platform, but Robinhood hired the Thinkorswim head after Schwab bought TDA. Robinhood has gotten better over the past few years. Meanwhile, TDA used Russian software developers for TOS, which became a problem after Russia invaded Ukraine. There was a study that ranked TDA’s fills as best, then ETrade, then Fidelity, then Robinhood, then IBKR both paid and free. I think your typical order size matters a ton as well as overall volume at the broker. In my experience, everyone offers the same execution. Vanguard is a different beast altogether. I think they’re trying to move more into fund management and less into the retail brokerage business. My move these days is to buy Vanguard funds at Robinhood. I’m not sure about JPM, but I haven’t heard great things.

SpecificScar517

I’d advice to go with IBKR,it might be a bit complex at first but you’ll get used to it after about a week or so,some brokers really tend to be shady and Ibkr has good rep and low commissions too

LoZioSodaz

You got me inside the rabbit hole. This s\*\*\* is killing me and now I have an headache. So: It's virtually impossible to find the same values for VEGA/PLTXF/WNT1 on different websites. Sedar is down (or I can't access it), their financial statements are bad looking, most of the websites (even IBKR investing platform) have near to no info about this stock. I even started an argument with chatGPT which couldn't find the real market cap. So. Here's my finding \[(It's 5:30am and I'm done) Prices are in CAD\]. [I've found this statement as the only direct source of info (non audited)](https://investor.plantx.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Financial-Statements-for-the-quarter-ended-December-312021-Feb-282022.pdf) ​ |PRICE x SHARE|CAD 0.035 | |:-|:-| |SHARES OUTSTANDING|12.15M [(ycharts)](https://ycharts.com/companies/PLTXF/shares_outstanding)| |MARKET CAP|CAD 425'250 ? (found 4.5M around as well)| Here some more data for you: ​ ||December 31 2021|March 31 2021|Comments| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |CASH|1'979'429|20'364'895|*It means that from March 31 '21 to December* only 6% of cash remains or that **cash is down -93.6%**| |INVENTORIES|1'707'784|112'949|Expected pre taxed profit of sales.| |GOODWILL|22'881'399|8'393'522|This is been calculated with expected "synergies" from combining the operations of Bloombox Score, Little West, LIV and new Deli with the company, revenue growth, **future market development** and workforce acquired. Imho wishful thinking| |TOT ASSETS|33'537'037|33'842'121|decreased| |TOT ASSETS WITHOUT GOODWILL|10'655'638|25'448'599|This imo was a good accounting trick| |TOT LIABILITIES|5'727'100|2'325'677|| ​ Let's go with revenue: ​ ||9 months ended 2021|9 months ended 2020|Comments| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |REVENUE|9'656'914|2'292'376|up 321%| |COST OF SALES|(6'230'326)|(1'899'271)|went from 82.8% in 2020 to 64.5% in 2021 still **very high**| |GROSS PROFIT|3'426'588|393'105|from 17.2% in 2020 to 35.5% in 2021 **(acceptable gross profit margins right now)**| And most important Operating Expenses: ​ ||9 months ended 2021|9 months ended 2020|Comments| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |AD & PROMO|5'438'918|1'777'923|Marketing expenses went down to 56.3% vs revenue from 77.5%, incredibly high, maybe branding on different countries not the greatest idea at this stage| |CONSULTING & MNGMT|3'073'463|3'277'914|Almost the same| |ADMINISTRATIVE|3'457'287|252'429|Need to check if they can be deducted| |SALARIES & BENEFITS|2'992'363|130'382|Doesn't really explain to whom or for what specifically. I'd love to know how many employees, but I can't find a number. Salaries expenses up +2195% can be explained considering workforce of acquired businesses| |SHARED BASED COMPENSATION|11'243'623|3'442'799|It's 3 pages full of shares compensations. I mean, I understand the need to avoid using cash, but this is too much. | |TRAVEL EXPENSES|673'598|122'620|how much are they flying around? Is this because of expansion to EU, Israel and Nevada?| |OPERATING LOSS|(25'518'501)|(9'720'181) + (2'192'833) for listing expense|losses up 162.5%| Now, because shares outstanding increased a lot, loss x share is actually less than 2020 and went from (0.27) to (0.22) NET CASH used for operating activities for 2021 was (13'309'472) Remember we started with 20'364'895 - 13'309'472 = 7'055'423 INVESTING ACTIVITIES: |NET CASH PAID FOR:|2021|2020| |:-|:-|:-| |LITTLE WEST|(427'041)|\-| |NEW DELI|(559'050)|\-| |LIV|(687'913)|\-| |PETER RUBI|(1'573'208)|\-| |EH COFFEE|(213'231)|\-| |PORTFOLIO COFFEE|(216'319)|\-| |PLANTX LIVING|\-|30'578| |BLOOMBOX|\-|(684'121)| |investments|\-|(4'216)| |ADDITION OF PROPERTY, PLANT & EQUIPMENT|(1'072'979)|\-| |TOT|(4'749'741)|(657'759)| The company is surely expanding fast.. They want to immediately open the UK market to have relevance in the EU zone, Nevada for the US and Israel for the Midwest, but I'm not a fan of acquiring shops and restaurants for a business which in my opinion should only cover e-commerce and wholesale. Here there aren't specified the shares issued to cover the remaining value of the acquired companies, we are talking 130M shares. It's crazy but we will go there. ​ |NET CASH FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES|(253'959)|14'497'160 *(mostly from proceeds from issuance of shares NET)*| |:-|:-|:-| Here already I wouldn't touch this stock even if using your account. But next comes my least favourite part of their financial statement:

