IBKR

MozGhul

Thank you for that! I use IBKR so I’ll have a play around in there and see if they display the straddle value in the option chain. Also, when you say add the call and put values to get the straddle value, there is a bid and ask for each of those - should I take the mid on each of the put and call side and add those to get the straddle value?

staunch_character

IBKR currently has 4.2M shares available for shorting. I don’t think the shorts are in any danger right now.

bkj512

Hi, I have been trying to see what options brokers work in my region or not. So I registered for Tastytrade and they fully accepted my account. When I was just taking a look around their portal, I came across this [https://imgur.com/NNBRNQq](https://imgur.com/NNBRNQq) My question is, is this the smallest order size possible? [https://imgur.com/vS5RXwk](https://imgur.com/vS5RXwk) In simple words, can I not do this order if my account had say just 1000$ ? In IBKR, their demo trader shows the smallest size just taking about 560USD

ExcellentRepair6558

UK retail investors can't buy/trade SPY. That access is limited to large UK institutions. The closest you can do is SPX which is cash and thus no dividends. But you can trade Options on SPX. I trade SPX on IBKR.

vanceraa

Switched to IBKR from RH today. Fuck you RH

PutSpreadDaddi69

IBKR hits you with a cute warning if your excess liquidity is less than 10% of your account value. Does robinhood? For reference, usually, when I’ve seen this warning at IB, few good things have happened

MilesDelta

The RH to IBKR switch alone will probably make a noticeable difference in your fills. PFOF brokers have a structural conflict where your order is the product being sold to the market maker, and the "price improvement" they advertise is measured against the NBBO which is already wide enough to be profitable for the internalizer. DMA at least puts your order into the actual book where it can interact with real liquidity. Whether you get filled better than your limit depends on the order type and routing, but at minimum you're not paying an invisible toll to Citadel on every fill. That said I'd push back slightly on the idea that slippage is purely a broker issue. Even on IBKR with smart routing, the fundamental problem remains that the mid on a multi-leg structure is a fiction. Better routing gets you closer to the real executable price, but the gap between theoretical mid and executable price exists regardless of broker. Switching from RH to IBKR probably closes 30-40% of the slippage gap. The rest is market microstructure that no broker can fix because it's just the cost of transacting in options that don't have infinite liquidity. On strategy, it's predominantly short vol on SPX. Iron condors, strangles, and some naked puts depending on the vol regime. But I'm not dogmatic about it. There are specific situations where I'll go long, usually buying cheap downside convexity when the VIX term structure is in steep contango and the cost of tail protection is historically cheap relative to realized moves. Think of it less as going long vol directionally and more as buying insurance at a discount when the market is underpricing the tails. The short premium book pays for it and the occasional tail hedge payoff more than covers the cost of the ones that expire worthless. The sizing is very different though. Short vol is the core income engine with defined risk. Long vol is a small allocation that exists to make sure I survive the day the income engine breaks.

123phi

I'm not tracking this metric specifically, but I know some brokers are notoriously bad at their display metrics. Was using RH for a while and their math was a\*\*. I am switching over to IBKR or potentially tasty, but slippage is real. Crazy that it has effected you this much. The mid display is super deceiving bc its a hypothetical that market makers display, not sure if this is necessarily and broker issue-but I know with RH their order fill is notoriously garbage and they use PFOF vs IBKR using DMA so you might actually get BETTER fills than the limit price you set. Are you primarily running a short vol arbitrage strategy on SPX or do you ever go long?

Connect_Boss6316

Wow. Have an award, Sir. 1) Yep, im on Tiered. 2) Im classified as a Professional. I know cos im paying much higher data fees than a retail would. 3) I always use Limit orders. All my trades are multi-legs, the simplest being 2 legs with a calender, but most are 4 legs (dbl cals, ICs and Iron Flies). I can usually get reasonable fills about 0.10-0.30 points from the mid. My typical contract is larger than 10 points ($1,000) so the spread might be 9.50 - 10.60 and ill put an order to buy for 10.05 and then just raise it by 0.05 increments. Im not in a rush to fill, cos im not 0DTEing. My tenors are from a few days to 4 weeks. 4) >Also look at your Monday/Friday clustering. If you're opening and closing a large number of contracts on those two days, you're competing with every other premium seller who follows the same weekly cycle. This is exactly whats happening. As a rule, i rarely open a trade before 11:00 am EST just cos of the spreads and market restlessness. 5) > If you're submitting a lot of small orders (1-2 contracts each) rather than batching, you could be paying effectively $0.50-1.00 per contract on those small orders instead of $0.50. Spot on. For new trades, i always open with 1 contract first as a sanity check. (I fat-fingered a 50 contract order years ago and put the wrong price and lost a lot of money.) Today i opened 1 contract of a IF, and i see my comms were $6.56 (each leg was $1.64 - i assume its made up of ibkr comms plus exchange fees etc). Then i bought another 99 contracts and these were filled in batches.....10 lots cost $51.62, so effectively $5.16/contract. Another 26 filled at same comms etc. 6) >IBKR's adaptive algo is worth testing if you're not already using it I will look into this. 7) I checked my routing and ive been using the default setting of "Smart multipurpose". Im gonna try out the "Smart Prefer Rebate" setting to see if that helps. Finally, i cannot thank you enough - the information on this thread is gold.

