News @ IBKR - Volume 11

NEW TOOLS

Interactive Brokers Launches Largest No-Load Mutual Fund Marketplace1

Interactive Brokers launched a Mutual Fund Marketplace that offers availability to more than 25,000 mutual funds, including over 21,000 no load and 8,300 no transaction fee funds, from more than 290 fund families. The marketplace is available to clients in over 200 countries and territories. Our offering includes many prominent fund families, including funds from Allianz, American Funds, BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, MFS and PIMCO. In addition:

  • Unlike most firms, we do not charge a custody fee for offshore funds.
  • Fee funds outside the US charge € 4.95 (or equivalent).2
  • The Marketplace is fund agnostic and includes products exclusively from outside companies.
  • Fund value is included in equity with loan value to increase client margin buying power.

We created a Mutual Fund Search Tool to facilitate searching the massive availability of mutual funds. Any visitor to our website can search products and filter funds by their country of residence, fund type and fund family. Explore our deep availability of funds from around the world.

Margin Rates

IBKR Clients Have Access to the Lowest Margin Rates3

Rated Lowest Margin Fees3 by StockBrokers.com

Margin rates as low as 0.75%

US Margin Loan Rates Comparison4

USD 25K USD 300K USD 1.5M USD 3.5M
Interactive Brokers5 1.55% 1.21% 0.98% 0.85%
E-Trade 8.45% 6.95% 5.45% 5.45%
Fidelity 7.82% 6.57% 4.00% 4.00%
Schwab 7.82% 6.57% N/A N/A
TD Ameritrade 9.00% 7.50% N/A N/A

Each firm's information reflects the standard online margin loan rates obtained from their respective websites. Competitor rates and offers subject to change without notice. Services vary by firm.

Other currency margin loans available at comparably low rates.

Margin borrowing is only for sophisticated investors with high risk tolerance. You may lose more than your initial investment.

IBKR Cares

COVID-19 RESPONSE

Interactive Brokers Group Donates $5 Million to Aid Coronavirus Response

The COVID-19 Global pandemic has triggered unprecedented market conditions with equally unprecedented social and community challenges. In response, Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. has donated $5 million to assist efforts to provide food and support for people hurt by the coronavirus in the United States as well as to advance medical solutions.

IBKR's donation of $5 million will:

  • Provide financial grants to local and national organizations to help meet the greatest needs of our communities and to support the front-line organizations working to treat and contain COVID-19.
  • Contribute to the effort to accelerate and evaluate new and existing drugs for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

"We are fortunate to be in a position to operate our business continuously, through remote access for our employees worldwide and our automated systems,” said Milan Galik, President and Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Brokers. “We hope to assist those in the greatest need during this trying time."

Interactive Brokers Debit Mastercard

EXPANDED OFFERING

Use Your IBKR Account for Cash Management

Unlike other brokers with separate bank accounts in which you must transfer cash back and forth, IBKR's cash management is integrated into our broker account. This means that you can always borrow at the lowest rates without having to worry about first transferring cash.

The IBKR Debit Mastercard

US-based clients can automatically borrow against your broker account at our low margin rates without monthly minimum payments or late fees by adding an IBKR Debit Mastercard to your account. The IBKR Debit Mastercard provides you with the convenience of accessing your account funds anywhere Debit Mastercard is accepted around the world. Coming soon to Canada.

Easily Transfer Money Between Your Bank and IBKR

US-based clients can conveniently transfer funds between their IBKR account and US-based bank accounts electronically through ACH.

Use Bill Pay to Conveniently Pay any Invoice

US-based clients can use our Bill Pay to conveniently send funds to entities such as the tax authorities, your cellular provider or your cable company. If your payee isn't electronically available, we'll print a check to send funds to any vendor such as your dentist or doctor. If there isn't enough idle cash in your account, you can automatically borrow at the lowest rates. Coming soon to Canada.

Conveniently Deposit Funds

Use our mobile app to deposit checks anywhere or sign up for automatic payroll deposit.

New Tools

Investors' Marketplace

Find the Right Service Provider for Your Trading Needs

616

INVESTMENT SERVICES

367

RESEARCH

490

TECHNOLOGY

220

ADMINISTRATIVE

47

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The Investors' Marketplace lets individual traders and investors, institutions and third-party service providers meet and do business together.

