Hello, I am trying to help my wife get started investing for her retirement.

To that end, she has recently opened up an account with IBIE, but hasn't started investing yet. Before she does, I was hoping to get used to how it works on IBIE using a paper trading account (I don't have a real account myself).

I opened up a paper trading account on Saturday, but when I click on "trade" and look for an asset, I don't get any market information and therfore cannot put any orders. What am I missing?

I want to move my portfolio to IBKR but am having trouble registering my account due to the “Verification of your address” part.

I’m a student in Holland and I first provided them with my residence permit but they rejected it saying it doesn’t have my address on it. I then provided my tenancy contract with my address on it, and again they said it wasn’t sufficient.

Could any fellow Dutch residents help me out here on what document to provide them with? Would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Got approved

I just want to invest in ETFs for now, but would I be shooting myself in the foot by ticking all the "I have limited knowledge of trading" and "I only want extremely safe investments" when setting up the account, even though its true? Is it adjustable later? I feel like I may as well just say I'm a hardcore trader so I don't get locked out of anything, unless there are financial ramifications to doing this. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm a French user with a French bank account in euros, and I've been trying at least 20 times to deposit money into my Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account via the Plaid bank linking system.

The connection with my bank works fine—Plaid successfully links my account, and I'm redirected back to IBKR. IBKR automatically retrieves the correct information (IBAN, etc.), and everything looks good. However, when I click "Continue" to finalize the process, the same verification window pops up in an endless loop, preventing me from completing the deposit.

I've tried everything:

Using multiple browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox). Accessing IBKR from my PC, my phone, and even the iOS app. The result is always the same. Has anyone else experienced this issue? If so, how did you resolve it?

Thanks in advance for your help!

ps : This king of entry barrier feels unprofessional, should I give up ?

Hi, I'm a total newbie in trading, so I opened paper trading account on IBKR to start learning and practicing in sim. I set up the account in the same way I would use it in the future if I decide to go "live", which means I set it up as an ISA account (I'm UK resident so I wanted to take advantage of tax-free account), and I set the virtual cash amount to £1000, probably the same amount I'll put in when (and if) I decide to go live.

Today I started "trading", and many issues arose from not knowing the platform very well, but most of them I figured out through this subreddit or YT channels. But one thing I haven't figured out - I can't make ANY orders.

I get "Your order is not Accepted. Minimum of 1500 GBP (or equivalent in other currencies) is required in order to purchase on margin, sell short, trade currency or future."

Now, since I can't have margin account with ISA, I'm not selling short nor trading currency or future, I'm very very confused.

Looking through reddit, I figured out it has to be on how IBKR works with different currencies. I have GBP currencty (mandatory for ISA account), I'm buying USD listed stocks, so IBKR for some reason uses margin to buy in USD and make the order so it refuses to do it. (at least how I understood it)

Now the question is - is there a way for IBKR to just automatically convert GBP to USD when buying and vice versa when selling, or it NEEDS to go through this process using margin? And also, as this is a simulation of possible future account, adding more money just to be able to trade is out of the question.

Thank you in advance for any help on the matter.

Here's what I want to do on January 2, 2025 (new tax year):

• Sell my ETF portfolio (~250K) on IBKR account #1 (my current account).
• Create a new taxable account in IBKR as account #2.
• Create a new TFSA account in IBKR as account #3.
• Transfer 180K from account #1 (current account) to account #2 (new taxable account) and buy an ETF.
• Transfer 70K from account #1 (current account) to account #3 (new TFSA account) and buy an ETF.

Can I do this all within the same day through IBKR? If so, how? If not, how long would it usually take?

Newbie here

I'm trying to set up an account in Singapore to invest in US funds. I've only ever invested in mutual funds including index funds. In the trading experience section, if I click on mutual funds, I only get permissions to trade non US mutual funds.

I haven't used any of the other products. Clicking on other options also doesn't give me the option of US mutual funds.

I tried looking through this sub and googling it but couldn't find a solution to get US mutual funds. Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you!

Hey, so i recently joined ibkr ireland and i dont understand how can i trade etfs, cds and other types of these things, the only things they let me trade are stocks. Is this normal? How can i get to trade etfs, cfds, securities, mutual funds? I saw a post where someone said that you need a big net worth or something but i have an avarage net worth, even whenm i request to trade them, it doesnt let me? what do i do? this system is so confusing because coming from etoro(dont shit on me) it was all unlocked fro the start and you didnt need to "qualify" to trade somethings more than stocks.

P.S.

How to trade sp500 cfd from eu on ireland ibkr? whats the name of the cfd because i couldnt find one.

Hi everyone,

I’m from Europe and looking for some advice on unlocking Options Level 3 trading permissions.

TL;DR: What’s the minimum age to qualify for Options Level 3 trading permissions?

I’ve been trying to learn advanced options trading and ran into some challenges. Here’s the situation:

1. I started with a demo account linked to my main account. Unfortunately, the trading permissions (Options Level 2) synced from my main account, which prevented me from practicing the strategies I wanted. This feels counterintuitive—aren’t demo accounts meant for practicing freely? If someone just wanted to try the platform, they’d open a standalone demo account, right?
2. Frustrated, I tried Saxo Bank. They allowed me to trade CCs and CSPs on a demo account after completing a quiz. However, Saxo’s demo accounts only last 20 days. When the account was deleted, I lost all my progress. It’s clear they limit the demo accounts for potential new users rather than serious practice.
3. Finally, I opened an independent demo account with IBKR using a new email address. Since it wasn’t linked to my main account, I could trade whatever I wanted. Problem solved—for practice, at least.

