Interactive Brokers (IB) Client Portal Guide

By: Alson Chew

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From 1st October 2021, IB will deactivate Web Trader

IB Client Portal and IB App will be our alternative to IB Web Trader

 The IB client portal interface and mechanics on order inputs are very similar to IB Web Trader

 IB App guide can be found in Charting and Brokerage Platform lesson

 Personally, I do not use IB Work Station

 I will still be using thinkorswim as my main charting platform and execute orders in IB using IB
Client portal or IB App.

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Begin we begin, let’s understand some difference between IB and TOS

Thinkorswim (TOS) and Interactive Brokers (IB)

 TOS charts are aesthetically nicer than IB

 TOS allows for trading Stocks, Futures and Options only. IB allows for trading Stocks, Stocks CFD,
Forex, Futures and Options.
 TOS and IB lite does not charge commission for US stock trading but IB Pro still charge a small fee.
 TOS does not charge market data fee but IB charges (See below slides on how to enable relevant
market data)
 TOS does not require you to enable trading permission to different markets. IB requires. (See below
slides on how to enable relevant trading permissions)
 As of 1st July 2021, both TOS and IB doesn’t charge inactivity fee

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 Logging in to Interactive Brokers (IB) Client Portal

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 Go to your browser and key in www.interactivebrokers.com. You will be directed to this page.
 Mouse over to the top right hand corner LOG IN button and select Portal Login as shown.

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 Select “Portfolio” Tab and click on Positions as shown to see your current holdings

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 Select “Details” tab here to see the summary of your Account Balances and Margin
Requirements (similar to IB webtrader)

 Since we are using USD as base currency in our account. If you have
other foreign currencies and want to rebase them back to USD, you
may select this option to do so conveniently. You don’t have to do so
every time you have a foreign currency, especially if you are doing
forex trading you bound to have foreign currencies every now and
then. I will advice to only rebase once or twice a year. Note that
commissions still payable for the currency conversion.
 As a rule of thumb, do keep total initial margin at less than 70% of your Net Liquidation
Value. In this example, my initial margin is $64757.33/$123576.72 = 52.4%.

 Under Cash, if you cash is negative it means you are borrowing from the broker (IB) at
around 2% per annum. In this example, it means I am paying around (0.02*$70179.11)/365
= $3.84 usd interest per overnight day including sat and sun
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 Putting on OCO Orders in IB Client Portal

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 To put on a trade, select “Trade” tab and the asset class.
In this example, we will select Stocks.

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 Key in the symbol of the product you are looking to trade. In this
example, we shall select SPY listed in ARCA US exchange. We
will simulate a buy OCO order here.
 Since we are initiating a long OCO order, please ensure that you
selected Buy Order tab here. If you are initiating short OCO order,
please ensure that you selected Sell Order tab instead.
 Key in the Quantity (Size) and buy limit order (Long Entry
Order) price here

 Click onto to both the Profit Taker and Stop loss button here to
enable OCO bracket order.

 Profit Taker is your Target Order (TP). Check that the price must
be above your buy limit order price.

 Check that Stop Loss (SL) is below your buy limit order price.

 Enable GTC (Good till cancel)

 For stocks trading, do not enable Outside RTH as it is not

recommended to fill orders outside of cash market session due to
poor liquidity.

 For futures trading, please enable RTH so that the order will be
triggered anytime of the day.
 Check through everything, once satisfied press Submit Buy Order here
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  To view the pending orders and filled orders, select the
“Trade” tab -> Orders & Trades as shown

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  To Modify or Cancel your pending orders, mouse over here and a 3 small
button icon will appear. Click on it.

 To Cancel the order  To Modify click here

click here
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 Once you selected Modify, you
can change for example the
Limit Price here. In this example
we changing the Target price
(TP) to $452.40.

 Once done, click on “Submit

Modify Order” button as shown.
  You can check under Orders & Trades again that the
Target order (TP) price has been modified to $452.40

 You can see your filled orders here.

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  Since my target order (TP) is filled, the SL order
automatically cancelled by IB.

 Check that the target order (TP) is filled here

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 Contact IB Live Support in Client Portal

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Once Login to client portal, stroll all the way down and select Support as shown

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Stroll all the way down to and find the Chat Room icon
as shown to speak to IB operator during weekdays

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 Enable Market Data in Interactive Brokers (IB)

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 Click on this icon at the top right hand corner of client
portal and select User Settings

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 Select this icon as shown to edit your Market Data
Subscriptions

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 Note that Interactive Brokers (IB) charge for market data, hence you have to
enable this option (US Equity and Options Add-On Streaming Bundle) to see live
market data when you trade stocks. Personally, I have enable the US Securities
Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle because I also trade futures in IB. If you are
not trading Futures, you do not need to enable this bundle.

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 Enable Trading Permissions in Interactive Brokers (IB)

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 Click on this icon at the top right hand corner of client
portal and select Manage Account

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You may need to enable certain permissions to trade certain markets. Go to left panel, select Account Settings-
>Trading Experience & Permissions and click on the icon to start your selection.
Interactive Brokers (IB) Client Portal Guide

By: Alson Chew

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www.piranhaprofits.com