Obelisk_810

Why would us ? Just use a safety broker like IBKR in europe ..

Crafty-Security-3217

IBKR Mobile

Sudden_Ad_4193

I think IBKR is available for EU, not sure about all of EU, and they have VIX options.

DorianCHoldingsworth

Use a better broker instead like IBKR or ToS.

Principessa_Mononoke

IBKR is for pros dude

Adylaaa

Is this the IBKR light mobile app? It looks very different from what I have. For example I don’t have the “todays range” scale nor the “option / underlying” tabs but I want that. Also pay for the live data mane, it’s only 1 usd per month

Open-Yak-3708

How is IB in comparison to TOS. Is there mobile app as slick as TOS. If SCHW goes under might move to IBKR

FunCranberry112122

No I rarely get filled around the mid for short dated SPY options as well using IBKR

MADEUPDINOSAURFACTS

Sometimes if you buy very close to expiry on IBKR (like 0DTE and within a couple hours of expiry) and the strike has a decent change of going ITM, they will block it. I have had this happen before on SPY. I can't remember the exact strikes, but let's pretend it was a $394 strike to make things easy. It was 3pm on a Friday and I wanted to buy a $394 strike OTM call to scalp it for a day trade. I got a similar message saying I did not have $39,400 in my account to cover. The trade was rejected. If memory serves I was able to dodge it by playing a spread instead (buy the call, sell a farther OTM call)

Niv-Izzet

How do you short DB? IBKR tells me that there are no shortage shares.

dg_713

If my only access to international markets is using IBKR, how do I invest in commodities like oil, natgas, gold, and perhaps, water? Thank you for answering.

bananabanker

NANOS - cash settled, daily, euro style. Fuck around with a few contracts on IBKR and see how you do. Don't mess with SPY 0dte and get into a fucked up tax situation on a $500 portfolio.

NegAm69420

Short fee at IBKR is 1,440% I agree why short???

thelonereaper55

2k is the minimum requirement on IBKR.

