Hong Kong – China Stock Connect (“China Connect”) is a mutual market access program through which Hong Kong and international investors can trade shares listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) via the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK) and their existing clearinghouse. As a member of SEHK, IBKR provides you with direct access to trade with eligible listed products on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange. IBKR clients with China Connect trading permissions will be eligible to trade SSE/SZSE securities through Shanghai and Shenzhen - Stock Connect.

Among the different types of SSE/SZSE-listed securities, only A shares (shares in mainland China-based companies that trade on Chinese stock exchange) are included in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Connect.

Shanghai Connect includes all the constituent stocks of the SSE 180 Index, SSE 380 Index and all the SSE-listed A shares that have corresponding H shares listed on the SEHK.

Product List and Stock Codes for SSE

Shenzhen Connect includes all the constituent stocks of the SZSE Component Index, the SZSE Small/Mid Cap Innovation Index that have a market capitalization of not less than RMB 6 billion and all the SZSE-listed A shares that have corresponding H shares listed on SEHK.

Product List and Stock Codes for SZSE

IBKR Commission for Trading SSE/SZSE Securities

Same as trading Hong Kong stocks, IBKR charges only 0.08% of trade value as a commission with a minimum CNH 15 per order. Detailed fee rates can be found in the Hong Kong – China Stock Connect Northbound fee table.

Daily Quota

Trading under Shanghai Connect and Shenzhen Connect is subject to a Daily Quota. The Daily Quota is applied on a “net buy” basis. The Daily Quota limits the maximum net buy value of cross-boundary trades under Shanghai Connect and Shenzhen Connect each day.

If the Northbound Daily Quota Balance drops to zero or the Daily Quota is exceeded during the opening call auction session, new buy orders will be rejected. Or if it happens during a continuous auction session or closing call auction session, no further buy orders will be accepted for the remainder of the day. SEHK will resume the Northbound buying service on the following trading day.

SEHK will also publish the remaining balance of the Aggregate Quota and Daily Quota.

For details, please refer to HKEX Stock Connect FAQ or HKEX Stock Connect Rule 1407

Trading Information of Shanghai and Shenzhen Connect

*Due to the unsynchronized settlement cycle, clients who exchange CNH themselves should execute the Forex trade one day prior to the stock trade (T-1) to avoid the extra day’s interest payment (considering normal settlement without involving holidays).

Trading Hours

Half-day Trading

If a Northbound trading day is a half-trading day in the Hong Kong market, it will continue until respective Connect Market is closed. Refer to the exchange website for holiday trading arrangements and additional information.

Disclosure Obligation

If client holds or controls up to 5% of the issued shares of China Connect, the client is required to report in writing to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”) and the relevant exchange, and inform the Mainland listed company within three working days of reaching 5%.

The client is not allowed to continue purchasing or selling shares in that Mainland listed company during the three days notification period. Visit the IBKR Knowledge Base for more information.

Shareholding Restriction

A single foreign investor’s shareholding in a Mainland listed company is not allowed to exceed 10% of the company’s total issued shares, while all foreign investors’ shareholding in the A shares of the listed company is not allowed to exceed 30% of its total issued shares. Visit the IBKR Knowledge Base for more information.

Forced-sale Arrangement

Each IBKR client is not allowed to hold more than a specific percentage of the China Connect listing company's total issued shares. HKEX requires the client to follow the forced-sell requirements if the shares exceed the limit:

Margin Financing

Margin trading in China Connect securities will subject to restrictions and only certain A shares will be eligible for margin trading. Eligible Securities, as determined by SSE and SZSE from time to time, are listed on the HKEX website. 

According to the relevant rules of SSE and SZSE, either market may suspend margin trading activities in specific A shares when the volume of margin trading activities for a specific A share exceeds the prescribed threshold. The market will resume margin trading activities in the affected A share when its volume drops below a prescribed threshold.

Stock Borrowing and Lending (SBL)

SBL in China Stock Connect Securities is subject to restrictions set by the SSE or SZSE and stated in the Rules of the Exchange.
IBHK does not offer this service at the moment.

Eligible Short Selling Securities

SBL for the purpose of short selling will be limited to those China Stock Connect Securities that are eligible for both buy orders and sell orders through Shanghai and Shenzhen Connect (i.e., excluding Connect Securities that are only eligible for sell orders).
IBHK does not offer this service at the moment.

Trading Shenzhen ChiNext and Shanghai Star shares

Trading Shenzhen ChiNext and Shanghai Star shares are limited to institutional professional investors.

Holidays

Clients will only be allowed to trade China Connect on days where Hong Kong and Mainland markets are both open for trading and banking services are available in both Hong Kong and Mainland markets on the corresponding settlement days. This arrangement is essential in ensuring that investors and brokers will have the necessary banking support on the relevant settlement days when they will be required to make payments.

The following table illustrates the holiday arrangement of Northbound trading of SSE/SZSE Securities:

Severe Weather Conditions

Information on the trading arrangement available under severe weather conditions can found on the HKEx website. 

Where to Learn More?

Please refer to the following exchange website links for additional information regarding Hong Kong China Stock Connect:

• About Stock Connect
• Getting Started – Stock Connect (PDF)

If you have any questions regarding Hong Kong-China Stock Connect, please contact IBKR Client Services for further information.
 

Effective August 1, 2012, a new tax will be implemented on the purchase of certain French securities.

Tax Rate

The initial announced tax rate was to be 0.10%; however based on updated information the applied tax rate is intended to be 0.20%.

Effective January 1, 2017 the rate will increase from 0.20% to 0.30%.