SweetVideo0007

Sorry for hijacking the thread with my question, but if I'm converting from INR, should I convert to USD and buy on US exchange or buy EUR and invest in Irish-domiciled US funds? 'Cuz I've heard that the US estate tax kicks in at 60,000 USD and I'm likely to exceed that threshold. The platform I invest through is IBKR.

MilesDelta

Good clarification, that changes things. If you're locked into IBKR through the LTD structure and almost exclusively trading SPX, here's where to focus. First, confirm you're on tiered pricing. At just under 10K contracts a month you're right on the edge of the $0.50 tier. Even if you're slightly under, the difference between $0.65 and $0.50 across 9,500 contracts is roughly $17K a year. You can switch between fixed and tiered in Account Settings, it takes effect next session, no phone call needed. On SPX specifically, your options are routing to CBOE since that's where SPX exclusively trades. So you don't have the same exchange shopping that equity options give you. But within CBOE there are still different order types that affect your costs. On tiered pricing, IBKR passes through the exchange fees and rebates separately. For SPX, CBOE charges different rates depending on whether you're a customer, professional, or firm account. Your LTD company structure might classify you as a "professional customer" or "firm" rather than retail customer, and that distinction matters because CBOE's fee schedule is different for each. Check your statements carefully. If IBKR has you classified as professional or firm, your exchange fees per contract are higher than what a retail customer pays. It might be worth asking IBKR directly how your LTD is classified and whether there's any flexibility. The bigger opportunity for you is probably order type optimization rather than routing. A few things to look at. Use limit orders rather than marketable limits. On SPX multi-leg orders, the difference between hitting the ask and sitting a few cents inside the spread can be 5-10 cents per contract. Across 10K contracts a month that dwarfs your commission savings. IBKR's adaptive algo is worth testing if you're not already using it. It starts passive and gets more aggressive over time. For SPX spreads where you're not in a rush, it tends to get better fills than a straight limit at mid. Also look at your Monday/Friday clustering. If you're opening and closing a large number of contracts on those two days, you're competing with every other premium seller who follows the same weekly cycle. Spreads on SPX options tend to be slightly wider on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons for exactly this reason. If any of your Friday closes or Monday opens can shift to Thursday afternoon or Tuesday morning respectively, you might see a small but consistent improvement in fill quality. One more thing worth checking on your statements. IBKR charges a minimum commission per order of $1.00 on tiered. If you're submitting a lot of small orders (1-2 contracts each) rather than batching, you could be paying effectively $0.50-1.00 per contract on those small orders instead of $0.50. Batching your entries into fewer larger orders where possible helps here. Realistically at your volume and being locked into IBKR through the LTD, you're probably looking at saving $8-15K a year between moving to tiered (if you haven't), optimizing order types, and tightening up execution timing. Not life changing but that's real money compounding over a few years.

Connect_Boss6316

Thanks for the comprehensive response. I should have clarified - i do a lot of contracts on Mondays and Fridays (when im opening/closing positions) but its much lower on Tue/Wed/Thur. I estimate im just under the 10,000 contracts a month mark. > You might be leaving money on the table with your order types rather than your commission tier. Yeah i need to check this. I trade almost exclusively options on the SPX, so not sure if rebates are applicable. Another complication for me is that i am a UK resident who trades via a LTD company (the American equiv of an LLC) and thus im very much limited to IBKR. But i also have a much smaller personal options account which i can move to a different broker but TBH, my comms there are less than $5k a year. Would appreciate any further advice on routing/order types/rebates etc.

