Interactive Brokers | NEWs @ IBKR vol.3

Low Costs

IBKR Welcomes New Bond Disclosure Rules

Increased Transparency Regarding Bond Fees

Amendments to FINRA rule 2232 and MSRB rule G-15 regarding customer confirmations require SEC member firms disclose the mark-up/down applied to retail trades if the firm executes an offsetting trade in the same security on the same day. In addition, the amendments require firms provide clients with trading data for the traded security and the exact time of transaction.

We offer low and transparent bond commissions and do not charge spread markups like most other brokers. Our bond commissions are:

  • US Treasuries: .002% on the first $1,000,000 of face value and .0001% of the face value after the initial $1,000,000.
  • Municipal Bonds: .05% on the first $10,000 of the face value and .0125% of the face value after the initial $10,000.
  • Corporate Bonds: 0.1% on the first $10,000 of face value and 0.025% of the face value after the initial $10,000.

We recently added support for municipal bonds and corporate bonds to IBKR Mobile. We also provide access to most electronically traded bonds. The TWS Corporate Bond and Muni Bond Market Scanners allow you to quickly and easily scan global markets for the top performing bonds across instrument types and metrics. Adding bond scanners to TWS is quick and easy - simply select "Global Bond Scanner" from the "New Window" menu.

Traders' Academy

NEW FEATURES

New Courses at Traders' Academy

Expanded Services for the IBKR Community

Traders' Academy helps professionals, investors, educators and students better understand the products, markets, currencies, tools and functionality available at Interactive Brokers. Courses use a syllabus to define instructional goals. Learning objectives are clearly stated and content is delivered across multiple lessons. Quizzes and tests are used to benchmark student progress against learning objectives.

Each course uses online lessons, videos, and notes to help reinforce subject matter and let students learn at their own pace. Students can ask questions of IBKR subject matter experts, provide written feedback on each course and rate their learning experience.

New for Q2
  • Bond and Fixed Income Trading for TWS
  • Options Tools
Coming Soon
  • Advanced Trading Tools
  • IBridge API
  • Introduction to Foreign Exchange
  • Tax Overview
  • Technical Analysis
Mobile Options Strategy two phones

INNOVATIVE TOOLS

Options Strategy Tools

Complex Options Strategies Made Simple

We continue to enhance our options strategies tools across our mobile and desktop trading platforms to make it easier to create, analyze and trade spreads. Recent enhancements include:

  • "Debit" and "Credit" labels included with the limit price for complex, multi-leg strategies to help you understand how transmitting an order may affect your account.
  • The Spread Template, which lets you scan and compare similar strategies, then load the spread into the Strategy Builder to trade with just a single click or tap. Currently supports horizontal, vertical and diagonal spreads.
  • The addition of the Unbalanced Butterfly to the Strategy Builder one-click strategy picker.
  • The ability to view traditional Greeks and the "total" position Greeks in the Scenarios tile of the Performance Profile tool.
  • A new "Performance Details" section in IBKR Mobile that can be added to Instrument Details and Orders screens, plus support for more options-based columns in mobile option chains.
  • The aggregated Theta and beta-weighted SPX Delta values in your portfolio.

New Features

Ask IBot

Now you can access IBot from almost anywhere, including from the IBKR Chat, the Client Services Message Center in Account Management and the Client Services page of the IBKR website, as well as from within IBKR Mobile, TWS for Desktop and the Client Portal.

Leverage the speed and growing intelligence of IBot to help with your account and set up. Before you contact Client Services, simply Ask IBot for immediate, automated help from the Tips for Best Service tab of the Contact Us > Client Services page of our website.

In addition, we added an IBot FAQ Browser to our website for quick access to detailed answers to specific questions in our proprietary FAQ database. Access the IBot FAQ Browser from the Education > Browse FAQs menu on our website.

New Products

New Investment Products and Services

We recently added 251 mutual funds to the Interactive Brokers lineup and now offer 10,495 funds, including 4,556 with no transaction fees. In addition, we added 10 new fund families, bringing our total to 212.

Domestic Fund Families
  • Brown Advisory Funds
  • Columbia – Class I Funds
  • Highmore Funds
  • Horizon Funds
  • Index Funds
  • Issachar funds
  • Mairs & Power Funds
  • Princeton Advisors
  • PSI Funds
  • Soundwatch Funds
New Research Providers

Four new research providers are available on the Interactive Brokers platform:

We frequently update the listing of research and news providers available on the Interactive Brokers platform. Visit our website to review our most current list of providers.

New Exchanges
IB Quant Blog

EXPANDED OFFERING

New Contributors @ IBKR Quant Blog

The IBKR Quant Blog serves quantitative professionals who have an interest in programming. Discussion topics include deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain and other transformative technologies influencing modern markets. In addition, discussions about R, Python and other popular programming languages often include sample code to help you develop your own analysis.

The IBKR Quant Blog draws from a diverse set of contributors, including:

  • Aleph Blog
  • Business Science
  • Byte Academy
  • Capital Spectator
  • Damodaran Online Blog
  • Datafloq
  • ExtractAlpha
  • Gramza Capital Management
  • IBKR Quant
  • InvestiQuant
  • Majeed Simaan
  • New Constructs, LLC
  • qplum
  • QuantBros
  • Quandl
  • QuantConnect
  • QuantDare
  • QuantInsti
  • Quantopian
  • Quantpedia
  • Quantra by QuantInsti
  • Real Vision Television
  • RobotWealth

Contact us at IBKRquant@interactivebrokers.com to learn about contributing to the blog.

Awards

Interactive Brokers Takes Top Spot in Online Broker Rankings

Interactive Brokers ranked number one in Barron's 23rd annual ranking of The Best Online Brokers.1 IBKR won high marks for pricing, range of offerings, trading experience and portfolio analysis. Columnist Theresa Carey wrote that the Interactive Brokers' low trading costs benefit both active and occasional traders. The firm was also ranked "Best for Frequent Traders" and "Best for Options Traders."

Barron's Award - 2018 Best Online Broker

2018 BARRON'S AWARDS:

  • Earned an overall rating of 4.5 in 2018 and Rated #1 - Best Online Broker.
  • Earned a rating of 4.5 in 2018 for "Best for Options Traders".
  • Earned a rating of 4.6 in 2018 for "Lowest Cost".
  • Earned a rating of 4.9 in 2018 for "Best Portfolio Analysis and Reports".
  • Earned a rating of 4.7 in 2018 for "Best Trading Experience and Technology".
  • Earned a rating of 4.5 in 2018 for "Best for Frequent Traders".
  • Earned a 4.8 in 2018 for "Range of Offerings".

ForexBrokers.com - 2018 Best Online Broker

2018 ForexBrokers.com:

  • Rated: Best in class - Mobile Trading
  • Rated: #1 Professionals
  • Earned 5 out of 5 Stars for: Offering of Investment

Supporting documentation for any claims and statistical information will be provided upon request.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. For more information read the "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options". For a copy, call 312 542-6901

Any trading symbols displayed are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to portray recommendations.

1. According to Barron's Online Broker Survey 2018: All Together Now, March 26, 2018. Barron's is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Co. Inc. For additional information, see ibkr.com/awards.