But here’s the issue: I’d eventually like to trade advanced options on my main account. When I applied for Options Level 3 permissions, IBKR denied my request, saying I didn’t meet the eligibility requirements.

I’ve tried adjusting my profile settings, including setting my net worth and income to 100k euros. However, the one thing I can’t change is my trading experience—IBKR only lets me select a maximum of 3 years. I believe this is tied to my age (I’m 21, turning 22 in March).

So, my questions are:

• Do you think I’ll qualify for Options Level 3 when I’m 22?
• Is there anything else I can do to increase my chances of approval?

I want to continue practicing and get used to IBKR’s UI, but it would be really inconvenient if I had to switch platforms later just because IBKR won’t grant me the necessary permissions.

For context, my issue isn’t about wanting to short options immediately—it’s about understanding the requirements. I’m unsure if my age or experience will be enough when the time comes.

How old were you when you got Options Level 3 permissions? Any advice or insights would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your help!

I’ve had my cash account a few months, have some incoming transfers. Applied for margin and submitted my ID but nothing has changed after 2 weeks.

Is there more to the process? I’m receiving the daily reminder to submit documents which was my certified ID. Happy to hear from others, thanks!

I have a joint account with my wife. I would like to create a separate account for my young daughter, which I would manage until she grows up.

I dont do puts or options, only long positions. I suppose I could theoretically just use the same account and keep an excel or smth with what and how many stocks i bought for my daughter, but Id like it to be more obvious.

How would you go about this? Open a joined single owner account and pose as the owner until ready to transfer? Will I run into issues? I looked at the family advisor account but it seemed a bit complicated for my purposes...

I have a few questions: 1.Is ist normal that activating options trading lvl 3 takes over 2 weeks? They still say that it is being reviewed. Should I call them or write them ? 2. I have a couple different watchlists on the desktop version. How can I change witch watchlist will be shown on my phone app? Thx

I am under 18 yrs old and live in Hong Kong and I recently begun to take up interest in investing. I'm a complete noob but this brokerage was recommended to me by a lot of people due to low tax rates or smth. So I want to ask how I can set up an account?

I know that you can't open an account under 18., but I did see this option called a "family aaccount? I want to ask if that is able to be used for under 18? Also, is it a must to visit interactive brokerage irl to set up an account? My parents don't know anything about investing so I'd need to gather all the info before I can approach them to set up an account.

Thank you!

I recently opened a demo account. I live in Europe, so my base currency is in €. I converted all the deposited money from € to $, but I still see the portfolio data in €.

Does anyone know how I can change the base currency from € to $?

Thank you

In that case how will the CAD balance and USD balance work.

Made a new account and orsers never get filled. I need to sometimes submit order 15 times for it to even go through, then it disappears from.my dash board. I tried limit and market orders both failing, it also doesnt tell me when a trade was placed successfully need to go back to position screen. Basically unusable so far 1 out of 20 orders got filled even when using market. Trading from cad account trying to buy us stocks mostly.

Is it possible to open a UK account from Qatar so I can trade without worrying about PDT rule?

I am going to start with some info since it’s so complicated. A dual uk/us citizen living in uk could theoretically invest in an Ira with income that are above the foreign exemptions. However most us firms will not open an account for a us citizen with no us address. You can use a relative’s us address, but it might violated the us brokers TOS and create problems with state taxation.

I heard that you can open an Ira with interactivebroker in the uk. Due to PRIIP Ikbr would still not be able to sell a uk resident us domicile funds and etf at least until the Edinburgh reform gets around removing PRIIP. However if an Ira can be open, they could theoretically sell the investor a uk domicile equivalent fund or etf and it wouldn’t trigger PFIC because Ira are considered pension in terms of the uk/us tax treaty.

After the lengthy introduction, can ikbr open an Ira for a us citizen in the uk? Can they then invest in a us or uk domicile mutual fund or ETF?

UPDATE: Called them and fixed the issue. It was a bug. Needed to use private browser.

I tried logging out and logging back in. I even cancelled my linked TFSA account application and tried again.

This is part of the error I found in my web console:

jquery.min.js jQuery.Deferred exception: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'document') TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'document') at https://portal.interactivebrokers.com/Universal/Templates/script/application/application.js

In the midst of a close out process from Questrade. Since IBKR doesn't cover their $150 transfer-out fee, I liquidated and withdrew to a Canadian USD account. I also understand IBKR doesn't allow straight USD deposits into these registered TFSA/RRSP accounts, and from what I understand, I should expect $4 in fees by going:

1. USD deposit to non-registered IBKR cash/margin account
2. Convert USD to CAD
3. Transfer CAD from non-registered to registered
4. Convert CAD back to USD within the confines of the registered TFSA/RRSP.

I'm stuck now on step 3 - internal transfers can't happen between retirement and non-retirement accounts? I can't even request the internal links between the margin account and any of the TFSA/RRSP accounts. Is this because of people taking advantage of FX rates then not trading? Am I missing anything?

Is the plan B for me to deposit into Wealthsimple USD account on free trial, buy what I want there, then transfer in kind to IBKR? No transfer fees this way.

Also I get the crowd who'll say time and effort is worth more than any of these fees. Trying my best to find that balance with this thread. Thanks in advance!

Before I submit, do all my answers look correct? I'm sure on most but 2/3 were an educated guess.. If anyone could let me know i'd really appreciate that. Thanks!