MilesDelta

$85K in commissions on 600+ contracts a day means you're probably doing somewhere around 12-15K contracts a month. That puts you squarely in the $0.50 tier, not the $0.65 tier. If you're still paying $0.65 you might not have switched to tiered pricing, which you can do in account settings without calling anyone. But the bigger question is whether IBKR is even the right broker at your volume. At 12-15K contracts a month you're past retail but below the threshold where IBKR will negotiate. That's the awkward middle ground. A few things worth looking at. Tastytrade caps at $1 per contract with no per-leg fees and their cap on multi-leg is lower. Depending on your strategy mix that could cut your costs meaningfully. If you're doing a lot of spreads, the per-leg savings add up fast. Some of the smaller prop-friendly brokers will negotiate at your volume. Tradier charges $0.35 flat per contract with no base fee on their subscription plan. At 150K contracts a year that's $52.5K vs your $85K, which is a $32K annual saving for basically the same execution. The other angle nobody talks about is exchange rebates on tiered. On IBKR tiered, if you're adding liquidity with limit orders rather than taking with market orders, the exchange rebates can offset a meaningful chunk of the commission. Depending on which exchanges your orders route to, you could be getting $0.20-0.40 back per contract. If you're not already checking your execution reports for rebate credits, start there. You might be leaving money on the table with your order types rather than your commission tier. At $85K a year in commissions, even a 20% reduction is $17K back in your pocket. That's worth a weekend of paperwork to move brokers or optimize routing.

Connect_Boss6316

>Tiered gets you down to around $0.15-0.25 per contract on higher volume tiers vs $0.65 fixed. Just checked IBKRs pricing for options trading and (i dont know how to post an image) its basically : <10,000 contracts a months....... 0.65/contract 10,000 to 50,000 contracts/month...... 0.50/contract 50,000 to 100,000 contracts.....0.25/contract >100,000 contracts...... 0.15/contract. Very, very rarely will a retail trader do > 100,000 contracts a month. So, we guys are largely stuck at 0.65/contract even on tiered. I myself paid like $85,000 in comms last year. I'd love to reduce this. Ive traded over 600 contracts just today. A couple of years ago, i contacted IBKR and asked if they could offer me a discount, and they basically laughed me out of the room. I think they mentioned that id have to be paying $250k comms a month before theyd entertain the idea. PS - incredible thread btw, and with many very enlightening and knowledgeable comments.

FitAlpineChicken

You can on IBKR. Can even sell VIX index calls or VIX futures calls. Right now I'm short some VIX futures and I've got a short put on XSP, definitely not cash secured. Actually doesn't matter with a margin account, you just go into negative cash and pay interest until you're long again. Sometimes I wonder what kinda shit brokers you guys are using.

onamixt

Oh, makes sense! My broker (IBKR) allowed me to redeem shares today.

Anonymustafar

IBKR is so fucking laggy opening up the app. Takes like 30 seconds to update quotes even with a good connection. The latency is fucking horrible and I’m in US-East. Anyone else experience this?

ReceptionSmall9941

If the transfer details were off, I’d pause and verify the exact payment method/reference with IBKR support before sending anything else. No position.

Rare-ish_Birb

Jesus. I am in love. What's the best platform? IBKR, ToS?

ICEX5

You should definitely be on IBKR tiered mode. Also note Livevol Pro is compatible with IBKR. If you are slinging real size take a look at DASH Prime and Clear Street also.

MilesDelta

Stand corrected on the add/remove liquidity point. I was applying equity options logic to SPX and that's wrong since CBOE doesn't run a maker/taker model on index options. Appreciate the correction. The Fidelity point about not passing through exchange fees is something I didn't know and changes the math significantly for high-volume SPX specifically. If you're running 100+ contracts a day and the exchange fee delta between Fidelity and IBKR is a few dollars per contract, that could easily outweigh the execution quality difference. Especially since as you noted, the orders are all hitting the same CBOE book anyway. Genuinely useful information. This is why I read comment sections.

netpirate2010

Did you ever try IBKR? I'm trying to decide between Schwab and IBKR Pro.

Appenhiemer

IBKR tiered at your volume is a no-brainer but watch the add/remove liquidity split on the CBOE passthrough. If you're mostly sending marketable limits you're removing liquidity and paying the higher exchange fee. If you can shift even 30-40% of your orders to non-marketable limits that rest on the book for a few seconds before filling, the exchange rebate on SPX can actually net you a credit on those fills. At 100+ contracts a day the difference between paying $0.25 and receiving $0.05 per contract on exchange fees is real money by month end. Also worth asking IBKR about their bulk negotiation. At your volume they'll sometimes reduce the per-contract rate if you commit to a monthly minimum. Not advertised but it exists.

