IBKR

Juhkwan97

I use ToS and have since b4 Sosnoff sold it to TD Ameritrade, ie, since 2008 or so. Now I have just an unfunded account with Schwab, which I use for analytics & charting. Kudos to Schwab for allowing full use of ToS (including support) for non-funded accounts. I have settled into using ETrade. I have been there since around 2000. They have improved a lot since being acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020. In the year or so b4 the sale, they were sucking pretty bad. Really weird and haphazard approach to margin. Awful customer service. In the last 5 years, though, they have tightened up. In my 15+ yr history with various options brokers, (IBKR, tasty, TDA, finally Etrade) one thing that has been somewhat irksome is how different brokers calculate margin requirements. You'd think this would be somewhat standardized, but it's not. And they can require whatever they want. All I ask for is transparency and consistency. Once you get that and understand what they are doing & what to expect, you need not suffer thru any margin problems. ETrade has some "dedicated teams" in their customer service group. They have a dedicated team for options, futures, etc. These are people who are generally up to speed on trading and their platforms, etc. I don't need CS very often - usually just a few times a year - I might need help closing out trades, have questions about things, etc. Their CS is now pretty good. Etrade has an API that I am trying to learn to use, but I can't vouch for it. But it looks workable. Things I don't like about Etrade: no extended hours trading (actually, for me, this might be a blessing in disguise); I expect this will change if/when the industry goes that way en masse. Also, they have futures and futures options trading, but they make it very hard to trade futures options spreads. That's a bummer. I have tried getting them to improve that. Maybe if I had a few more zero's at the end of my acct balance, I might get somewhere. Anyway, I know you didn't ask about Etrade, but I thought I'd testify. I'm not working for them or anything. Re: fills, I get what I expect. I mostly trade SPX, and I am always shooting either 1) a bid 5c or 10c above the mid or 2) something lower than that if I am just fishing. "Do you want the penny or the position" the old saying goes. I am not sweating 5c either way on trades that will be worth 100x that or more.

Fit_Equal6932

Fidelity is probably best because they have no api for bot trading the wholesalers will likely give the most price improvement. Robinhood is the most likely to get you worst fills, all the wsb crowd is RH heavy. Schwab ToS sits in the middle, they have better view of the chain and analysis features. But you are missing IBKR Pro. It gives you direct to exchange access and if you have a certain degree of expertise it is the best place to walk the book and work on your fills. Lots of algo support for trying to get you better fills, you can also layer the book with hidden orders to wait it out. Place a visible bid or offer at better than the MM price and then place a hidden order near the mid. Those will get you some pretty decent fills at mid for very wide tickers.

LaconicB

No problem, and yes I trade manually. There might be an issue with your automated system on getting those fills with less slippage. The exchange has no obligation to fill your order and can refuse them unless they get the price they want. If it’s set up to cancel and only accept orders at a certain price compared to the bid/ask, they might never get filled and rack up a lot of canceled orders because the exchange will not fill the order. It will be very interesting to know though. IBKR has some advanced orders that work the bid/ask for professional traders, so I would assume there has to be some type of success with this automated trading because they get better fills for professional traders. 

Fit-Switch5079

"do not open IBKR app drunk" is going straight into the WSB hall of fame

MagnificentLee

The rule is not a Robinhood specific rule. It’s mandated by the exchanges themselves. Many brokers DO NOT support traders who become professional traders: https://support.tastytrade.com/support/s/solutions/articles/43000435379 The brokers must likely to support it are those who charge you commissions for each trade and send your orders directly to an exchange like IBKR and Lightspeed. See some discussion here: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/390-professional-orders-rule-390-rule-some-questions.382741/