Life-Gur-2616

I haven't used it yet but I asked the same thing before and was told IBKR

Dizzy_Fox_50

I got tired of bad fills with TOS because they do PFOF like RH. I switched to IBKR PRO using smart algorithm orders now and getting better fills. I still use TOS for charting though.

thekoonbear

It’s up to you, whether you value the trading tools and markets or customer service. Thinkorswim by far has the best interface and fills of any platform I’ve used, and frankly it’s not very close. IBKR has great fills as well but the interface is less intuitive. People like TradeStation so you could give that a try. If you go to something like RH just be aware that you’re trading interface for shittier fills. My opinion is get over this issue and use TD because it’s by far the best for actual trading, but it’s up to you.

420yolocaust

It cost over [100% to borrow on IBKR](https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nasdaq-bbby/borrow-fee/). It's going to have to drop a lot with that borrow fee.

titus65

I'm a IBKR euro customer and have portfolio margin. Requested it and it was granted.

UsedToHaveItAll

How do you hold these contracts til the last few minutes of the day? IBKR auto-liquidates ITM expiring options if you don’t have the capital to exercise them. Something is fishy here

hunkofsoup

$300 in IBKR credits go crazy

Zurkarak

Does anyone have a good video explaining how the fuck to buy T-Bulls on IBKR?

Mental-Craft-2799

That's really a nice offer thank you! I found what I searched via a demo account with IBKR :)

thekoonbear

Best fills I’ve seen are on thinkorswim and IBKR. Some people like TradeStation as well.

Remarkable_Street_20

1. Keep idle cash above what is required for 6 months of expenses in 6 month T-bills. Why? they are secured by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury 2. In the event I'm not doing the above, my broker (IBKR) has FDIC coverage well over $250k break spreading the cash between different accounts at various participating banks.

hardyrekshin

I like IBKR

hardyrekshin

IBKR

bonghits96

IBKR gives you pretty decent interest on cash balances automatically. For other brokers, if I knew I was going to run a cash balance for a while, I'd probably stick it into SGOV.

thekoonbear

You really have two options. 1) You pick a broker more suitable to trading options that will provide a model and Greeks. Brokerages like TOS, IBKR, TradeStation etc. all do this. 2) You build your own model in excel or python or something similar. Creating a simple black scholes model in excel is very easy and comes with the benefit of actually starting to understand what you’re looking at with theoretical values, implied volatilities and Greeks.

DorianCHoldingsworth

ThinkOrSwim and IBKR are the two S-class platforms. E*Trade is A-class. tastyworks (now tastytrade?) is B-Class. All other large banks and brokers are C-class. Robinhood, Turo, Webull, etc are all D-Class.

ganbaro

Many things came together: - GME killed old WSB - No sub emerged who really picked up the majority of OGs. There is this sub, there are even smaller ones, there are WSB clones in languages other than english, and OGs are divided among them - With the emergence of cheap margin (not only RH in US, but also IBKR and Degiro in Europe, for example) and meme stocks becoming common language, all-in tech yolos replaced all the crazy option plays. With every OG gambling on gourds or argentinian peso leaving Reddit, some tech permabull replaces them the old times are gone for good imho

Schwimmbo

I swear it said 1.08B on IBKR for a moment lol.

Tips_96

Thanks for your comment/advice! I haven’t been trading in the vertical view for long. I set it to display it as such to see if it helped with the issue. Although that sounds dumb now that I think about it. I used to trade on IBKR by selecting each leg of the spread manually, and I have traded wider spreads and iron condors etc. but even on IBKR, I would see one of my short leg at 1.5 and my long let at 1 (for example) then when I went to enter the spread, it wouldn’t let me get filled at anything more than .3 or .4 (something less than .5). It’s not too big of a deal, it just slows me down a little bit when putting in orders and was wondering if there was a reason for the discrepancy.

456M

Funds deposited in IBKR via wire transfer (slow method) are available for trading within 1-2hrs for me.

VisualMod

>It is most likely that your TV subscription does not include real-time data for futures contracts. IBKR probably has a more expensive subscription that includes this data.

pussygetter69

IBKR has options paper trading

therearenomorenames2

IBKR has an app that is half decent for what I'm doing. Also, they allow you to paper trade for as long as you like, for free, without any restrictions.

