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Why is my chart delayed, showing question marks or only partially populated?

Background: 
What  are SMART Charts and how are they generated?

The SMART charting mechanism analyzes and compares the market data coming from all venues a given contract is traded on and graphically displays the most favorable quotes.

When all the data streams are live, the data points are available for all sources and for each time point, thus they can be fully compared. The resulting SMART chart will be up to date and fully populated, moreover it will constantly and automatically update1.  

The comparison between non synchronized market data streams (some live and some delayed) is just partially possible, since the delayed feeds are lacking data points for the last 15 or 20 minutes. Therefore, within that time frame, the SMART chart will usually display a series of yellow question marks to indicate unavailability of source data. In this case the SMART Chart will not update automatically.

When the lack of data points is more extensive or when the Exchange does not distribute delayed data for a given contract, the correspondent SMART Chart may be completely blank.

What should I do to obtain a fully populated, up-to-date chart?

If your trading method is based on SMART charts, you would need to activate the live market data subscriptions for all the marketplaces your financial instruments are traded on. For additional details, please see KB1201

If your trading method does not require SMART charts, you can decide to use Direct chart routing as a workaround.

A Directed Chart will allow you to graphically represent the market data coming from a single, specific Exchange. When possible, we suggest to select the primary marketplace for the product for this purpose, since this is usually the one offering the highest liquidity and trade volume, hence normally providing the most favorable quotes. If you have subscribed the market data for that venue, the resulting Directed Chart will be fully populated, up to date and it will update automatically1.

 
How do I set up a Directed Chart?

1.  Within a watchlist, type the contract symbol and press Enter on your keyboard.


2.  When then contract selection menu appears, select the item Stock (Directed). If you do not see this item, click on the small down arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal the hidden menu items.


3.  The Exchange selection screen will appear. You can now select the main Exchange for the product or the Exchange for which you have an active live market data subscription. Once done, click OK.


4.  Within your watchlist you will see a newly created Directed Ticker line. It will contain the contract symbol and, preceded by the @ sign, the Exchange you selected at the previous step. Right click on that directed ticker line and select Chart > New Chart

 

5. The chart will be shown. On the left side of the toolbar, after the contract symbol, you will see the Exchange you selected preceeded by a @ sign, indicating that this is a Directed Chart.
 

Notes
1. In order for the chart to update automatically, the checkbox "Keep chart up to date" has to be activated in the Chart Parameters panel. The panel is reachable directly within the chart window, from the top menu Edit.

Exposure Fee Calculation Reports

INTRODUCTION

Our Account Management system lets you configure and manage your account from a single window, including our Exposure Fee Calculations report. The Exposure Fee Calculations is generated daily and made available within Account Management prior to the U.S. equity market open. This report allows users to view the change in Profit and Loss (PnL) of your positions if the price of each of your positions declines and increases by predetermined percentages.

 

REPORT ACCESS

To access/generate an Exposure Fee Calculations Report

1) From the Account Management Home Page, click on the Reports and then Other Reports menu options.
 

2) The following screen will appear.


 

3) Select Exposure Fee Calculations from the Report Type drop-down. Exposure Fee Calculations settings appear


 

4) In the Date field,select the date for the report
5) Click Run Report

 

REPORT OVERVIEW

The Exposure Fee Summary Reports reflects the Average Exposure and the corresponding Exposure Fee for each Sector1 and a hyper-link to view our Sensitivity Report for the Correlated Exposure Fee

 

Detailed Sector Summary

Clicking on the hyper-link associated with each sector1 will populate a detailed summary, which allows users to see the change in the PNL of your positions if the price of the corresponding ETF/Index increases / declines by a pre-determined amount. For the example of Equity Stocks and Indices we are assuming SPX declines by 30%, 20% and 10% and independent increases by 10% and 20% The results are based on theoretical pricing models and take into account coincidental changes in volatility and other variables that affect derivative prices

The report shows: 

  • The Net Liquidation Value (NLV) of your account based on positions from the previous day’s close 
  • Average Exposure for the sector 
  • Corresponding Exposure Fee
  • Equity of all positions in the account with PNL in base currency

To use the report, click the radio button that corresponds to the up or down price change you want to see (+/- 10%, 20% or +30%). The PNL for each position is updated by the selected percentage

The following are figure shows an example of a Detailed Summary of the Equity Sector, with -30% selected


1 Accounts may have Average Exposure and a corresponded Exposure Fee for more than 1 Sector

 

Sensitivity Report for the Correlated Exposure Fee

For every contract in the portfolio we compute an estimate of the exposure fee if the position of a single contract is modified. We assume that contracts are bought or sold, as opposed to transferred in/out. The position change is not editable and in some cases may actually require the account to reverse the direction of their position, for example from a short position to long position. 