LaconicB

You will be labeled professional at any broker for going over 390, all brokers must comply. You don’t want this label at all, your fills will suffer. Use additional brokers and keep average down. If you trade from mobile, Webull is the fastest with one tap entry and exit using turbo trader. If you are using desktop apps, Webull is still fast. Other brokers have desktop apps that are pretty fast but don’t make the mistake of choosing Fidelity. Webull, Schwab, and TradeStation are my favorites, Etrade is pretty decent and IBKR is a little clunky and has disconnect issues but if that’s all you have, you can make it work. If you like using the ladder, Webull, thinkorswim, and TradeStation are the ones you want to choose from. 

english_fool

Wrong sub dude. IBKR has paper trading doh

CD274

IBKR allows after hours stop limit orders????

corndog_messiah

I vibe coded a clone of IBKR app that shows my port up 1-5% up every day, no red days. Never felt better, deleted the old shitty “official“ version

Emergency-Half-3122

I’m looking at KOSPI 200 index on IBKR

LaconicB

Trying to find those spreads doesn’t mean they will fill. You can always see spreads .01-.05 but the minute you try to buy them they jump up much higher because the each leg has a huge spread in the bid/ask. The other ones are so far out the money, you won’t be able to close because once you buy it, the algos can and will take the bid off and leave you with the long leg that you can’t sell back. You get stuck with the fees and the cost of the long leg unless you get a move in your favor. That spread isn’t going to gain much either, if anything. You’re trading with the market maker at that point. It’s not worth it, your entry fee is already 1.32 in fees plus 1-5 then the exit fees of 1.32, so 3.64-7.64 to enter and exit a spread bought at .01-.05. You would need to sell at .36-.76 for a 10x play. Webull isn’t filling those spreads, so you’re stuck with Schwab and the fees if you can get them filled.  Just buy cheap SPX singles or spreads on both sides and one goes up higher than the cost of both with all the volatility in the market right now. Use a broker who you can trade over night SPX like Tasty, Robinhood, and IBKR. Can easily double your gain overnight or the next day. 

vanceraa

There’s a feature in IBKR called Exit Strategy which does this exactly

Due-pussy-1312

I'd love it if IBKR had such a setting, because I decided to exit at around 20% but that requires me to be on the TWS all day

english_fool

Oh dear, today I found the performance chart for the first time in IBKR. -35% for the year, could be worse I suppose.

Quej

I do this with IBKR, and it's great. People who are saying just use a spreadsheet don't quite get it. I did it because I had longterm investments in NVDA or TSLA, e.g., but also wanted to day/swing trade them without getting in and out of my longterm position. The only con I have found is having to file taxes with two reports.

Technical-Emu-32

Cheaper IBKR commissions wen??

english_fool

I can’t trade SPX 24 hours on IBKR, not sure why

kmouratidis

Now if MU opens at $850 (or hovers around it close to open) I'm getting out and into 40% VT / 60% mix of world gov bonds, and then I'm asking IBKR to downgrade my trading permissions. >!Just kidding, I'll wait a few months to be fucked by RDDT before I eventually do it.!<

znightmaree

IBKR 285A

english_fool

It’s weird that IBKR is tells me my account is up but I can’t see why until market opens.

hairspinner

You can do paper trading on IBKR

looongtoez

I'm doing my stuff on a shoe string and I'm slow at 1.6ms-3ms from Databento and about 30ms to IBKR(thier fucking java gateway), my assembly code for decision making is about 7-12ns on an AMD CPU, hedgies have FPGA/ASIC, along with microwave and direct market access x connect. I would estimate microseconds access in their realm. Thus any buffer longer than a few seconds would be very beneficial to them. Anyways, all I can do is try to catch up, and be undetected.

Jacob_With_A_Y

LGPS is starting something 👀👀 100% utilization on IBKR but at the same time it says IBKR has 327k shares available to short 🤷‍♂️ I picked up 10 shares at 1.28 so it's not like I'm chancing buku money, NFA of course 🙃

Good_Character_20

The pain isn't really the tracking, it's the manual entry. Options make it worse than stocks because a spreadsheet is flat and your positions aren't. Multi-leg spreads don't fit in one row, rolls turn into chains you can't link, and assignments quietly wreck your cost basis. At 50 trades a month that's a lot of hand-typing something your broker already knows. What fixed it for me was pulling fills straight from the broker API instead of typing them in. Most of them have one now, Tastytrade, IBKR, Schwab. A small script that grabs your executions and dumps them into a database, or even back into a sheet, kills the part that's actually a chore. Then you're reviewing trades instead of transcribing them. And if you'd rather not build it, the dedicated options journals do that broker-sync for you, which is really their whole value.