Search for and do business with advisors, brokers and money managers. Accredited Investors and Qualified Purchasers can also search for, research and invest in hedge funds. In addition, you can search for third-party institutional-caliber research providers and then access the research directly through Trader Workstation, work with third-party software vendors to expand the functionality of Trader Workstation or team with programming consultants to help with API and FIX CTCI solutions.

With our new geographic search, finding the right solution is easier than ever.

 

DID YOU KNOW?

IBKR Securities Class Action Recovery Service Receives Four Payouts

The IBKR Securities Class Action Recovery solution is an automated service that removes the administrative burden of participating in a securities class action lawsuit. To date, 190 client accounts have received their portion of total recoveries.

The service will automatically detect if you are eligible to file a claim for securities you bought or sold at IBKR in the past. When applicable, the service will submit filings to claims administrators on your behalf and seek to recover funds for compensation. Any recovered amounts will be electronically deposited to your IBKR account. It's that simple!

IBKR clients can participate in the service if they are eligible to trade US or Canadian stocks or bonds, hold an individual, joint or separate trading limit (STL) account with IBKR, or are a client of a fully disclosed introducing broker (IBroker) or a client of a Financial Advisor. Eligible clients can enroll in the service at any time by logging in to Client Portal and selecting the Settings > Account Settings menu. Click the "Configure" icon next to Securities Class Action Recovery to review the Terms & Conditions and subscribe to or unsubscribe from the service.

There is no upfront fee to subscribe to the service, but all recovered amounts are subject to a 20% contingency fee as detailed in the Terms & Conditions.

NEW SERVICES

New Services for IBKR Australia Clients

Short Position Reporting Obligations

IBKR Australia6 now offers its clients the ability to satisfy their short position reporting obligations to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission ("ASIC").

Any client that has a short position, as defined by the relevant regulations in Australia,7 has a requirement to report the position to ASIC daily. There are several third-party vendors that provide this service, often at significant cost. However, IBKR Australia offers this reporting service for free for eligible positions held in your IBKR Australia account.

If you are interested in subscribing to this service, simply log in to your account via the Client Portal , navigate to the Settings > Account Settings menu, click on the "ASIC Short Position Reporting" icon and follow the prompts.

Margin Lending

IBKR Australia6 recently launched margin lending-enabled accounts for natural-person (i.e. individual) clients in Australia. This means all natural-person clients, including retail clients within the meaning of the Corporations Act (Cth) 2001, will be able to open a margin-enabled account with IBKR Australia, subject to IBKR Australia's eligibility criteria.8

In addition, IBKR Australia will also allow non-natural persons clients (i.e. corporate entities) that are retail clients to open margin-enabled accounts.

If you already have an account with IBKR Australia and would like to request an upgrade to a margin account, please log in to Client Portal and request an account type upgrade by navigating to the Settings > Account Settings menu, clicking the Configure (gear) icon for Account Type, selecting either Leveraged Trading Account" or "Professional Investor Account" and clicking "Continue."

Integrated Cash Management

EXPANDED OFFERING

Optimize Lot Matching to Win at Tax Time

Optimize your capital gains and losses for tax reporting with the built-in Tax Optimizer tool. The system default First-In, First-Out (FIFO) lot matching method may not yield the best capital gain/loss results for all trades. The Tax Optimizer lets you try out different lot matching methods to change your trades' cost basis. Compare the resulting P&Ls, which are broken out by long-term and short-term gain or loss, then submit your ideal lot matching scenario to be used for tax reporting. And all without ever having to leave your trading platform.

You can apply a new matching method across all closing trades, or apply different methods to closing trades individually to create the optimal capital gain/loss reporting scenario.

Access Tax Optimizer across all of our trading platforms including Desktop TWS, Client Portal, and IBKR Mobile. Tax Optimizer is not available to Canadian or Interactive Advisors clients.

IBKR Trading Platform

New Tools

New Features for Trading Platforms

We continue to enhance our trading platforms to deliver a powerful and seamless trading experience whether you're trading on-the-go, from your desktop or in Client Portal.

