Interactive Brokers

[cbc]

Does anyone know how to change the time scale on the TWS / I-pad app?

Although I don't trade the SPI, I like to keep an eye on it and it seems to go off midnight the night before, completely different from the days close / settlement price.

Tis doing my head in having to remember the previous settlement, or even look it up then calculate the difference.

 

[cutz]

Does anyone use the IB mobile app for trading? If so, how do you find it? Has anyone traded option combo's on it?

Hi Sails,

Previously used it on my blackberry for individual legs and monitoring positions, found it to work real nice.

Unfortunately I still do the bulk of my trading with a big four due the fact that often I need to ring them through.

 

[sails]

Hi Sails,

Previously used it on my blackberry for individual legs and monitoring positions, found it to work real nice.

Unfortunately I still do the bulk of my trading with a big four due the fact that often I need to ring them through.

Thanks Cutz - I am using it and really like it. I usually have it in read only mode so one of the grandkids don't think it's a game and start pressing buttons...lol

I haven't had to trade on it yet, but it's nice to know the facility is there if needed. It does combo orders with ease. Very impressed!

 

[boofis]

Does anyone have this same problem? Everytime I make a new quote monitor on the TWS home page, I'll save it and then it's never there the next time I log on. Driving me crazy ffs!

 

[CanOz]

Does anyone have this same problem? Everytime I make a new quote monitor on the TWS home page, I'll save it and then it's never there the next time I log on. Driving me crazy ffs!

When you have your workspace setup the way you want, save your settings, but save them on your hard drive instead of the server. Always make back ups of everything. Your time is too valuable to be spent doing redundant activities....you should be spending your time on your home work and preparation.

I have a directory on my hard drive for TWS settings, naming each setup for the session or strategies that i have or am developing. Save your files accordinly, i.e. HSI_Scalper, Kospi_Pos_Trader

CanOz

 

[>Apocalypto<]

When you have your workspace setup the way you want, save your settings, but save them on your hard drive instead of the server. Always make back ups of everything. Your time is too valuable to be spent doing redundant activities....you should be spending your time on your home work and preparation.

I have a directory on my hard drive for TWS settings, naming each setup for the session or strategies that i have or am developing. Save your files accordinly, i.e. HSI_Scalper, Kospi_Pos_Trader

CanOz

+1 save it all to your hard drive... saves the stress.

 

[Chilli]

Hi, newbie here, thanks for providing all this wonderful info. About to apply for a new IB account to sell covered calls on US stocks. Please could someone help me out and confirm whether I have got my facts right thus far?

1) I need to open a non professional Reg T Margin account
2) Use AUD as my base currency
3) US Stocks purchased will be bought in USD using borrowed funds, my AUD's will not be touched.
4) My AUD should be earning slightly more interest than I will pay on my borrowed USD funded stock purchases, thus no charge for me to use margin.
5) I can use up to 50% margin, so if I have AUD 100k sitting in my base account, then I should be able to purchase roughly USD 95K worth of US stocks.
6) Each month I can convert any USD profit from premiums back into AUD into my base account for a small fee.

I am correct so far with all the above?? A couple of other questions : When do Premiums show up in your account, straight away, or do you normally have to wait until option expiry? Also will I be able to view the Option chain without subscribing to a data feed?

Thanks very much

 

[cbc]

Hi, newbie here, thanks for providing all this wonderful info. About to apply for a new IB account to sell covered calls on US stocks. Please could someone help me out and confirm whether I have got my facts right thus far?

1) I need to open a non professional Reg T Margin account
2) Use AUD as my base currency
3) US Stocks purchased will be bought in USD using borrowed funds, my AUD's will not be touched.
4) My AUD should be earning slightly more interest than I will pay on my borrowed USD funded stock purchases, thus no charge for me to use margin.
5) I can use up to 50% margin, so if I have AUD 100k sitting in my base account, then I should be able to purchase roughly USD 95K worth of US stocks.
6) Each month I can convert any USD profit from premiums back into AUD into my base account for a small fee.

I am correct so far with all the above?? A couple of other questions : When do Premiums show up in your account, straight away, or do you normally have to wait until option expiry? Also will I be able to view the Option chain without subscribing to a data feed?

Thanks very much

Ay chilli,

Yea m8 you can view the options chain without any data fees.

Just not view the data, tbh ur gonna need data, in have a data package called us options, I can't remember how much it is but I signed up to it

 

[alex123711]

Hi, just looking for some info, does anyone know of any online broker that lets me buy singapore and u.s exchanges? Also I noticed some of them charge .1% a year for international holdings, are there any that don't?