Zealousideal_Book_40

Honestly not sure, but it was surprisingly not very taxing to my margin requirements on IBKR. I have 12 HY9H and -100 SKHY, and almost no impact on my margin requirements

Ken385

I do not have an account at Tastytrade, but have traded it on IBKR. Tasty just started access to the overnight SPX option session a few weeks ago. The rep you spoke to may not be aware of this change. Direct them to the link on their websiie that I posted. If you entered a trade a 5pm, the overnight session hadn't begun yet.

DiamondG331

Can’t trade from 8pm-4am like IBKR

DiamondG331

Can’t trade from 8pm-4am like IBKR

progmakerlt

Or look into IBKR TWS Workstation?

SomewhereOk5613

I can’t find it on IBKR

ChangeNOW_Community

IBKR is built more like an institutional platform, so it gives you more data but sometimes requires more setup to get the simple view people expect

ShyFeminine

I’ve used IBKR since 2018. Was able to fund with both my Qatar and UAE bank accounts. Go with IBKR. their customer service is excellent. Any time I have questions about funding, buying, selling, how to use the platform, they support me asap. IBKR has the broadest market reach of all the platforms you listed. Whenever I want to buy stocks, I search IBKR first. I’ve traded Australian main and junior markets, Saudi markets, Hong Kong and China markets — all from IBKR. That’s how broad their reach is. Also ridiculously low fees — again vs the others you mentioned. As for regulation, IBKR is publicly traded as an entity, so regulation and security are very high. If you want recurring payments then you need to choose Sarwa or Baraka as they are both based locally. The others you mentioned will require you to do a wire transfer (including IBKR) because you are outside the US and therefore not funding via a US bank account. Hope this helps! 💜

Complete_Skirt_8896

You can find it on IBKR and T212

Rich-Use1484

Looks like its not the app, its the font settings on OP's phone. He has set 'Comic Sans' fonts and hence IBKR app looks like that.

Hot-Turnip7306

I have hacked my brain. I only have the accounts on my PC and I have not saved them anywhere. I have no IBKR ot Trading212 apps on my phone so the only way to check is logging on my PC.

steady_compounder

What you want is money-weighted or time-weighted performance, not the raw account change that gets distorted by deposits, withdrawals and FX. IBKR is powerful but terrible at showing the simple answer front and centre. If the interface is fighting you this hard, exporting transactions and tracking true performance outside the broker is probably the cleanest fix.

Halberd96

IBKR has the worst interface I've ever seen it's insane.

CD274

They're IPOing soon Idk IBKR?

klipsetrades

I think Robinhood and IBKR are the only ones I’m aware of offering SPX during Global Trading Hours. Hopefully more brokers add support now that Cboe expanded the lineup

Cagliari77

A few times a day. But that's mainly because I have the IBKR app on my phone and it takes like 10 seconds to quickly look at how the portfolio is doing for the day. Before installing the app, I used to check it on my computer once a day or every other day.

grAsMudhOrsE

I have some updates. Been officially on PRO for about 7 trading days. So far my SPXW execution doesn't appear different from what I had before. The fee otherwise is painful. 20c extra for each contract at least (and cheaper contracts have a few cents more, partially offset by more expensive ones have a few cents less). There is also a new CBOE rule, which IBKR complies, that they do Pro designation on a rolling month now. So no longer a quarterly thing.

ShowerDear1695

It is allowed.  You can actually use a real brokerage like IBKR 😏

Mavnas

I like how IBKR finally let me buy Korean stocks at basically ATH.