MilesDelta

100+ SPX daily is real volume. At that level the tiered vs fixed calculation on IBKR is worth doing carefully because the savings compound fast. Tiered gets you down to around $0.15-0.25 per contract on higher volume tiers vs $0.65 fixed. On 100 contracts a day that's the difference between $15 and $65 in commission, which over a month is a meaningful number. The thing most people miss on IBKR tiered is that exchange fees are passed through separately. On SPX specifically the CBOE fees can add $0.15-0.30 per contract depending on whether you're adding or removing liquidity. So your all-in on tiered might be $0.40-0.55 rather than the $0.15 headline number. Still better than fixed at your volume but not as dramatic as it looks on the rate card. IBKR's execution quality on SPX is the best I've seen from a retail platform. Their smart router actually competes for price improvement in a way that Schwab and Fidelity don't at the same level. At your volume you should also look at whether you qualify for their market maker or professional tier which opens up even better routing. Fidelity's execution is underrated honestly. Their Active Trader Pro fills are solid, the UI is just stuck in 2014. If you're measuring the actual fill quality delta between Fidelity and IBKR on identical spreads I'd be curious what you're seeing. At 100 contracts a day you'd have a statistically meaningful sample within a week.

CUbuffGuy

rare useful post I exclusively run SPX vertical spreads and I was actually curious about fill quality. I recently changed brokers to IBKR as I'm trading full time, and their platform seems to be targeting options traders specifically. I've found my fills to be much tighter, but I'm getting a bit eaten up by commission as my volumes are pretty high (100+ SPX contracts daily). Looking into using their tiered package to reduce fees, but need to run some calculations around costs/savings. I'm coming from Fidelity, where I feel like I had a good balance between fees and execution quality - but didn't love their UI honestly. Anyways, good post.

aikaterinna

So I buy VT and GLD? =) But will i not loose money if i purchase this on IBKR with EUR currency?

Mug_of_coffee

Hey OP - this is pretty cool. Wondering if it's compatible with the IBKR API?

amartya_dev

Moomoo is fine for beginners. Good UI and zero commissions. The main downside is order routing and fills can be slightly worse than brokers like IBKR or Tastytrade. If you trade a small size, it’s okay. For serious options trading, better brokers exist.

Gulliveig

March so far has destroyed February and even a third of January, while 50% of March has still to come ;) Here from Sep 2025 (no leverage used): |E/Aug25|MoM|Cumulative from E/Aug25| |:-|:-|:-| |E/Sep25|\+2.1%|\+2.1%| |E/Oct25|\+1.9%|\+4.0%| |E/Nov25|\-0.5%|\+3.5%| |E/Dec25|\+2.6%|\+6.2%| |E/Jan26|\+2.0%|\+8.4%| |E/Feb26|\+0.7%|\+9.1%| |E/Mar26 (so far)|\-1.3%|\+7.7%| The involved USD and EUR positions have been converted to my home currency CHF (Swiss Francs). In USD or EUR the percentages would look slightly better. Swiss banks currently pay 0.0% interests, while IBKR *charges* interests on uninvested Swiss Francs above 100k CHF. So I'm not complaining there ;)

Mug_of_coffee

I considered switching from IBKR and signed up for an account, but never funded it. I will say, after i signed up - they were very aggressive in trying to get me to fund it via email, text and phone. I threatened to never use their platform if they contacted me again. From what I remember, trading fee's were relatively comparable, margin was more expensive, but level 2 was complimentary. I don't think it makes sense to go backwards from a professional broker liker IBKR, but it could be upgrade from a broker like questrade or wealthsimple or the bank brokerages here in Canada.

snowdogdb

Volatility on ORCL 0DTE is insane right now. That dip just triggere IBKR to liquidate me at a $10K loss. Holy fuck. I still have 4 contracts left, lol

Anonymustafar

There is on IBKR

nymphomaniac_10

Siebert Pro for most of my options trading. The chain is clean on mobile, which matters when I'm not at a desk, and the execution on multi-leg has been solid. It's not the flashiest UI, but it gets the job done. tastytrade is the obvious answer for a lot of people here, and I understand why – the options-first design is evident. IBKR if you want maximum control and don't mind the learning curve. It depends on what you optimize for. For speed and simplicity on mobile, Siebert Pro works for me. For pure options analytics, tastytrade. For full customization, IBKR.

grumpytiger662

Check if theres option to check like ”allow extended-hours trading” or something. I don’t use IBKR so can’t help more but try if u can find something like that

BornRip761

Anybody wanna fill me in on if we're gonna be able to buy eonr overnight with IBKR? Order won't go thru no matter the price I put 😵‍💫 I don't understand. It'll send a fucking order 7 cents over my limit price overnight for a stock that wasn't worth it but god forbid the fucker is over the SEC's price rules.