TheoHornsby

You have a bear call spread and a long call. With standard margin, you have to pay for the long call. The margin on a vertical credit spread is the difference in strikes less the premium received. The total of the two is your margin hit. I don't use portfolio margin so I don't know if it's the same. IBKR should provide that when you set up the order.

winb4fomo

Love IBKR

Simple-Service-9748

For a Reg-T account it came out to ~$7,700 per lot. I am looking to upgrade my account to a PM acct at IBKR, then I believe it’ll drop down to ~$100 per lot.

PyOps

This position is named call ratio spread (you'd be opening a short call ratio spread). https://optionstradingiq.com/call-ratio-spreads/ seems like a nice resource, but you can google for different articles. For margin efficiency, simply open a single position and see how IBKR adjusts your maintainance margin. It shouldn't be very much, but you can easily check for yourself. As for how I would play this trade: 1) I wouldn't, since I don't play with things that can kill me, thus I never play with options (or financial markets in general) 2) I'd never enter a directional trade (at least delta-directional), especially not on a vague idea (you're giving yourself a LOT of time with 730 days) 3) if I *had to* do this with options, the short call ratio spread seems like a fine choice, but what's speaking against simply buying the stock? In one case you're risking the stock moving up by the wrong amount and you're cutting off some upside potential, in the other you're risking the stock losing value, but both strategies carry risk. It just depends, which risk you're more willing to take 4) to eliminate implied rates from the equation, I would probably sell a call that's ATM in terms of forward moneyness (meaning strike = forward spot = e^(t * (r - q)), which should have a delta of ~ 0.5.

Christmastree94

So should I keep my shorts at 2.25 CHF? If the offer is at 0,25 CHF then couldn't it go to 0,1 CHF in case CS tells them to fuck off? I am getting concerned that there will be a market to cover my shorts at IBKR tomorrow/tuesday. It is through IBKR btw I have a position. Rent on is currently at 6% so it is not too large.

Imaginary-Jaguar662

I'm pretty sure my IBKR account would require 5$ because they're options, but you should see the margin impact when setting up the trade before confirming it.

Principessa_Mononoke

This makes sense. So, if IBKR allows a 6:1 leverage on the trade, for a $15/$10 spread I would need something like 80c? (\[difference between ATM and OTM strikes\] / leverage = 5 / 6 = 80c) Or how would you model it?

Logical_Ad4408

Weren’t many brokers unable to trade COSM on RS day (wasn’t in the play at that point)? I do know folks who bought on the RS day (IBKR had no issues) at below $1 and sold over $20 while many people were just staring at the screen unable to do anything. Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was some one in a million screwball mishap that sent Bobby parabolic for a day and you couldn’t trade it because of your broker? Seems like a biiiiiiiiig risk to take. Also, if memory serves, despite that insane move COSM made on RS day due to a fluke event it just barely made it above its pre-split highs, so anyone who didn’t sell on the pre-split run, held through split or bought in late may have been able to unload bags…but they certainly didn’t make bank as their average was split adjusted and x25.

jadax

Cheers checking them out. I use IBKR for trading, but do have a TD account.

robis87

Wow wait a sec, so that might be what I'm actually looking for - counter-party risk-free product to park my capital in. So that when my bank or broker goes bust, I wouldnt be fucked no matter what I hold with them. But would my t-bills be really held by Uncle sam himself, not by the bank I'd be witing from? And is this only true wen buying from treasury direct, not from IBKR or my bank eg?

No-Replacement-8297

Started the account with 5k, account peaked at 130k but got greedy with NVDA calls, cashed out 72k and moved to a real brokerage (IBKR)

mushrew

At IBKR it was 11% yesterday, and 9% the day before. That HTB fee is going waaay up with everyone exercising their puts today.

herr_arkow

IBKR has lots

gopac69

IBKR

sigma_soundwave

Sold covered calls that expired OTM. Instead of profit the trade is showing up as a loss. Using IBKR Pro. Can't understand why, any idea?

Dr_Marxist

IBKR