 

For additional information regarding the Exposure Fee, please see KB3114

Cryptocurrency Products Offered by IBKR

Overview: 

Below is a list of many of the Cryptocurrency products offered by IBKR*. If you don't see the product you are looking for, you can search the IBKR contract database through the Contract Search tool available on our website. Select the Support menu followed by your account type (Individual or Institution). Here you can do a Simple search by entering the product name or symbol, an Advanced search which allows you add filters to the search, or a search by specific product type.

Cryptocurrency

  • BTC- Bitcoin
  • ETH- Ethereum
  • LTC- Litecoin
  • BCH- Bitcoin Cash

Stocks/ETFs

US

  • GBTC (PINK)- Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust
  • BCHG (PINK)- Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust
  • ETCG (PINK)- Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust
  • ETHE (PINK)- Grayscale Ethereum Trust
  • GDLC (PINK)- Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund
  • LTCN (PINK)- Grayscale Litecoin Trust

Non-US

  • BITCOINXB (SFB)- Bitcoin Tracker One
  • COINETH (SFB)- XBT Provider Ethereum
  • COINETHE (SFB)- XBT Provider Ethereum

Indices

  • NYXBT (NYSE)- NYSE Bitcoin Index
  • GXBT (Cboe)- The Gemini Bitcoin Trace Price Index (No new contracts offered for trading as of June 2019)
  • BRR (CME)- CME Bitcoin Reference Rate Index
  • BRTI (CME)- CME Bitcoin Real Time Index

Futures

  • GXBT (Cboe/CFE)- The Gemini Bitcoin Trace Price Futures (No new contracts offered for trading as of June 2019)
  • BRR (CMECrypto)- CME Bitcoin Reference Rate Futures
  • ETHUSDRR (CMECrypto) – CME Ether Dollar Reference Rate Futures
  • BAKKT (ICECRYPTO)- Bakkt Bitcoin Futures

 

*Some or all of the above products may not be available to IBKR clients located in certain jurisdictions.

Back to Table of Contents: Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrency Products @ IBKR

How to update the US Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) on your account

Background: 

If you have been informed or believe that your account profile contains an incorrect US SSN/ITIN, you may simply log into your Account Management to update this information. Depending on your taxpayer status, you can update your US SSN/ITIN by modifying one of the following documents:

1) IRS Form W9 (if you are a US tax resident and/or US citizen holding a US SSN/ITIN)

2) IRS Form W-8BEN (if you are a Non-US tax resident holding a US SSN/ITIN)

Please note, if your SSN/ITIN has already been verified with the IRS you will be unable to update the information. If however the IRS has not yet verified the ID, you will have the ability to update through Account Management. 

 

How to Modify Your W9/W8

1) To submit this information change request, first login to Account Management

2) Click on the Settings section followed by Account Settings

 

3) Find the Profile(s) section. Locate the User you wish to update and click on the Info button (the "i" icon) to the left of the User's name

 

4) Scroll down to the bottom where you will see the words Tax Forms. Next to it will be a link with the current tax form we have for the account. Click on this tax form to open it

 

5) Review the form. If your US SSN/ITIN is incorrect, click on the UPDATE button at the bottom of the page

 

6) Make the requisite changes and click the CONTINUE button to submit your request.

 

7) If supporting documentation is required to approve your information change request, you will receive a message.  Otherwise, your information change request should be approved within 24-48 hours.

How to adjust font size in TWS

Background: 

By default, Trader Workstation (TWS) is designed to display in a font size and style which can be read comfortably for the average user across various screen sizes and resolutions. With the advent of new technologies, there has been an exponential push to make monitors with higher display sizes and your layout may need to be further adjusted manually. This document serves to explain how to manually adjust the font size for TWS.

Procedure

To adjust font size throughout TWS:

  1. From the Anchor window, click the Font Size Adjustment icon.
  2. Check the button Adjust window & column widths to ensure all windows will resize automatically to keep the same font:window ratio. (If unchecked, only font size will change but window size will remain the same).
  3. Click the button Smaller or Larger until the font size is correct.
    Notice that the font size will change immediately as you click the button.
  4. Click the Font Size Adjustment icon   when done.

Note: It is possible that currently not all windows will be adjusted in the same way.