No-Bus1327

I haven’t seen a problem. I have IBKR but they charge me $1 per contract. MooMoo is like $.07 with required fees. It doesn’t make sense to buy contracts for <$5.00 stock price companies on IBKR like I do

Independent-Tree-985

No? I have a list of stocks I pick from. Ford, IBKR, META, NFLX, OKLO -> to name a couple in no particular order

Heineken_500ml

Anyone use IBKR? when do expired options clear?

Independent-Tree-985

IBKR made me fill out an 'ethical investing alignment chart' back when I signed up, and it still pretends I follow it.

NoFix8309

Currently some of them are: RBRK MAR 13 '26 64 CC NXT MAR 20 '26 90 P NFLX MAR 27 '26 92 CC NEM MAR 27 '26 115 P MTDR APR 17 '26 52.5 P KGC APR 10 '26 29P IBKR MAR 13 '26 72P DDOG MAR 13 '26 124 Call DAL MAR 27 '26 60 P B MAR 13 '26 44 P

NoFix8309

I am using IBKR, so I am paying 1$ per trade approximately

yel1r

Hope it’s ok to ask this here: I’ve been investing in stocks for the last 15 years. Looking to allocate around 10k(eur) to get my feet wet with options. I understand the way options work: put vs call, greeks, IV, strategies, etc. I’m really interested in the way options work, not looking for lotto plays or anything. Just a more active part of my portfolio to trade within. I’ve got a finance degree (banking) so not new with the entire derivates products, stocks, etc. However, I feel overwhelmed with resources/courses/masterclasses/books etc. Currently I have been watching tastylive to see some of the folks make trades. But I am noticing this is too complex for me, they go way too fast or I genuinely don’t see the potential of their trade. I tried paper trading, but figured out quickly that doesn’t work well with fill prices being unrealistic. I’m from Europe and looking to trade within the US Market. I’m familiar with the tastytrade platform as well as IBKR - both would work I suppose. Is there anyone here that can point me to the absolute must-things I need to read/watch/learn? Again I understand the theory, but watching real trades being made, I notice I’m too much of a rookie still… or should I just start with real money and learn as I go? A bit lost here, I checked the wiki but there’s just so much info

peanuts-in-my-jelly

oh wow...IBKR ForecastTrader showing 82% odds 🫏 win the House

GammaWinsSam

The Swedish index OMXS30 has good liquidity and is tradable in IBKR. The stock options have OK liquidity, but their low nominal values make commissions too large in comparison.

uncleBu

The "no commissions or account fees" is mostly a gimmick; in the no fee brokerages you get put in the payment for order flow bucket and will receive worse fill prices because of it. Most reputable brokerages charge you 65 cents or less per contract. I have never seen any analysis that shows which one is better, but it's bound to be peanuts either way. The 8.5% yield on the ad is only for a brief period of time (3 months?), after you would get the market rate, so again bound to be peanuts. The real downside of this platform (and Robinhood) is that they are designed to treat investing like gambling. Their main goal is for you to trade often and a lot, which almost always will be to your detriment. They are embedding crypto and betting contracts in their platform as if they were the same thing as investing. I would rather stick to the Schwab / Fidelity / IBKR ~~disgusting~~ platforms. They are not optimize for day trading or gambling, but they will do just fine if you are a serious investor.