Technical-Emu-32

I do this during the overnight session (after 8:15pm EST), but that's only because IBKR allows overnight trading. I usually pick the side depending on how futures/Asia markets open. It works sometimes. But I'm doing $5 wide because I'm trading a small account, so it's a bit more nerve wracking, and I end up having to sit on them for a bit in the AM.

MagnificentLee

Bro, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you can trade SPX options overnight. The only breaks are between 5PM-8PM Eastern and the 5 minutes before RTH open: https://www.cboe.com/tradable-products/sp-500/spx-options/ I don’t know if all brokers let you trade overnight but IBKR and Tastytrade do.

Ceyenne18

IBKR, which gets its data from Thomson Reuters/LSEG.

abssynth

Is this real life? I’m pinching myself looking at the IBKR charts, hoping I don’t wake up.

Diamond-Key197

Thanks to IBKR

Chuque

actually you make money a lot of times. On IBKR, the fee you pay to borrow TSLA shares is tiny, like a fraction of a percent. Meanwhile the extra cash you have in your account from the short sale, is earning 3.2% interest sitting in your account. so it's a win

OptionsJive

Basically the right comparison: check the all-in IBKR margin rate against the implied box rate and use whichever is cheaper, but I wouldn't keep narrowing the box every time a dividend hits. That turns a clean fixed-term loan into constant micro-management, commissions, execution risk. I'd leave the box alone, let dividends build as cash, and repay or resize it in larger chunks.

BornRip761

IBKR is showing a million shares available to short, do with that what you will lol

Raiddinn1

I've considered switching brokers even without any offers, because IBKR has lower margin rates and Schwab can do Futures.

Halberd96

It's easier than ever to invest. Compare one of the newer apps like Robinhood to something like IBKR, then compare IBKR to what it was like to invest in the 90s.

Few-Chemist-3463

You can negotiate it down with Fidelity to be comparable to IBKR / Robinhood. From my understanding the SBLOC's aren't actually done by Fidelity -- but are third party.

GneissFrog

Anyone blaming Korean retail for this selloff has no clue about markets and really shouldn't be managing their own money. Do you think it is a coincidence that volatility in KOSPI skyrocketed after ETFs giving foreigners easier access to KOSPI listed stocks like Samsung and SK Hynix? What happened after brokerages like IBKR started offering direct access? C'mon WSB, you can do better than this can't you?

Shmeepsheep

Depends on the brokerage. IBKR has low rates around ~5% while my Fidelity loan would be costing me ~11%+. Would still be more sensible to pay the ~$3,700(quick and dirty math, i didnt compound daily so it will be slightly higher) in 2 months of interest vs the $30k tax bill at a 15% federal rate and whatever you potentially owe the state.

OurNewestMember

Sure. Get off of Fidelity for your active trading. Pick tasty, tos or IBKR so you have the right product selection, trading hours and customer support to hedge your index options. For God's sake, do something about your gamma/speed risk. Get more precise about exactly what risks you're trading (since hedging basically requires that). You're trading cash-settled small cap vol against schg and vt. I don't even know what to say to that. You just unlocked a fear that never occurred to me. If the notional on SPX is a big reason to not use it (despite the two indexes having really different volatility -- which is the main difference), have you played around with your account's margin choices (again, another reason to avoid brokers like Fidelity) or unlocking liquidity/risk capacity from your shares? But how does any of that help you? You're already doing something that makes sense to you. Just because this seems crazy to me doesn't mean you need to hear some nay Sayers; I've found that actually isn't "constructive" to most people. Most people active on here don't really seem interested in volatility or risk and learning more. Sorry if I prejudged you. I do find it interesting to see what people are doing with 0 DTE, directional trades, events, and massive IV exposure (ie, crazy but interesting), but the actual "constructive feedback" is best left to other people who actually trade the same way. Anyway, thank you for your thoughtful post. I hope you find simulating conversation from it.