How to check and solve connectivity issues affecting the Trader Workstation (TWS)

Background: 

The Trader Workstation (TWS) software needs to connect to our gateways and market data servers in order to work properly. Connectivity issues affecting your local network or your Internet Service Provider network may negatively affect the TWS functionality. In this article we will indicate how to test your connectivity using an automated connectivity test web page.

 

How to test the connectivity using the automated "IB Connectivity Test" web page?

1) Click on this link: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/cgi-bin/conn_test.pl 

2) Please wait until all the tests have been completed and results have been displayed. If you see "Success" as outcome for all tests, your connectivity to IB Servers is reliable at the present moment. No additional connectivity troubleshooting or configuration should be needed.

3) If you see "Fail" as outcome for one or more test/s, please click on the link "Fail" itself in order to display the "IB Network Troubleshooting Guide". That section will help you conduct some manual tests to identify the cause of the failure.

Note for Corporative environments and Proxy server users: the automated "Connectivity Test" page may return misleading results in case your machine is accessing the Internet through a Proxy server. This usually happens if you are connected to a company network. If this is your case, we kindly ask you to contact your Network Administrator or your IT Team and ask them to perform a manual connectivity tests towards the destination servers indicated in the table on the top of the IB automated "Connectivity Test" web page itself. The manual connectivity test should be conducted using destination TCP ports 4000 and 4001. Should they prefer to have the server list in another format or should they need to set up the firewall / IP Management rules, you can forward them this page.

 

IBKR Mobile Companion App for Apple Watch

Overview: 

Interactive Brokers takes our intuitive and ergonomic mobile trading platform to the next level by providing you a companion app for the Apple Watch.

Background: 

The companion app is designed to display information when a user has logged in to the IBKR Mobile app on their iPhone. It will work in both the Live Trading and Read Only Modes but does not support active trading. This companion app is only available for informational purpose only.

 

Table of contents

 

What does the app do?

At 'glance view' the app will display the following information; Amount of FYI Notification, Account Number, Daily P&L, Net Liquidation Value, Number of Open Orders, Number of Trades Executed, Excess Liquidity and number of Positions you currently own. It will also display the time when it has fetched the information from your iPhone.

Example:

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Requirements

  • Must have iPhone 5s or greater, using iOS 11 or later.
  • Must have the IBKR Mobile app installed on your iPhone (version 11 or greater)
  • Must have your Apple Watch paired to your iPhone (refer to: Set up your Apple Watch for directions)
  • Must have watchOS 5 running on your Apple Watch.

Important: The Apple Watch applications are only 'companion' apps. This means they are not installed directly on the watch itself, but rather are a function of an application already installed on your iPhone.

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How is the app installed?

 1.  Install the latest version of the IBKR Mobile app on your iPhone.

 2.  Pair your Apple Watch to your phone.

 3.  Launch the Watch app on your phone.

      Apple Watch App Icon

 4.  Scroll down on the main screen until you see your list of apps, locate the IBKR Mobile app and Tap on it.

     

 5.  Enable Show App on Apple Watch by swiping the slider to the right (green).

     

 6.  After the top slider is set to green, you will see a text informing you that the app is being installed. At this stage the phone is sending the application to your watch per Bluetooth. This might take a short moment (approximately 30-60 seconds.) Once completed the companion app has been installed.

 

Note: Once enabled it will take 24 hours before P&L shows up on the watch after activation. 

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How do I confirm the app is installed?

On your Apple Watch click on the crown to access your Home Screen, you should now see an icon for the IBKR Mobile App.

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How to install Java on a Linux computer

Overview: 
This article will walk you through the process of installing the official Oracle Java platform on your Linux machine.
 
Background: 
There are many Linux distributions available and many of them come with one or more Java platform/s pre-installed. In the vast majority of the cases the Java platform which comes pre-installed on a Linux machine is not the official Oracle Java, but another one such as OpenJKD or IBM Java. 
The Trader Workstation has been developed on the official Oracle Java platform and shows the most stable behavior and the best performances when run by the official Oracle Java process. Therefore we recommend to all the Linux users, who want to run the Trader Workstation, to install the official Oracle Java platform and set it as the preferred Java environment to be used by the operating system.
 

For the purpose of this guide, we will divide the Linux distributions nowadays available into three big families:

  1. APT based Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Mint) - those distributions use the Advanced Packaging Tool to fetch and install software packages in a semi-automatic way, resolving and taking care of dependencies. 
  2. RPM based Linux distributions (Suse, OpenSUSE, Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Oracle Linux) - those distributions allow the installation of software packages (.rpm files), which contain the binary files to be installed on the system and an integrated dependency checker script. The .rpm packages allow a simplified and smooth installation of software without requiring a deep knowledge of the system.
  3. Other Linux distributions  - those distributions may or may not use a specific package manager but all of them allow the installation of software using the source code package (.tar.gz) through a series of command to be issued on the Terminal.

