Step 1: Open a new “What-if” portfolio

From the Classic TWS trading platform, select the Analytical Tools, Risk Navigator, and then Open New What-If menu options (Exhibit1).

Exhibit 1
 

From the Mosaic TWS trading platform, select New Window, Risk Navigator, and then Open New What-If menu options.

Step 2: Define starting portfolio

A pop-up window will appear (Exhibit 2) from which you will be prompted to define whether you would like to create a hypothetical portfolio starting from your current portfolio or a newly created portfolio. Clicking on the "yes" button will serve to download existing positions to the new “What-If” portfolio.

Exhibit 2
 

Clicking on the "No" button will open up the “What – If” Portfolio with no positions.

Risk Dashboard

The Risk Dashboard is pinned along the top of the product tab-sets, and is and is available for what-if as well as active portfolios. The values are calculated on demand for what-if portfolios. The dashboard provides at-a-glance account information including:

1) Net Liquidation Value: The total Net Liquidation Value for the account
2) P&L: The total daily P&L for the entire portfolio
3) Maintenance Margin: Total current maintenance margin
4) Initial Margin: Total initial margin requirements
5) VAR: Shows the Value at risk for the entire portfolio
6) Expected Shortfall (ES): Expected Shortfall (average value at risk) is expected return of the portfolio in the worst case
 

Alternative Margin Calculator

The Alternative Margin Calculator, accessed from the Setting menu and clicking on the Margin Mode (Exhibit 3), shows how the margin change will affect the overall margin requirement, once fully implemented.

Exhibit 3
 

Step 3: Selecting Margin Mode Settings

A pop-up window will appear (Exhibit 4) entitled Margin Mode Setting. You can use the drop-down menu in that window to change the margin calculations from Default (being the current policy) to the new title of the new Margin Setting (being the new margin policy). Once you have made a selection click on the OK button in that window.

Exhibit 4
 

Once the new margin mode setting is specified, the Risk Navigator Dashboard will automatically update to reflect your choice. You can toggle back and forth between the Margin Mode settings. Note that the current Margin Mode will be shown in the lower left hand corner of the Risk Navigator window (Exhibit 5).

Exhibit 5
 

Step 4: Add Positions

To add a position to the "What - If" portfolio, click on the green row titled "New" and then enter the underlying symbol (Exhibit 6), define the product type (Exhibit 7) and enter position quantity (Exhibit 8)

Exhibit 6
 

Exhibit 7

Exhibit 8

You can modify the positions to see how that changes the margin. After you altered your positions you will need to click on the recalculate icon () to the right of the margin numbers in order to have them update. Whenever that icon is present the margin numbers are not up-to-date with the content of the What-If Portfolio.

Once logged in to TWS for Mobile, all users have a 20-minute grace period during which they can take a call or use another app and still retain full access to their trading session without having to perform a full login (username/password + second factor authentication). After this grace period, users who have fingerprint security enabled on their device will enjoy secure trading for up to 30 hours without having to complete the full login.

How to Place a D-Peg Order

Please note, the IEX D-Peg order type is only available via the TWS version 961 and above. Instructions for entering this order type are outlined below:

Step 1

Enter a symbol and choose a directed quote, selecting IEX as the destination. Right click on the data line and select Trade followed by Order Ticket to open the Order Ticket window.

Step 2

Select the REL order type from the Order Type drop down menu.

Step 3

Click on the Miscellaneous tab (Misc.) and at the bottom there will be a checkbox for "Discretionary up to limit". Check this box. The price that you set in the Limit Price field will be used at the discretionary price on the order.

Step 4 

Hit Preview to view the Order Preview window.

For additional information concerning this order type, please review the following exchange website link: https://www.iextrading.com/trading/dpeg/

BACKGROUND

IBKR offers eligible clients the option of receiving a real-time price quote for a single instrument on a request basis. This service, referred to as “Snapshot Quotes” differs from the traditional quote services which offer continuous streaming and updates of real-time prices. Snapshot Quotes are offered as a low-cost alternative to clients who do not trade regularly and require data from specific exchanges¹ when submitting an order. Additional details regarding this quote service is provided below. 

QUOTE COMPONENTS

The Snapshot quote includes the following data:        

• Last price
• Last size
• Last exchange
• Current bid-ask
• Size for each of current bid-ask
• Exchange for each of current bid-ask 

AVAILABLE SERVICES

¹In accordance with regulatory requirements, IBKR no longer offers delayed quotation information on U.S. equities to Interactive Brokers LLC clients. All clients (IBKR Lite and Pro) have access to streaming real-time US equity quotes from Cboe One and IEX at no charge. Since this data does not include all markets, IB does not show this quote when entering parameters for an order in a US stock quote. IB customers are able to access a snapshot of real-time quote information for US stocks at the point of order entry.

²Cost is per snapshot quote request and will be assessed in the Base Currency equivalent, if not USD.

ELIGIBILITY

• Accounts must maintain the Market Data Subscription Minimum and Maintenance Equity Balance Requirements in order to qualify for Snapshot quotes.
• The Users must operate TWS Build 976.0 or higher to access Snapshot quote functionality.

PRICING DETAILS

• Clients will receive $1.00 of snapshot quotes free of charge each month. Free snaphots may be applied to either U.S. or non-U.S. quote requests and charges will be applied, without additional notice, once the free allocation has been exhausted. Clients may review their snapshot usage as of the close of each business day via the Client Portal.
• Quote fees are assessed on a lag basis, generally in the first week after the month in which Snapshot services were provided. Accounts which do not have sufficient cash or Equity With Loan Value to cover the monthly fee will be subject to position liquidations.
• The monthly fee for snapshots will be capped at the related streaming real-time monthly service price. At which time the streaming quotes will be provided at no additional cost for the remainder of the month.  The switch to streaming quotes will take place at approximately 18:30 EST the following business day after reaching the snapshot threshold. At the close of the month, the streaming service will automatically terminate and the snapshot counter will reset. Each service is capped independently of the others and quote requests for one service cannot be counted towards the cap of another. See table below for sample details.