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Interactive Brokers Account Opening Guide 2024

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41 views24 pages

Interactive Brokers Account Opening Guide 2024

Uploaded by

yusuf khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interactive Brokers account opening guide

From a desktop or laptop, navigate to interactivebrokers.com1 . Click the “Open Account” button.
Review what will be needed for the application, which will always include a copy of your ID, a proof of
address and your taxpayer ID number in your country of residence (if any). If needed, also read the
“guide to choosing the right account”.2 Once ready, click “Start Application”.

Fill the form

1
Depending on your location, you may be redirected to the nearest server (.ie, .co.uk, .com.au etc). This is
nothing to worry about.
2
Mind that, depending on the laws of your country of residence, joint accounts can either be advantageous or
not, and can even end up causing more problems than individual accounts in case of death of one of the account
holders. Review the laws of your country of residence and make an informed choice.
Check your email and confirm

Select the desired account type. For the purpose of this guide, we will use an individual account. Click
start application.
Fill your contact information.

Continue filling the form. If your country of residence issues taxpayer identification numbers, provide
yours. In some countries, this number is the same as your national ID number.
And here is the last part of the form. It’s always good to be able to justify your source of wealth, in
case you are asked (payslips, employment letter, inheritance documents, trading gain statements
from previous brokers etc). Choose the base currency of your account per your convenience – click
the question mark for more details. If needed, the base currency can be changed later via the settings.
Once done, continue.
Confirm your mobile phone number

Configure your account. All of the below can be changed later via the settings. Click the question marks
for more information. Beginners are advised to use a cash account to prevent potentially expensive
mistakes with margin accounts. Cash accounts have some minor inconveniences, such as having to
wait one or two days for trades to settle before using the proceeds, but better be safe than sorry. To
trade ETFs, select at least the first two investment objectives.
Trading experience and permissions.

If you will only trade ETFs, no additional products beyond stocks are needed since ETFs are considered
as stocks for trading purposes. You may want to enable additional products such as mutual funds,
and/or bonds if you intend to directly purchase bonds rather than bond ETFs.

Stock trading permissions apply to ETFs. Select mid to high level of experience, number of trades per
year and knowledge level to avoid unnecessary restrictions later. If you will trade European UCITS
ETFs, as many US non-resident aliens should for tax reasons3, click “add” under the stock permissions
and add European countries to the list of countries you can trade in. You do not need to add all the
European countries. Many ETFs are traded in USD in the UK and Switzerland, and in EUR in Germany,
the Netherlands, France, Italy and Belgium. Selecting these countries is sufficient to trade UCITS ETFs.

3
See following links in the Bogleheads Wiki:
Non-US investor's guide to navigating US tax traps
Nonresident alien investors and Ireland domiciled ETFs
Outline of non-US Domiciles
Answer the regulatory questions truthfully.
Make an informed choice about participating to IBKR’s stock yield enhancement program. Again, this
can be changed in the settings later. This basically means that you accept that your shares be loaned
by IBKR to short sellers, and share with IBKR the interest that short sellers are paying for this facility.
All the information you need about the stock yield enhancement program is here.
Fill in the W8-BEN form. If you do not have a US SSN or ITIN, leave this field blank. You can find out
whether your country of residence has an income tax treaty with the USA here.
Fill the certification
Sign and continue
Review your information and edit if necessary
Review the agreements and disclosures and sign
At this point, you may receive a message that “more information is required to create your account”
and be presented with the below or a variation of it. You do not really need to fund your account for
faster processing. If not done already, it is strongly suggested to verify your mobile phone number,
which will be necessary to set up two factor authentication later.

It is mandatory to verify your identity and address by taking pictures of your documents and taking
selfies of you holding them with a smart phone.
Choose an option. Depending on the part of the world you reside in, the streamlined method may or
may not work.
If you chose the manual document upload, you will be requested to upload one document to verify
your address, and one document to verify your identity. Click the questions marks for a list of
acceptable documents and details.

Select a document for address verification and upload it


Do the same for your proof of identity document
Back to the main screen and additional options. You do not need additional accounts or advanced
market data at this point. It is however strongly suggested to set up two factor authentication.
You would be able to set up two factor authentication using just SMS messages, but it is strongly
suggested that you install the IBKR mobile app on your smart phone and use the IB digital key which
comes integrated with the app instead of SMS messages. In this case your two factor authentication
will be performed through app push notifications. This is more convenient and reliable than SMS.
Choose an option (iOS or Android) and follow the instructions.
Once done, you simply have to wait for IBKR to review your application. This may take a few days.
Comply with any requests for further information by IBKR’s team.

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