All Platforms
  • Fundamentals Explorer: Redesigned from the ground up, our fundamentals research platform, recently released to Client Portal and IBKR Mobile, is now available - for free – across all platforms including Desktop TWS. Get access to fundamentals data from Thomson Reuters on more than 30,000 companies, reports and newswires from 82 firms and over 5,500 analyst ratings from TipRanks, which recently expanded their non-US ratings coverage to include over 6,000 securities.
IBKR Mobile
  • Post-Order Enrichments: Choose to protect your profit and/or limit your loss on an order using the Exit Strategy tool. Once you submit an order, the new Post Order screen provides one-tap access to the Exit Strategy tool, along with the order status, order summary, and other next-step actions related to the order.
  • Simplified Order Ticket: If you primarily use Limit and Market orders, you can speed up the order entry process with our new simplified order ticket. In the Order Ticket tap "Fewer Options" and we'll show you only what those fields and options you need to see. You can view hidden attributes at any time by tapping "Show More Options" at the bottom of the Order Ticket.
  • Smart Filtering with Type-Ahead: Find a product to trade faster than ever. Smart filtering with type-ahead technology lists the best-matching products as you start to type a symbol or company name, prioritizing those for which you have trading permissions. Tap a product to add it to your screen. Use the full search if you can't find what you're looking for.
Client Portal
  • Full-page Order Ticket: We now offer a dedicated Order Ticket page with specialized product-type tabs to show you additional information that you might find helpful when placing orders.

Visit the Release Notes section of the Documentation page to find out more.

 

NEW PRODUCTS

New Research Offerings on the IBKR Platform

The following research providers were recently added to the IBKR platform.

  • Blackbird Analytics
    BlackWhisper Premium by Blackbird is a stock market analysis service designed to support the creation of trading ideas. With a team of more than 25 analysts, Blackbird offers comprehensive analysis of the current momentum in stocks, currencies and European and US stock indices. Our research complements your analysis by providing an expanded view of markets in real time.
  • MarketDesk Research
    MarketDesk includes easy-to-understand investment research at an affordable price. The research is built to provide actionable investment ideas and cut through the market noise so investors can understand the big picture.

View our current listing of research providers.

Traders' Academy

EXPANDED OFFERINGS

Stay at Home and Learn to Manage Your Finances with IBKR

Traders' Academy offers investors, educators and students over 45 courses on the products, markets, currencies and tools available at Interactive Brokers. Each course uses a syllabus to define instructional goals, clearly states learning objectives and delivers content across multiple lessons. Quizzes and tests are used to benchmark progress against learning objectives and each course uses a combination of online lessons, videos or notes to help students learn at their own pace. In addition, students can ask questions of subject matter experts, provide written feedback on each course and rate their learning experience.

We recently added the following course:

ETF Trading and Liquidity

This course by State Street Global Advisors covers ETF trading factors, market structure and executions, liquidity considerations and ETF and Market Volatility events.



EXPANDED OFFERING

Market Commentary Delivered to Your Inbox

IBKR recently launched a new website for our Traders' Insight and Quant Blog market commentary sites


IBKR Traders' Insight
Market Commentary Delivered to Your Inbox

Traders' Insight, our market commentary blog, features written and video market commentary from nearly 100 contributors. In addition, IBKR's Chief Strategist Steve Sosnick offers market commentary and Senior Analyst Steve Levine provides weekly previews.

Watch IBKR Traders' Insight video commentary from the News monitor panel in TWS by clicking the "expand" button in the News monitor panel and selecting Traders' Insight Video or visit our website. You can also sign up to have daily delivery of Traders' Insight articles to your inbox.

IBKR Qunat Glog
A Growing List of Contributors to the IBKR Quant Blog

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


Connect with IBKR on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Traders' Insight:

IBKR Quant:

Student Trading Lab:

Corporate:

New Products

Interactive Advisors Introduces Exclusion Groups for ESG Investing

Interactive Advisors Socially Responsible Investing portfolios are designed to invest in companies that operate businesses with socially desirable products and services, incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into investment decision-making. The goal is to incentivize better practices from the issuing companies. Portfolios are constructed using a rules-based approach, offered at a relatively low cost and managed by Interactive Advisors' Chief Investment Officer and Investment Management team. Each portfolio has a minimum investment of USD 1,000 and an AUM fee of just 0.11%.

We recently introduced exclusion groups to help ESG investors avoid companies that do not share your values, as well as single stock exclusions that automatically apply to all your investments. Interactive Advisors ensures that detailed business classification and Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) metrics are used in the exclusion group construction process. Each exclusion group typically comprises 25 stocks and is reviewed annually.