 

How to install the official Oracle Java on APT based Linux distributions

The most simple way to install Java on Ubuntu or Mint is using the webupd8 repository. This method will install the latest version of JDK 8 and the JRE 8 browser plugin. The supported versions are: Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10, 14.04, 12.04 - Linux Mint 17.1, 17, 13

For details, please refer to: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/install-oracle-java-8-in-ubuntu-via-ppa.html

a. On your Linux machine, open the "Terminal". If you need help with accessing and using the Terminal, please refer to: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

b. Become root, by typing su on the Terminal and entering the super user password. Instead of becoming root, you can choose to use the sudo feature (which gives your user the root privileges for a single command). If you want to use sudo, just add sudo before each one of the commands you will enter in the Terminal. You will be requested to enter the sudo password.

c. Add the webupd8 repository by tiping add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java Follow the instructions on the screen. You should be asked to press [ENTER] to continue. Once done, the repository will be added.

d. Type the command apt-get update

e. Enter the command: apt-get install oracle-java8-installer The process will download and install automatically the required packages along with their dependencies. Once the command has completed, the Oracle Java platform will be ready to be used.

Should you prefer to have control of all the phases of the installation, instead of relying on the APT facility, please refer to the instructions on this page: http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Oracle-Java-JRE-on-Ubuntu-Linux

 

How to install the official Oracle Java on RPM based Linux distributions

a. On your Linux machine, open the "Terminal". If you need help with accessing and using the Terminal, please refer to: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

b. Become root, by typing su on the Terminal and entering the super user password. Instead of becoming root, you can choose to use the sudo feature (which gives your user the root privileges for single commands). If you want to use sudo, just add sudo before each one of the commands you will enter in the Terminal. You will be requested to enter the sudo password.

c. Create the folder /usr/java by issuing the command mkdir /usr/java. If the directory already exists you will see a message indicating that. In this case you can proceed directly to point d.

d. Go to the page https://www.java.com/en/download/linux_manual.jsp

e. If you have a 32 bit system, download the file "Linux RPM" . If you have a 64 bit system, download the file "Linux64 RPM". In either case, please instruct your browser to save the file in the folder /usr/java or move the file to that foder once it has been downloaded.

f. Go back to the Terminal and move to the /usr/java folder by typing cd /usr/java

g. List the content of the folder by typing the command ls -la You should see the file you downloaded. It will be called jre-XuYY-linux-ARCH.rpm (where X is the Java family, YY the update number and ARCH will be i586 for 32 bit installer and x64 for 64 bit installer)

h.  Launch this command to perform the installation: rpm -ivh jre-XuYY-linux-ARCH.rpm  Obviously you need to use the real file name, for example jre-8u65-linux-x64.rpm

Once the installation has been performed, the Oracle Java should be ready to be used. Usually a system restart is not required on Linux machines. In case you see warning or error message/s during the installation, please check their content and search the Internet for possible solutions. Most of the time the warning/error messages maight refer to missing dependencies (this means that another package needs to be installed before you can install Java) or to unsufficient privileges (this means that you are launching the command with a regular user instead of "root"). If you cannot find the proper course of actions to overcome the issue, please refer to the support documentation or forums for your current Linux distribution.

 

How to install the official Oracle Java on other Linux distributions

If your Linux distribution does not support RPM or APT package managers, the installation of Oracle Java can be performed manually in this way:

a. On your Linux machine, open the "Terminal".

b. Become root, by typing su on the Terminal and entering the super user password. Instead of becoming root, you can choose to use the sudo feature (which gives your user the root privileges for single commands). If you want to use sudo, just add sudo before each one of the commands you will enter in the Terminal. You will be then required to enter the sudo password.

c. Create the folder /usr/java by issuing the command mkdir /usr/java. If the directory already exists you will see a message indicating that. In this case you can proceed directly to point d.

d. Go to the page https://www.java.com/en/download/linux_manual.jsp

e. If you have a 32 bit system, download the file "Linux" . If you have a 64 bit system, download the file "Linux x64". In either case, please instruct your browser to save the file in the folder /usr/java or move the file to that foder once it has been downloaded.