Br1ll1antly1llog1cal

depending your margin loan interest rate. if it's IBKR i would just borrow against your portfolio. if other brokers that charges more than prime +1%, I would sell a box spread and take the cash out, and narrow the box spread everytime you receive cash dividend from your holdings

Fit-Marionberry5248

Fuck you IBKR my capital is not at risk if i full port to Index funds 

arthriticpug

does the WSB IBKR connector work for anyone? it said it would take a couple days to sync but nothing after a week

Much_Candle_942

Bank brokers are the worst.. I remember paying $20 fees in total per trade - mix of currency exchange fee and trading commissions. I switched to IBKR and that changed to few cents.  Problem is - now I get tempted to trade more often. Earlier, I held on to my positions somewhat longer.

hv876

Market opens at 9:30 am on Monday. It’ll be open before that because IRGC can buy SPX calls on IBKR in global hours.

PaulTroon2

Extremely happy with IBKR.

brettbw

I tried to switch to IBKR but it was just incredibly frustrating. I gave up. Money transfer was a nightmare

EnthusiasmSea850

I know for sure IBKR and Robin hood can trade spx over night

create_package

how do you managed to do BOX SPread on IBKR? it always warn me cannot do riskless operations.

Main_Ad3943

I was going to go with Schwab, but as far as I can tell they don't support CBOE and I like to trade SPX options so, IBKR seemed like a better fit

longGERN

IBKR now has prediction markets, I'm going full degen

ambidextrous12

1/10 And $149 is the auction starting price. Given that it's 7x oversubscribed, I would not be shocked to see a 20% pop in price before us normies have access to it on Robinhood or IBKR

SetRestart

And IBKR

Mavnas

You could already buy it in Frankfurt through IBKR, and even in Korea through IBKR as of this summer.

dumbfemboiwhor

IBKR didn't approve my margin for lack of equity so the only logical thing was to open an account at a different broker who has CFD's leveraged to the tits without minimum margin requirement

CD274

Yeah unless on IBKR Korean market means your sleep is extra short 😅

SetRestart

I bought an android just so I can split screen, IBKR runs 24/7 while I doom scroll

Mavnas

IBKR will let you buy them in Korea. I bought in Frankfurt because I'm traveling and Asian markets are only open while I'm asleep until I get home.

Ken385

You can trade at IBKR as a pro customer. They will pass on the extra exchange fees they are charged.

KarlLachsfeld

24% of it is SK Hynix. [https://www.roundhillinvestments.com/etf/dram/](https://www.roundhillinvestments.com/etf/dram/) The US listing is only an ADR, you can already trade it via IBKR on the Korean market if you want to buy shares directly.

buhtpirate

When you choose the futures contract, look at margin impact (the dropdown next to Buy/Sell). Initial margin is how much you need to have to enter the position, and maintenance to hold. This margin requirement is significantly less during regular trading hours when there's more liquidity. IBKR basically loans you the rest, so if you plan on holding for long term you'll pay interest but if you're scalping it's not noticeable.

znightmaree

IBKR is easily my favorite way to track them

Temporary-Basil-3030

At least they’ll wait a few days unlike IBKR (ask me how I know)

pojobrown

Damn good. I spent some time trying to fact-check as much of it as I could. The high short interest, small float, locked-up ownership, and that big wall of $30 calls all checked out from the public data I could find. The only stuff I couldn't verify was the Ortex borrow data, IBKR availability, CTB, and the swap theory because I don't pay for all those subscriptions. So I'm not gonna act like I know if that part is dead on. I actually bought in yesterday after reading another post, and after digging into it myself, I think it looks pretty damn good for a short-term run. Now if they ever decide to get into chip manufacturing or something AI hardware related, I'll probably double down.

iceollie

Mainly three: (1) Your executing/clearing broker provisioning you as a permissioned user under their own data redistributor relationship (IBKR at your size), so their compliance is the counterparty the vendor trusts rather than you onboarding cold 2) A vendor like LSEG, FactSet or Cap IQ with a broker or established counterparty vouching for you on the KYC (3) An independent B/D or custodian umbrella (the LPL route) that bundles access, entitlements and compliance for small RIAs and family offices. Just know all of it solves the access and compliance problem more than the cost one, you'll still owe exchange pro-data fees either way. Worth pinning down what you actually needed the terminal for first.

mattsagervo

I use Webull and it's great, but I want to switch to Schwab. They have Think or Swim, lots more OTC stocks, and an office I can call 24/7 or walk into. If do stick with Fintech, I'll switch to IBKR for those OTC stocks.