Null_Reference1

They're not binary options in the traditional sense, they're CFTC-regulated derivatives traded on actual exchanges (ForecastEx, Kalshi, CME Group). Big difference from the offshore binary options that got banned. The three exchanges worth knowing: ForecastEx ($1 payout, \~$0.01 fee per contract, available at IBKR), Kalshi ($1 payout, $0.02 total fees, available at Robinhood and Webull), and CME Group ($100 payout, $0.25-0.40 fees, available at IBKR and NinjaTrader). Liquidity varies a lot by market. ES contracts are liquid, some of the niche political stuff less so. One thing people miss: IBKR actually pays 3.8% interest on capital locked up in positions, which matters if you're holding longer-dated contracts like Fed rate bets.

netpirate2010

Public claims to be transparent but their website clearly states, "Every options platform makes money from your trades. That’s because of payment for order flow (PFOF), where market makers pay brokerages to route orders to them. It’s a standard, required part of how options trading works." - that's a lie IBKR Pro does not accept any payment for order flow and shares their exchange rebates.(That's better than Public who keeps those exchange rebates but shares the PFOF they accept.) Vanguard also does not accept PFOF under any circumstances, but it is objectively the worst platform in existence for trading options. Their platform also isn't robust enough for sophisticated traders.

Fantastic-Balance454

IBKR is the only app for professional retards.

CUbuffGuy

Yooo I started used IBKR and they have global trading hours for SPX, it's SO FUCKING AMAZING to have access to positions overnight. Holy shit game changer. Global trading hours for the win.

FlizzashPC

I have no idea why I’m getting downvoted I just wanted to clarify I lied on the net income on the IBKR application for options trading, like they didn’t verify my “100k income” at all and I even listed my Domino’s Delivery position

AppleIndependent2297

IBKR limited gamestop trading due to market integrity not their own liquidity issues like Robinhood, please do your research before responding

Little_Top3815

Okay Anyway you can use IBKR for options and futures On IBKR you can also buy SPX calls/puts almost 24h in trading week

HowIsEmuWarriorTaken

Because any broker with that many retail would have those issues. IBKR is literally the gold standard for global retail traders. They were very close to facing the same issue. E*Trade had the issue too.

Little_Top3815

IBKR SPX puts/calls 24hours

ADespianTragedy

If they manage to sustain that revenue growth then you will be fine. I was comparing them to IBKR and the revenue expected up to 2028 is kind of simillar yet there's a considerable gap between these 2 in market cap, so technically there's plenty of room for this stock.

LegitosaurusRex

> The brokerage does not care lmao. You do know what a debt collector is right? The brokerage just sells your debt to them, and they take you to court I can guarantee you brokerages do not want you to lose the money they loaned, then sell the debt for pennies on the dollar to debt collectors. There's a reason margin calls and liquidation exist, so they can prevent it ending up as a loss for them. IBKR will let you have very high leverage, but will also liquidate aggressively if you go below their maintenance requirements. Not sure how RH compares.

THEPIGWHODIDIT

Lots of options available on IBKR, real poor metrics on there. Nothing to say why this company is better than any other graphene manufacturer Poor try

ItsWayTooComplicated

Disagree, they pull in news from all sources. There's no chance you'll miss a single piece of news of a stock. If it gets cluttered you can filter on news type to find what you need. I'm gonna be honest most brokerages don't even have a good news page like IBKR, I doubt you'll be able to do it better. Comes with a ton of API integrations and algorithmic filtering. Portfolio tracking works fine, there are some quirks with it like deposits counting as profit made but every broker app I've used does that. You absolutely want a UI to be complex, that's the whole point of a professional broker app. If you want something simple go to Robin Hood. And their web interface really isn't that complex in the first place.

amanukyan

i use IBKR actually. it lacks good news, price alerts, portfolio tracking. Also UI is so complex and non intuitive.

ItsWayTooComplicated

Depends on the broker. A lot suck but if you have a professional broker app like IBKR you pretty much never need anything else.

TorqueDog

I've played around with it a bit, it's got live market data **including options**. I have it connected to a really small IBKR account. There is no 'paper trading' mode; it doesn't make trades, it's basically an LLM with live market data bolted onto it.

Specialist_Spite5930

WTF is SPXW? What is the alternative to this in the IBKR app? I cannot find this shit

RoeRoeX

(UGRO) now has only a few thousand shares left to borrow for shorts on IBKR. 700K float is getting locked. Tons of potential here

CUbuffGuy

I've been restricted to closing positions only on RH.... Contacted support and they admitted it was an error but wouldn't remove the restriction lmao. Here we come IBKR

Bright-Ad6621

IBKR and Plus500 is pretty good.

dafaque

Ohni Scheiss, gahn uf IBKR, trade Futures. Isch hundert tuusig mal besser als CFDs. IBKR macht s Läbe au vill eifacher bezüglich Stüüre (falls das überhaupt in Betracht ziehsch lmao).