Exclusion Groups

  • Animal testing
  • Business ethics controversies
  • Corporate political spending and lobbying
  • Energy intensive
  • Fossil fuels
  • Greenhouse emissions
  • Hazardous waste
  • High water usage
  • Tobacco, alcohol and gambling
  • Weapons and gun manufacturers

Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and all investments, including those in Interactive Advisors portfolios, involve the risk of loss, including loss of principal and a reduction in earnings.

Clients deciding to exclude securities in any of the ESG exclusionary lists from their portfolio investments should understand that these exclusions affect the performance of their portfolio investments. Interactive Advisors provides a tool on its website that allows clients to estimate the performance differences between investing in one of the portfolios as initially constructed and investing in one of the portfolios excluding the securities on any of the exclusionary lists. Clients may find more information on these exclusionary lists, the performance consequences of relying on them, and other risks associated with using them on this webpage: https://interactiveadvisors.com/esg

Interactive Advisors is currently licensed to offer investment services to US residents only. This communication and Interactive Advisors' website are NOT intended to be a solicitation or advertisement in any jurisdiction other than the United States. Interactive Advisors does not provide tax advice, does not make representations regarding the particular tax consequences of any portfolio investments and cannot assist clients with tax filings. Clients investing in Interactive Advisors portfolios should consult with their tax professional about the tax consequences of investing in Interactive Advisors portfolios.

EXPANDED OFFERINGS

Turnkey Solutions for Registered Investment Advisors

IBKR offers turnkey solutions that help advisors of any size build competitive advantage, efficiently manage their business and serve clients at the lowest cost.


Advisor Model Marketplace

The Advisor Model Marketplace is a centralized repository of model portfolios provided by third-party vendors. Model portfolios can help you spend more time with clients by reducing the administrative burden of managing client-specific portfolios. In addition, you may find that model portfolios simplify the process of investing client assets, serve as the basis for creating custom model portfolios, assist in scaling your business and help with regulatory compliance.

You will need to subscribe to Model Portfolios and the Model Marketplace to review our offering of third-party vendor models. Subscribe by logging in to Advisor Portal and selecting the Settings > Account Settings menu item. Click the Configure (gear) icon next to Model Marketplace to subscribe to both.

Once subscribed, you can access the Model Marketplace via the Advisor Setup window in Trader Workstation (TWS) and import models to store as target allocations for your investments, reallocate client funds to newly added model portfolios and periodically rebalance existing portfolios.


Support Global Clients from a Single Integrated Master Account

Interactive Brokers has clients from more than 200 countries and territories. With our new global financial advisor account structure, advisors can now support clients from any jurisdiction with a single, integrated advisor master account.

Advisors still need to apply for an IBKR account and meet the requirements for offering advisory services within any given jurisdiction in which they would like to offer services.

Advisors interested in learning more about the Global Master Account should contact globalfa@interactivebrokers.com.


Greenwich Compliance Helps US Advisors with Registration and Compliance Needs

Greenwich Advisor Compliance Services Corporation (Greenwich Compliance) was launched in 2016 to help advisors trading on the Interactive Brokers platform meet their compliance and registration needs in the United States.

We offer resources and services to help advisors with issues ranging from registration to day-to-day compliance and can help advisors of all stripes, from established registered advisors to those just starting their own firms. Greenwich Compliance professionals have regulatory and industry experience and can help advisors navigate the maze of regulatory requirements and compliance obligations that they face.

Whether you are transitioning from a financial advisory firm, big bank, or a wire house or just starting your own firm, you are likely to have questions about the complex SEC and state registration requirements. Greenwich Compliance professionals are available for a free consultation to answer your questions about when and where to register.

Registration Services
Greenwich Compliance offers direct expert registration and start-up compliance services. At a reasonable cost, Greenwich Compliance professionals take an active role in helping firms through the registration process, including assistance with:

  • Preparing and completing Form ADV and other SEC or state application documents your firm or staff need to file.
  • Drafting client agreements, compliance documents and manuals.
  • Locating third-party providers offering operational and administrative start-up services commonly used by new businesses.

Greenwich Compliance gives advisors customized service and puts in the time to know you and your firm's needs. We strive to provide you with a tailored approach to get you started on the road to running the properly registered and compliant firm your regulators and clients expect.

Compliance Services
Advisors on the Interactive Brokers trading platform can contact Greenwich Compliance for answers to their basic day-to-day compliance questions. Greenwich Compliance will also help guide advisors who need targeted compliance services to third-party providers that specialize in a variety of advisor compliance services, many of whom offer discounts to advisors trading through IB.

