Interactive Brokers

Bob111 said:

Does anyone know if there is a quick way using TWS on IB to see how much is left in your account after pending trades?

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try hitting the account button in the toolbar, that will pop up a dialog, under one of the sections (third one i think) there's a line "buying power" which might be what you're after. i don't know if that factors in open unfilled orders though, it might only update once trades get executed.

also not sure if you send an order to the market, then send a second order whilst the first is still open, whether the preview numbers on the second order ticket will take into account the first one, given that it doesn't know at the time whether the first one will get filled or not.

cutz said:

Hi Bob, The order ticket will show post trade margin.

Is that what you're after ?

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That actually might give me what I want. Thanks

Sharkman said:

try hitting the account button in the toolbar, that will pop up a dialog, under one of the sections (third one i think) there's a line "buying power" which might be what you're after. i don't know if that factors in open unfilled orders though, it might only update once trades get executed.

also not sure if you send an order to the market, then send a second order whilst the first is still open, whether the preview numbers on the second order ticket will take into account the first one, given that it doesn't know at the time whether the first one will get filled or not.

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It looks like that doesn't update unfortunately.

Bob111 said:

That actually might give me what I want. Thanks

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No worries mate,

Just some more info, the order ticket will have Current and Post ( trade ) Equity with Loan/Initial Margin/Maint Margin/Position....So your Available Funds will be Equity with Loan minus Initial Margin, Current and Post will show on your order ticket.... Something like that, you'll double check before placing trades yeah ?

BTW, each ticket only accounts for each order, apart from mental maths not sure what the workaround is for multiple orders, had a quick look in settings to no avail.

Does anyone know if there is a way to sell a portion of total shares in the profit taker section of a buy order? I don't trade margin so I can't setup a sell order before the buy order has completed. Basically I'm trying to create a buy order and then have a sell order for a portion of those shares activate if the share price spikes up. At this stage all I can see is you can sell them all or nothing in the profit taker section.

I recently signed up to IBKR, and the first trade I tried to put through with them for an ASX listed equity, capped my bid price. The strange thing is, I bid at the lowest ask price... Instead the platform capped my bid to the highest bid price (1.225, instead of 1.250).

I'm a noob, and I'm probably missing something, or I need to change some setting. It seems to me as though, that if all bids are capped in this way, then the price will never rise, since nobody is able to bid at the ask price, and sellers who want to sell, must put in a ask at the highest bid (unless their price is also capped). It seems as though prices will simply fall. This seems inordinately stupid.

Has anybody else experienced with this with IBKR? I haven't experienced this with any other broker.

toastyFeet said:

I recently signed up to IBKR, and the first trade I tried to put through with them for an ASX listed equity, capped my bid price. The strange thing is, I bid at the lowest ask price... Instead the platform capped my bid to the highest bid price (1.225, instead of 1.250).

I'm a noob, and I'm probably missing something, or I need to change some setting. It seems to me as though, that if all bids are capped in this way, then the price will never rise, since nobody is able to bid at the ask price, and sellers who want to sell, must put in a ask at the highest bid (unless their price is also capped). It seems as though prices will simply fall. This seems inordinately stupid.

Has anybody else experienced with this with IBKR? I haven't experienced this with any other broker.

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G'day, What's the ticker, I'll check it out on my end.

cutz said:

G'day, What's the ticker, I'll check it out on my end.

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Hi cutz, thanks... it was actually a trade I had tried to put through almost two weeks ago. I've since been trading with NABTrade and Viewpoint. I forget which stock it was... In any case, I spoke with the people at IBKR, and they tell me that they were recently fined by the ASX, and so they have instituted some system or algorithm... and when I explain to them that the algorithm makes no sense, they waffle on about how the ASX is over-regulated, and they are not in a position to change it.

toastyFeet said:

Hi cutz, thanks... it was actually a trade I had tried to put through almost two weeks ago. I've since been trading with NABTrade and Viewpoint. I forget which stock it was... In any case, I spoke with the people at IBKR, and they tell me that they were recently fined by the ASX, and so they have instituted some system or algorithm... and when I explain to them that the algorithm makes no sense, they waffle on about how the ASX is over-regulated, and they are not in a position to change it.

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OK, No worries, I can't generate the same error, I've never had a problem entering market below the bid then ticking up for a fill or joining at the top of the queue.

cutz said:

OK, No worries, I can't generate the same error, I've never had a problem entering market below the bid then ticking up for a fill or joining at the top of the queue.

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Have you had issues putting in stop orders on the ASX through IBKR?

toastyFeet said:

Have you had issues putting in stop orders on the ASX through IBKR?

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G'day, I don't use stop orders, what sort of issues are you having ?

cutz said:

G'day, I don't use stop orders, what sort of issues are you having ?

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Haven't had the opportunity to place a stop on IBKR as yet (on any exchange). But, since June, I've had issues with Stops on the ASX on IG Market's share-trading platform... which is I signed up to IBKR. If it's not one thing its another.

toastyFeet said:

Haven't had the opportunity to place a stop on IBKR as yet (on any exchange). But, since June, I've had issues with Stops on the ASX on IG Market's share-trading platform... which is I signed up to IBKR. If it's not one thing its another.

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Seems pretty straight forward on IB's platform, just hit the bid quote, change the order type to STP LMT, adjust the Stop Price to your choosing and transmit, too easy... Traders out there who use Stop Orders on TWS, please correct me if I'm wrong

Quick question about IB and trading US stocks from Australia - after you transfer from AUD to USD does it stay as USD? I was looking at IG but it looks like they do a currency transaction for every entry and exit which sounds terrible.

banit7 said:

Quick question about IB and trading US stocks from Australia - after you transfer from AUD to USD does it stay as USD? I was looking at IG but it looks like they do a currency transaction for every entry and exit which sounds terrible.