Scope

The FTT will be applied to shares of companies whose head office is located in France and whose market capitalisation exceeds EUR 1 billion. The French authorities will update a list each December with the names of companies which meet these requirements. At its launch, 109 French companies will fall under the scope of the FTT.

The purchase of a derivative contract is not subject to the FTT; however the acquisition of the underlying stock upon exercise or delivery of the derivative instrument will be subject to FTT. Similarly a convertible instrument will become subject to the FTT upon conversion or exchange into the stock.

American Depsitory Receipts (ADRS) are similarly subject to the FTT however the implementation date has been delayed to December 1, 2012.

Corporate action events which result in the acquisition of a French security subject to the FTT regulation, will have tax applied at the processing date.

Under the present rules, you can trade CFDs on French shares without incurring FTT in the same way as you are able to trade UK share CFDs without incurring stamp duty. All shares affected by the French FTT are available to trade as IB CFDs.

Please click here for for detailed information and frequently asked questions about our CFD offering.

Calculation Method

The legislation allows for the application of FTT based on the daily net purchase per final beneficiary. As an Investment Services Provider (ISP), Interactive Brokers will report FTT to our various clearing agents. As such, transactions will be eligible for netting if the shares settle at the same location. For instance, purchases and sales in France may be netted; however a purchase in France will not be netted against a sale in Germany.

IBKR's option commission charge consists of two parts:

1. The execution fee which accrues to IBKR.  For Smart Routed orders this fee is set at $0.65 per contract, reduced to as low as $0.15 per contract for orders in excess of 100,000 contracts in a given month (see website for costs on Direct Routed orders, reduced rates on low premium options and minimum order charges); and 

2. Third party exchange, regulatory and/or transaction fees.

In the case of third party fees, certain U.S. option exchanges maintain a liquidity fee/rebate structure which, when aggregated with the IBKR execution fee and any other regulatory and/or transaction fees, may result in an overall per contract commission charge that varies from one order to another.  This is attributable to the exchange portion of the calculation, the result of which may be a payment to the customer rather than a fee, and which depends upon a number of factors outside of IBKR's control including the customer's order attributes and the prevailing bid-ask quotes.

Exchanges which operate under this liquidity fee/rebate model charge a fee for orders which serve to remove liquidity (i.e., marketable orders) and provide a credit for orders which add liquidity (i.e., limit orders which are not marketable). Fees can vary by exchange, customer type (e.g., public, broker-dealer, firm, market maker, professional), and option underlying with public customer rebates (credits) generally ranging from $0.10 - $0.90 and public customer fees from $0.01 - $0.95. 

IBKR is obligated to route marketable option orders to the exchange providing the best execution price and the Smart Router takes into consideration liquidity removal fees when determining which exchange to route the order to when the inside market is shared by multiple (i.e., will route the order to the exchange with the lowest or no fee).  Accordingly, the Smart Router will only route a market order to an exchange which charges a higher fee if they can better the market by at least $0.01 (which, given the standard option multiplier of 100 would result in price improvement of $1.00 which is greater than the largest liquidity removal fee).

For additional information on the concept of adding/removing liquidity, including examples, please refer to KB201.

IBKR currently offers a Tiered pricing commission structure for select European and Asian exchanges. Customers may take advantage of reduced commissions based on the volume traded on a monthly basis across eligible exchanges.

European Tiered Commission

Currently IBKR offers the Tiered commission structure for stocks in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

IBKR maintains the EUR-equivalent, CHF-equivalent, DKK-equivalent, USD-equivalent, GBP-equivalent, NOK-equivalent and SEK-equivalent trade values of all executions traded under the Tiered model. Conversions are done using the prior day's exchange rate. This accounting allows for a customer whose primary trading is on the Swedish stock exchange to easily compare statement information to the tier breaks on the IBKR website and still receive the benefit of a reduced tier when trading a EUR-denominated stock eligible for Tiered pricing.

Asia/Pacific Tiered Commission

Currently IBKR offers the Tiered commission structure for trades in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. IBKR maintains the AUD-equivalent, HKD-equivalent, JPY-equivalent and SGD-equivalent trade values of all executions traded under the Tiered model. Conversions are done using the prior trading day's exchange rate. This accounting method allows for a customer whose primary trading is on the Hong Kong stock exchange to easily compare statement information to the tier breaks on the IBKR website and still receive the benefit of a reduced tier when trading a JPY-denominated stock eligible for Tiered pricing.

General

Tier breaks and the applicable commission rates are provided on the IBKR website. In general, volume/value tiers are calculated once daily, not at the time of the trade. As such, execution reductions will start the trading day after the threshold has been exceeded.

Example

Assume an account has executed trades on the Hong Kong stock exchange on August 1 against a trade value of 15,100,000 HKD. The account's monthly trading value will be tracked as follows:

HKD value = 15,100,000

SGD value = (15,100,000 x 0.16048 exchange rate) = 2,423,248

JPY value = (15,100,000 x 10.075 exchange rate) = 152,132,500

The following day, for an execution on the Tokyo stock exchange commissions will be based on the month to date trade value as expressed in JPY, which in the example is 152,132,500. This month to date trade value exceeds the Tier 1 threshold therefore the trade will be commissioned at the Tier 2 level, or 0.05%.

Note that the above may lead an account to be charged commissions on two different tiers on the same trade date due to exchange rate fluctuations. Traders should take note of this possibility when trading across multiple venues.

Please be aware that examples provided above are for instructional purposes only and may not reflect current commission rates. Please always refer to the IBKR website for the most updated commission and fee rates.