LongevitySpinach

Never experienced in 5+ years on IBKR

FlizzashPC

Fr, lowkey I lied But I guess fake it til you make it I am now comfortably in the income range now though IBKR is so much better for options than fidelity its not even close, I still check option prices through IBKR

Coderboy55

Wealthsimple for naked and IBKR for spreads

UnicornMilking

How tf did you get options access with an 8k IBKR account? That's the real mystery, they are strict af.

FlizzashPC

https://preview.redd.it/dgrfnysea4og1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03dd9869a04484491ce2dce28599e5675f1f66b8 Option trading on IBKR before I moved accounts to prevent gambling it all away

FlizzashPC

Made it from options on my IBKR account with 8k that came from working overtime hours at Domino’s over the Summer I am comfortable outside of this, even if I lost all of my money in this account tomorrow it would just mostly affect my spending habits on energy drinks and food. https://preview.redd.it/vzu0qpt694og1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd2bce59c0f7258dff25bc623e8853b69b5d6a25

Much_Candle_942

Holding ITM option pair of SPX - width 10. What will happen?  Tried to exercise the long leg, but app (IBKR) gave error that it can only be cash settled at expiry.  Does it mean, tomorrow, I'm going to just see $1000 (width of 10 x 100) loss on account? Or something much worse?  Very worried.. because SPX is ~6790 now. That multiplied by 100 will be enormous amount 

Zeus_Mortie

Lmao getting called out okay… Its a diagonal spread but I already knew that. The right is the value of each contract, but not their total position, they own more contracts, the screenshot is just a sub menu. In my defense I’ve never used IBKR on mobile, only on desktop, though I’m not sure that’s much of a defense lol

Anonymustafar

IBKR is gay af for stopping you from trading after 3 day trades

Little_Top3815

You can buy SPX calls or puts on IBKR whole PM, AH, overnight

shockputs

Make sure you "Cancel all open orders", before logging off every time. Then, print to pdf your open orders and your trades log at the end of every session. If you still experience this type of execution, and it isn't your options getting exercised (if you're a seller), then just pay a lawyer to mail IBKR a demand letter with the foregoing evidence. They respond and fix issues pretty damn fast when it's done that way...

TeamRem

Yea keep letting your ass brokerage make you think that. It fills for $23.80 on IBKR right now, which is the real overnight trading price. Anyone else who got limited to the bullshit 18.88 buy should consider swapping brokerages because they're out to fuck you with their hedge fund buddies.

JohanLiebert92

I opened an account with IBKR UK cuz it's the only broker in the UK that allows to trade American ETFs (I want to trade USO atm) \> open cash account \> put 10k in \> apply for level 2 options (basic fucking calls and puts) \> go through their shitty quizzes \> choose 100k net and liquid worth (not worth 100k but this broker is all sorts of stupid) \> customer service guy goes I'm not eligible cuz I didn't meet their requirements \> ask him how fucking rich he expects me to be for basic options? \> doesn't know \> call him retarded \> tried to withdraw my money back to bank and close account \> can't withdraw until 3 more days \> fml all this just for calls and puts [https://i.makeagif.com/media/2-14-2016/la9CkC.gif](https://i.makeagif.com/media/2-14-2016/la9CkC.gif)

CodeFrame

Hmm, does it seem like too late for any of these? I want to find out where I can research a bit more, but also hearing mixed things about IBKR and such. Also in a similar boat, new to trading and playing around with the same amount haha.

EmpathyFabrication

I hope with this we get a decent amount of margin calls against the leveraged Bitcoin people. I thibk margin calls of Bitcoin and equties have been dragging the market down to some extent. Will be interesting to see IBKR's margin balances over the next few months.

CMDR_Shepard96

Why does IBKR show almost no volume for CL/WTI options?

59Boomer

I use TT because, to my knowledge, they are the only service that will allow me to write naked calls in an IRA. I find their UI on mobile easy enough, and have used TOS & IBKR in the past and don’t see a huge usability advantage to any.

kooper1990

Curious, for Fidelity I know there are two apps. Were you using the Investments app? I actually like the options interface more than Robinhood. Havent used IBKR or TOS mentioned here though

SeaEnvironmental756

He told you everything except how often TOS crashes… IBKR’s Trader WorkStation is very stable…

warpedspockclone

That is exactly how I trade on thinkorswim mobile daily. IBKR mobile is *slightly* slower because the login step takes a second longer and getting to the options chain takes a couple extra taps. Plus the not being centered on ATM is an issue with big chains, like on indexes. TOS mobile is easier to quickly close a trade IMO. Tap the position. Tap the big Close button. Submit. With IBKR mobile, you can't do that. The fastest way is actually to go to the Transactions tab, tap your open trade transaction, then close. That is a PITA if you had multiple trades that day, especially if the one you want to close isn't the most recent. I mean, it isn't marriage. Open both accounts and try their apps. But for your use case, I'd go with TOS mobile.