 

[Chilli]

Ay chilli,

Yea m8 you can view the options chain without any data fees.

Just not view the data, tbh ur gonna need data, in have a data package called us options, I can't remember how much it is but I signed up to it

Thanks cbc, did I get all my other facts correct?

 

[cbc]

1, yes
2, yes

I don't know bout the rest. I only signed up recently.

 

[Sharkman]

Hi, newbie here, thanks for providing all this wonderful info. About to apply for a new IB account to sell covered calls on US stocks. Please could someone help me out and confirm whether I have got my facts right thus far?

1) I need to open a non professional Reg T Margin account
2) Use AUD as my base currency
3) US Stocks purchased will be bought in USD using borrowed funds, my AUD's will not be touched.
4) My AUD should be earning slightly more interest than I will pay on my borrowed USD funded stock purchases, thus no charge for me to use margin.
5) I can use up to 50% margin, so if I have AUD 100k sitting in my base account, then I should be able to purchase roughly USD 95K worth of US stocks.
6) Each month I can convert any USD profit from premiums back into AUD into my base account for a small fee.

I am correct so far with all the above?? A couple of other questions : When do Premiums show up in your account, straight away, or do you normally have to wait until option expiry? Also will I be able to view the Option chain without subscribing to a data feed?

Thanks very much

gday, also new here, but have been trading with IB for some years now. only done ASX options and FX thru IB, never US options, so not sure how useful this will be to you, but anyway:

- your AUD might be earning more interest than the USD interest paid *now*, but what if AUD/USD falls significantly?

- you plan to sell US covered calls but that still carries essentially unlimited risk. you are collateralising this with AUD cash. if your US stocks fall and AUD/USD falls at the same time, you could be faced with a margin call sooner than you think if you're assuming a constant AUD/USD.

- you can buy AUD/USD @ spot thru IB's IDEALFX to repatriate your received premiums. but you only get interbank rates if you trade 25K USD or more at once. i've never done an FX trade smaller than that but i think IB said somewhere on their site that anything below that size is considered an odd lot, and will be done at 3 pips or so away from the interbank rate, plus the normal commission. still not too bad tho

- for ASX options at least, when you short options the premium appears in your account right after you're filled. i would imagine US options are the same.

 

[boofis]

Has anyone got an API setup so that their trades are exported to excel as they happen adjusting ones pnl progress etc.? I'm working on it but the template sheet they give you to work with is stoopidly over the top. All I'm doing at this stage is just exporting the trades at the end of the day through the trade log, it's not bad but just a bit annoying one can't get updates live as the tradings happening.

 

[Chilli]

gday, also new here, but have been trading with IB for some years now. only done ASX options and FX thru IB, never US options, so not sure how useful this will be to you, but anyway:

- your AUD might be earning more interest than the USD interest paid *now*, but what if AUD/USD falls significantly?

- you plan to sell US covered calls but that still carries essentially unlimited risk. you are collateralising this with AUD cash. if your US stocks fall and AUD/USD falls at the same time, you could be faced with a margin call sooner than you think if you're assuming a constant AUD/USD.

- you can buy AUD/USD @ spot thru IB's IDEALFX to repatriate your received premiums. but you only get interbank rates if you trade 25K USD or more at once. i've never done an FX trade smaller than that but i think IB said somewhere on their site that anything below that size is considered an odd lot, and will be done at 3 pips or so away from the interbank rate, plus the normal commission. still not too bad tho

- for ASX options at least, when you short options the premium appears in your account right after you're filled. i would imagine US options are the same.

Thanks for pointing that out Sharkman. Have you got any idea what the maximum margin LVR is? What I'd probably do then is sell 50/50 ASX, US calls. I'd be reasonably comfortable starting out with a 33% margin LVR selling one month expiry covered calls. Australia seems to have such a limited market for selling calls!

 

[CanOz]

Has anyone got an API setup so that their trades are exported to excel as they happen adjusting ones pnl progress etc.? I'm working on it but the template sheet they give you to work with is stoopidly over the top. All I'm doing at this stage is just exporting the trades at the end of the day through the trade log, it's not bad but just a bit annoying one can't get updates live as the tradings happening.

Why not just run it thru ninja? It's reporting is very good ...