f. Go back to the Terminal and move to the /usr/java folder by typing cd /usr/java

g. List the content of the folder by typing the command ls -la You should see the file you downloaded. It will be called jre-XuYY-linux-ARCH.tar.gz (where X is the Java family, YY the update number and ARCH will be i586 for 32 bit installer and x64 for 64 bit installer)

h.  Launch this command to perform the installation: tar zxvf jre-XuYY-linux-ARCH.tar.gz  Obviously you need to use the real file name, for example jre-8u65-linux-x64.tar.gz

i. Once done, enter command ls -la You will see the folder /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY (where X is the Java family, YY the update number)

l.  The Java executables are now present in the folder /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin 

m. Now check which is the symbolic link used by the system to access the java executables by entering the commands:

which java  - you will receive an output similar to this: /usr/bin/java  From now on we will refer to this path as javasympath.

which javac  - you will receive an output similar to this: /usr/bin/java  From now on we will refer to this path as javacsympath.

which javaws  - you will receive an output similar to this: /usr/bin/java  From now on we will refer to this path as javawssympath.

Unless your are launching the java applications using the full path (for example /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/java ...), you would need to tell your system which java executables should be used when a generic java command is issued. In order to to this, you can either update your alternatives files (if your system supports them) or the symbolic links. Here below you can see the instructions, according to your system:

- If your system uses the alternatives files:

n.  Issue the following commands, paying attention to make the necessary substitutions .

update-alternatives --install javasympath java /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/java 1

update-alternatives --install javacsympath javac /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/javac 1

update-alternatives --install javawssympath javaws /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/javaws 1

- If your system does not use the alternatives files:

n. Issue the following commands, paying attention to make the necessary substitutions .

ln -sf  /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/java javasympath

ln -sf /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/javac javacsympath

ln -sf /usr/java/jre1.X.0_YY/bin/javaws javawssympath

 

How to fix the error: "Library dbcapi.dll cannot be loaded"

Background: 
 
TWS users may receive the following error message upon configuring TWS to use the eSignal data feed:
 
 
This error may appear for the following reasons:
 
Issue A - You are not using the 32 bit version of TWS and/or eSignal:
The 32-bit versions of both TWS and eSignal have to be installed for the integration to work. In the section below you will find the instructions for installing the 32-bit TWS. Should you need assistance with the installation of the 32-bit eSignal, we suggest you to contact the eSignal customer support.
 
Issue B - There is an incompatibility with the file C:\Jts\dbcapi.dll:
To use 32-bit eSignal version 12, an incompatibility with the C:\Jts\dbcapi.dll file must be fixed. This involves copying a file from the eSignal installation and renaming it to dbcapi.dll. 
 
Note: On certain systems you will need to apply the fixes for both issue A and B. If you applied the fix for issue A (or if you are already sure you are using the 32 bit version of both platforms) and you are still receiving the error message, then please apply as well the fix for issue B.
 
 
 
Instructions to resolve issue A
Installing 32-bit TWS
 
Please open the page http://www.ibkr.com in your browser and perform the steps below:

1) Click on the Log In button at the top right corner of the page.

2) Click on Download Trader Workstation:

3) Click on the red button TWS Latest:
 
4) On the next page, click on the link Download for Other Operating Systems:
 

5) Click on the item Windows 32-bit:

6) Make sure that the description under the DOWNLOAD button has changed to "Windows: 32 bit". Click now on DOWNLOAD:

7) Launch the downloaded file. The Trader Workstation installation will start. At this point, you may see the warning message "Trader Workstation latest is already installed...". Ignore this warning and click on the button Next > to continue the installation:

 

8) Your "Trader Workstation" Desktop icon will be automatically updated. You can now launch the 32-bit Trader Workstation by a double click on that icon.

If you have launched the 32-bit TWS and the 32 bit version of eSignal but you still receive the same error message, please follow as well the instructions below.

 
 
Instructions to resolve issue B
Replacing dbcapi.dll for compatibility between 32-bit TWS and 32-bit eSignal 12

To correct an incompatibility with the dbcapi.dll file, we will replace that file with another version of it taken from the eSignal installation folder. Please follow the steps below to perform the substitution:  

1) Navigate to C:\Jts and rename the file dbcapi.dll to dbcapi_old.dll 

2) Navigate to the directory where 32-bit eSignal 12 is installed (most commonly C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Interactive Data\DM).

3) Copy dbcapi_vc8.dll from that directory into the C:\Jts directory.

4) Move to the C:\Jts directory.

5) Right click on the dbcapi_vc8.dll file (now in the C:\Jts directory) and select rename. Type dbcapi.dll as the new filename.

6) TWS is now ready to accept the eSignal data feed.

 

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