Free ETFs at Interactive Brokers?

R

robthequant

I see that there are no fees/commissions for trading ETFs at IB?
Can I trade IVE (S&P 500 Value Index) for free with LIMIT orders with a spread of 1 cent? That's like my wet dream... Is this even possible? or Does that apply only for market orders? If I can trade anything for free with Limit orders with a spread of 1 cent I'll pull cash out of there in truckloads... It doesn't seem realistic someone would allow that....
 
I think you can use IB Lite and trade as much as you want for free -- any stock or ETF. Order type never matters. Remember there is a settlement period. You have to wait for the funds to settle and your margin is determined by the amount of settled funds.

https://ibkr.info/article/2186
 
If you go to this page https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=45196 and scroll halfway down you see a blue banner "compare plans". This overview shows that trading ETFs is commission free. Having said that, trading hours are limited, and trading can only be done on IB's mobile platform (TWS not available). Interest on idle cash is lower. And not all order types are available (LMT order type and conditional order types are not available). API, for automated trading, is also not available.
On the other hand: there is conflicting information on IB's website. This webpage https://interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=4985 shows all available order types. If you select "IBKR Lite" it shows that e.g. LMT and STP order types are available.
 
Maverick2608 said:
Where do you see that limit order type is not available? I do not see that and I do not believe that is the case.
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Screen shot of what I see at that IB web page which I mentioned:
IBscreen.png

I interpret this as being no limited order types available for IB Lite.
 
HobbyTrading said:
Screen shot of what I see at that IB web page which I mentioned:
View attachment 213098
I interpret this as being no limited order types available for IB Lite.
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I do not mean this with any disrespect, but is English your second language? Again, no disrespect. English is not my first language.

What the box says: There are no algos and only a limited number of order types. What you can read elsewhere then is that these limited number of order types of course include limit orders.
 
Maverick2608 said:
I do not mean this with any disrespect, but is English your second language? Again, no disrespect. English is not my first language.

What the box says: There are no algos and only a limited number of order types. What you can read elsewhere then is that these limited number of order types of course include limit orders.
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Yes, English is my second language. I interpreted it to mean no Algos and no Limited Order Types (e.g. LMT, STP). But now that you emphasize it I can see that this sentence could mean that no algos are available and that only a reduced subset of order types are available.
 
HobbyTrading said:
Yes, English is my second language. I interpreted it to mean no Algos and no Limited Order Types (e.g. LMT, STP). But now that you emphasize it I can see that this sentence could mean that no algos are available and that only a reduced subset of order types are available.
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Limited is not the same as limit.
 
Thanks guys, I thought any broker that provides no-fee trading (Robinhood) does that because they are selling market orders to market makers, such as Virtu, etc... so there's no point of them selling limit orders unless they just "simulate" limit orders or pocket the rebate from an exchange.
 
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