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Yes it does. It is up to you to decide when to convert back. Since I only use IB for US stocks, I never convert back to AUD unless I want to take some money out.

The fact you don't have to convert after each trade and when you do decide to convert they give you the institutional exchange rate (with just a USD 2.00 Foreign Exchange Fee) makes them significantly cheaper than every competitor out there (I don't know about Schwabb fees and exchange rates).

bellenuit said:

Yes it does. It is up to you to decide when to convert back. Since I only use IB for US stocks, I never convert back to AUD unless I want to take some money out.

The fact you don't have to convert after each trade and when you do decide to convert they give you the institutional exchange rate (with just a USD 2.00 Foreign Exchange Fee) makes them significantly cheaper than every competitor out there (I don't know about Schwabb fees and exchange rates).

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Thanks for that.

I was wondering what you think is the best way to transfer from my Australian bank account to the IB USD account?

banit7 said:

I was wondering what you think is the best way to transfer from my Australian bank account to the IB USD account?

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I believe you can only transfer to and from your IB AUD account and the bank account your are transferring from must be in the same name as your IB account. If you are new to IB, the way it works is that you will have a minimum of two accounts with them under your account number (assuming you trade other than Australian shares). A USD account (in your case) for funding US shares and a AUD account for funding Australian shares or simply for paying IB fees etc if you don't have Australian shares. It may be possible to transfer direct to the USD account if you have a bank account in the same name that is in US currency. I haven't one so I never checked that possibility. However, as their conversion rate and conversion fee of USD 2 is about as good as you can get, it's better to do the conversion under IB.

You can transfer in either of two ways. You can do a EFT transfer in AUD from your Australian bank account to your IB AUD account or do a BPAY transfer in AUD from your Australian Bank to your IB AUD account. I use the latter if I am transferring more than AUD 20K as that is my bank's EFT limit, but the BPAY limit is AUD 100K. I find both seem to take the same amount of time. If done early in the day you might have it that evening and available for US trading that evening. Sometimes it will be the following day. You don't have to convert it to USD before you can start trading US shares. So long as your balance in AUD is greater than the AUD equivalent of your USD planned purchase plus your minimum holding amount (I think AUD 500 to cover IB fees and charges where applicable), you can buy US shares. You are not obliged to cover the trade straight away but can continue to hold in AUD and convert when it suits you. However, you will be charged interest so long as you have a USD negative balance. Someone on another forum claimed that IB will automatically convert sufficient AUD to cover your USD trade, but that has not happened with me.

Going back to funding your account. Before you transfer funds to your IB account you must first log on to IB's account management and select the deposit funds option. You say which bank you are transferring from, the amount of the transfer and the transfer method (EFT or BPAY). This just alerts them to expect a transfer into your account. You can save your Australian Bank details so that you don't have to enter the details every time you want to do a transfer. It will give you the IB account number for EFT transfers and for BPAY transfers it will give you their BPAY id and a unique reference number to use. It is up to you then to do the transfer from your Australian bank's website or app. If the funds don't arrive within a certain period (I think maybe 2 weeks), it will cancel the transfer request.

bellenuit said:

I believe you can only transfer to the AUD account and the bank account your are transferring from must be in the same name as your IB account. It may be possible to transfer direct to the USD account if you have a bank account in the same name that is in US currency. I haven't one so I never checked that possibility. However, as their conversion rate and conversion fee of USD 2 is about as good as you can get, it's better to do the conversion under IB.

You can transfer in either of two ways. You can do a EFT transfer in AUD from your Australian bank account to your IB account or do a BPAY transfer in AUD from your Australian Bank. I use the latter if I am transferring more than AUD 20K as that is my bank's EFT limit, but the BPAY limit is AUD 100K. I find both seem to take the same amount of time. If done early in the day you might have it that evening and available for US trading that evening. Sometimes it will be the following day. You don't have to convert it to USD before you can start trading US shares. So long as your balance in AUD is greater than the AUD equivalent of your USD planned purchase plus your minimum holding amount (I think AUD 500 to cover IB fees and charges where applicable), you can buy US shares. You are not obliged to cover the trade straight away but can continue to hold in AUD and convert when it suits you. However, you will be charged interest so long as you have a USD negative balance. Someone on another forum claimed that IB will automatically convert sufficient AUD to cover your USD trade, but that has not happened with me.

Going back to funding your account. Before you transfer funds to your IB account you must first log on to IB's account management and select the deposit funds option. You say which bank you are transferring from, the amount of the transfer and the transfer method (EFT or BPAY). This just alerts them to expect a transfer into your account. You can save your Australian Bank details so that you don't have to enter the details every time you want to do a transfer. It will give you the IB account number for EFT transfers and for BPAY transfers it will give you their BPAY id and a unique reference number to use. It is up to you then to do the transfer from your Australian bank's website or app. If the funds don't arrive within a certain period (I think maybe 2 weeks), it will cancel the transfer request.

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Hi beleenuit,
Thanks for that.

I opened the IB account with USB as the base currency and I didn't have the option to transfer via EFT. I've changed the base currency to AUD and will see if it makes a difference once the change has taken affect.

Heads up folks !

IB are nudging up margin requirements in the lead up to US elections !

has anyone who got migrated to IB Aust tried applying for (and getting) a margin facility yet?

last time i checked, margin for IB Aust customers was capped at $25K. the whole application process seemed onerous however, and i think other people reported getting asked for info that brokers should not need to know (passwords to Aust accounts etc.), so i didn't bother applying, didn't seem worth the hassle especially for a paltry $25K margin. wouldn't mind having a margin facility again if it's back to working the way it did under IB LLC though.