Snoo_78242

I’m not really aware of that, is it something to do with how robinhood promises high APR for having Gold and such? How do you know IBKR is good? Because this might make me do the switch. I know fidelity and schwab are just OGs that can be trusted, but nowadays there’s so many options of brokerages

-ToriForYa

why does everyone use the scam apps? Use IBKR or Fidelity or Schwab, it doesn't really matter, but RH, Webull and all their derivatives do pretty shady stuff with your money.

Snoo_78242

I really like Moomoo, but only way to get big amount of money in is wire transfer, and it’s Chinese owned, so idk. Webull is cool, but also Chinese. Robinhood is the easiest of all apps to get money in. I’ve got an IBKR account but never actually put anything in it. Maybe I should try it

znightmaree

IBKR https://preview.redd.it/nxsdbe53mwbh1.jpeg?width=1206&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e8811ed61925d4f986631f613b54120184bd1ad

Sean_VasDeferens

Most broker's system let you display the model price under the settings. For IBKR its "model price", for TOS it's "theo price"...

cyclingmania

How do I do that?  I looked up MNQ on IBKR, and the index itself is like $29k. The futures are dated based on month only, like MNQ Sep18'26 but the quote on those show $29k as well. What am I missing?

Linc_24

Depends on your broker I guess, haven’t had any issues with IBKR

g1ven2fly

There it goes - want to see what the option flow looks like today, but there isn't a whole lot in terms of put OI that is going to get in the way. The borrow fee keeps ticking up and the IBKR shares available pool is dropping.

KarlLachsfeld

IBKR charges 1.5% for CHF up to 90k 

TomatoSpecialist6879

25x leverage on NQ futes via IBKR, manage to somehow leave with a 50% profit after it swung to -400% loss at one point lmao. This was done last year when I was drunk and convinced myself the liberation day crash was just a ber trap. If I held through I would have made more than 25 mil on 100k, but I just didn't like the fact that I went from 100k to -430k+ at one point even if it was house money I can afford to lose. Plus the tax and fees were robbing me blind.

Ok_Gold_4359

I have IBKR I have portfolio margin which is above margin

Aware_Web9715

https://preview.redd.it/t45e82evxnbh1.jpeg?width=1260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6db931c8f57b5e8d8302051bdf3e1868ea930708 Maybe this helps? You have IBKR?

Aware_Web9715

Can just short sell on accounts like IBKR used by OP, need to pay interest which is currently high ~24%. No need to borrow

izyrich

IBKR - Interactive Brokers should work in Germany. And you can use paper trading.

Moist-Guava-732

is it me or does it feel like all the IBKR posts with million dollar positions are just paper trades? [THIS GUY](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/s/lrjYTIEg56) has been spamming the sub all day and every post he redacts the account name same kind of shit they were doing with ToS a couple months ago

zjz

Do it on desktop since nobody is ever logged into their brokerage on their phone's browser. Click the "Me" tab in the daily thread app and you'll get what is basically a google sign-in where you can attach an account to the subreddit. Then next time you wanna post a big-ass position you can do it with live data and 100% prove that the trade/account is real. You can even set a net worth flair. The app is a bit messed up right now *and* IBKR support is new though so your mileage may vary. Ping me if you have issues, I'm the one that wrote the daily thread/verified trader app.

MoridanArtorias

Fuck you IBKR. I know my capital is at risk.