LongevitySpinach

Agree IBKR's web and phone apps kinda suck. I use trader workstation.

JohnBrownsErection

IBKR has a hell of a learning curve but when you get the hang of it it's just about the most powerful brokerage there is. 

warpedspockclone

That is tough. A couple people said IBKR but that's a broker, not a platform. IBKR has multiple platforms, with strengths and weaknesses. I use Schwab for my IRA, but I also use IBKR for trading. It all depends on what you like: web, mobile, or desktop. What do you like to see in your options chain? For me, Thinkorswim ( "TOS", now owned by Schwab), both desktop and mobile, had the best options chain experience. IBKR mobile options chain is frustrating. All the columns are there, and I think conditional order entry is way easier than TOS, but the colors are way too subtle to see ITM/OTM, and when you pick number of options to see, it isn't centered around ATM. That's weird. IBKR web feels clunky. IBKR desktop is very powerful, but I frankly haven't used it a lot. They actually have two distinct desktop apps, and I have only opened the dumbed down one once, so I don't even know how it is with options.

Marathon___Man

IBKR

LongevitySpinach

IBKR. I like to trade PMCC / diagonals in my IRA. Robinhood won't let me sell the short calls against my long LEAPS. IBKR does. The platform lacks the aesthetic of newer platforms, but it's a very practical platform. When buying or selling options I like to walk my bids and asks by a few cents at a time and often get filled near the mid. Very easy to adjust bid ask compared to other platforms. One of the problems with the trading platform is there are too many options, it's overwhelming at first to get it set up the way you want. Lastly, IBKR will let me buy a wide range of international stocks. I like to buy mining stocks on the TSX and occasional oddball stocks from here or there.

External_Pattern9950

fidelity is solid for long-term investing but their active trader platform is clunky compared to IBKR or even schwab. the zero expense ratio index funds (FZROX, FZILX) are genuinely hard to beat. no other broker offers that. their cash management account is underrated too, basically a checking account with ATM fee reimbursement and automatic sweep into money market. where they fall short is options trading (the interface is painful) and real-time data (you need to pay for nasdaq level 2 separately). if you are mostly buying and holding index funds with occasional individual stock picks, fidelity is probably the best overall platform. if you are actively trading, IBKR wins on execution quality and commissions.

systerix

You should switch to IBKR

Significant-Music417

Sorry, but, how do you can trade options during Sunday night session on IBKR? Tks

Got_Engineers

Pretty sure IBKR does as well / discount or free data feeds / and other benefits if you also do stock lending

Conscious-Okra9046

Wrong on many occasions. IBKR and Degiro are just two platforms which make trading easy for the average retail trader and there is no need for a broker. Secondly, taxes vary significantly from country to country. Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg barely have any, Poland has 19% CGT, Germany 25%, France 30%. While relatively high, not close to 50% in most countries. Thirdly, withdrawing is easy as fuck. You just link your bank account and nowadays, both depositing and withdrawing are almost instantaneous. These are not the reasons why Europeans don't invest. They don't invest because of a lack of awareness, lack of any risk appetite and reliance on pensions, which is a ticking time bomb and most won't get anything from it anyway despite contributing 10% of their lifetime income to it.

InevitableAd2436

IBKR Don’t know why you don’t want to pay commissions for literally better fills. You’d save more money even paying commissions and you can choose FIFO and LIFO in your tax lots

RobertFKennedy

I don’t understand - why can’t US person trade and buy Sp500 from overseas? I assuming you guys have US bank accounts etc and still file annually in the US. I do, and I use Schwab and IBKR etc? I do pay US federal taxes but not State (non resident for state)

RobertFKennedy

I don’t understand - why can’t US person trade and buy Sp500 from overseas? I assuming you guys have US bank accounts etc and still file annually in the US. I do, and I use Schwab and IBKR etc? I do pay US federal taxes but not State (non resident for state)

UnicornMilking

I have struggled so hard to get any options permissions on IBKR. Don't know what I'm doing wrong (plenty of money) and of course they don't tell you 🙃