 

[boofis]

mostly just cause I don't want to pay the $1000 (or however much it is) yet. I mean that's a lot of losing trades on the seng that I can keep up my sleeve until I've got more of a buffer haha

 

[CanOz]

mostly just cause I don't want to pay the $1000 (or however much it is) yet. I mean that's a lot of losing trades on the seng that I can keep up my sleeve until I've got more of a buffer haha

Ahh yeah yeah, of course. I totally forgot about it.

I'm actually developing a trade record in Open Office Calc with my trusty Elancer. I wanted it to essentially do the same thing, but for longer term trades, it should work fine for what you want....

I tell you what, if you agree to work with him, i'll pay for the work.

Then its win / win...i just haven't had time to get it started with him yet but have given him some stuff to work with. It ifs done in Calc with a view to function in Excel we should be fine.

Basically what i am after is what NT does except in Excel/OOC with a big flashy equity curve of course...

CanOz

 

[boofis]

Ahh yeah yeah, of course. I totally forgot about it.

I'm actually developing a trade record in Open Office Calc with my trusty Elancer. I wanted it to essentially do the same thing, but for longer term trades, it should work fine for what you want....

I tell you what, if you agree to work with him, i'll pay for the work.

Then its win / win...i just haven't had time to get it started with him yet but have given him some stuff to work with. It ifs done in Calc with a view to function in Excel we should be fine.

Basically what i am after is what NT does except in Excel/OOC with a big flashy equity curve of course...

CanOz

Schweet! A win:win trade, that's the best risk reward going around

 

[Sharkman]

Thanks for pointing that out Sharkman. Have you got any idea what the maximum margin LVR is? What I'd probably do then is sell 50/50 ASX, US calls. I'd be reasonably comfortable starting out with a 33% margin LVR selling one month expiry covered calls. Australia seems to have such a limited market for selling calls!

i don't use margin myself, as i'm (some might say foolishly) trying to trade around a demanding full time job so i don't feel comfortable taking on margin when i can't watch my positions every minute the market is open. but this page may help: http://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/index.php?f=marginnew&p=overview3

i did briefly take a look into their calculation methods when i was setting up my IB account though, and i don't think it's a straight LVR calc - they use this thing called a special memorandum account (i think it's related to US regulations) where SMA = Max ((Equity with Loan Value - US initial margin requirements)*, (Prior Day SMA +/- change in day's cash +/- US initial margin requirements** for trades made during the day.)) the reg-t margin required is 50%, however you may actually end up being allowed to have a higher LVR than that if your prior day SMA is quite high - see their example on the above link under day 3.

yes agreed, aust does have a limited market for trading options - i've found pretty much only BHP, RIO and the big 4 have consistently decent spreads quoted by the MMs. but one approach might be to just concentrate on those, follow them closely and put the bulk of your trades on them, then adding in the odd trade in some of the smaller optionables (WPL, LEI, QBE, ASX itself to name a few) when you spot an opening? that's generally what i do, as i'm not game to dabble in US options until i'm ready to put the proper energy into it (read: cut back to working 3-4 days a week!)

also there is more to options than just covered calls, it probably won't be very effective having just one string to your bow - but i think that message has already been delivered on these forums by people much more knowledgeable on the subject than myself!

 

[sails]

i don't use margin myself, as i'm (some might say foolishly) trying to trade around a demanding full time job so i don't feel comfortable taking on margin when i can't watch my positions every minute the market is open. but this page may help: http://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/index.php?f=marginnew&p=overview3

i did briefly take a look into their calculation methods when i was setting up my IB account though, and i don't think it's a straight LVR calc - they use this thing called a special memorandum account (i think it's related to US regulations) where SMA = Max ((Equity with Loan Value - US initial margin requirements)*, (Prior Day SMA +/- change in day's cash +/- US initial margin requirements** for trades made during the day.)) the reg-t margin required is 50%, however you may actually end up being allowed to have a higher LVR than that if your prior day SMA is quite high - see their example on the above link under day 3.

yes agreed, aust does have a limited market for trading options - i've found pretty much only BHP, RIO and the big 4 have consistently decent spreads quoted by the MMs. but one approach might be to just concentrate on those, follow them closely and put the bulk of your trades on them, then adding in the odd trade in some of the smaller optionables (WPL, LEI, QBE, ASX itself to name a few) when you spot an opening? that's generally what i do, as i'm not game to dabble in US options until i'm ready to put the proper energy into it (read: cut back to working 3-4 days a week!)

also there is more to options than just covered calls, it probably won't be very effective having just one string to your bow - but i think that message has already been delivered on these forums by people much more knowledgeable on the subject than myself!

I'm finding the XJO index options improving in liquidity and easy to get fills.