Visit Greenwich Compliance for more information.

IBKR AWARDS 2020

Interactive Brokers Takes Top Spot in Barron's Best Online Brokers 2020

Interactive Brokers started 2020 in a familiar spot – being recognized for our low cost, premium trading technology and global product offering.

Barron's 2020 Annual Review

Interactive Brokers ranked #1 – Best Online Broker in Barron's 25th annual ranking of The Best Online Brokers. IBKR was also ranked "Best for Active Traders" and "Best for Retirement Investors" and "Best for International Traders.

2020 Investopedia Awards

Interactive Brokers earned:

  • 4.4 out of 5 stars Overall
  • Best Online Broker for International Trading
  • Best Online Broker for Advanced Traders

2020 Canstar Awards

Interactive Brokers earned Canstar's 5-Star Rating for:

  • Outstanding Value, Online Share Trading – Trader
  • Outstanding Value, Online Share Trading – Active Investor
  • Outstanding Value, Online Share Trading – Casual Investor

2020 Fund Intelligence Technology & WSL Awards

Interactive Brokers was recognized by the 2020 Fund Intelligence Technology & WSL Awards as:

  • Best Broker-Dealer Client Service
  • Best futures Trading Broker
Margin borrowing is only for sophisticated investors with high risk tolerance. You may lose more than your initial 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.

Margin loan rates and credit interest rates are subject to change without prior notice.

BY USING THIS CARD YOU AGREE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE CARDHOLDER AGREEMENT INCLUDING THE ZERO LIABILITY REQUIREMENTS AND FEE SCHEDULE, IF ANY. This card is issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank (Member FDIC) pursuant to a license from Mastercard International. "Metropolitan Commercial Bank" and "Metropolitan" are registered trademarks of Metropolitan Commercial Bank© 2014.

All interest and borrowing activity is through Interactive Brokers LLC. Please see your customer agreement with Interactive Brokers LLC for further details.

Card program marketed and administered by Interactive Brokers LLC, the Program Manager of the Interactive Brokers Debit Mastercard.

[1] Number of no load and no fee fund offerings were obtained from the Investopedia – Best Online Brokers 2020 review from March 31, 2020. Services vary by firms. Some firms listed in the review may have additional fees or reduced commissions or fees, depending on account activity or value. Additional supporting documentation for claims and statistical information will be provided upon request.

[2] The company also offers approximately 400 funds with higher commissions.

[3] According to StockBrokers.com Online Broker Survey 2020: Read the full article Online Broker Reviews, February 12, 2020. "Interactive Brokers leads the industry with the lowest margin rates."

[4] Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on USD margin loan balances for IBKR Pro as of 5/1/2020. Interactive Brokers calculates the interest charged on margin loans using the applicable rates for each interest rate tier listed on its website. For additional information on margin loan rates, see ibkr.com/interest.

[5] IB calculates the interest charged on margin loans using the applicable rates for each interest rate tier listed on its website. For additional information, see ibkr.com/interest.

[6] IBKR Australia (AFSL No. 453554) is headquartered in Sydney and was established to provide services to our Australian clients.

[7] The Corporations Act 2001 ("Corporations Act") and the Corporations Regulations 2001 ("Corporations Regulations")

[8] Please click here for more information on the retail vs non-retail distinction in IBKR Australia.

Margin loan rates and credit interest rates are subject to change without prior notice.

Please keep in mind that Interactive Advisors is currently licensed to offer investment services to US residents only. This communication or Interactive Advisors' website is NOT intended to be a solicitation or advertisement in any jurisdiction other than the United States. Note that commissions for trades in these portfolios charged by Interactive Advisors' affiliate, Interactive Brokers LLC, are separate and in addition to our management fee. For Interactive Advisors' disclosures, please review this document: Form ADV Part 2 Informational Brochure

Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and all investments, including those in Interactive Advisors portfolios, involve the risk of loss, including loss of principal and a reduction in earnings.

Interactive Advisors does not provide tax advice, does not make representations regarding the particular tax consequences of any portfolio investments, and cannot assist clients with tax filings. Clients investing in Interactive Advisors portfolios should consult with their tax professional about the tax consequences of investing in this portfolio or any other Interactive Advisors portfolio.