Thinking About Opening An Account at Interactive Brokers

K

KrispyKreme50

Hello,

I'm planning to open an account at Interactive Brokers but I have a few questions about how they operate.

1. Does IB have options approval levels like Etrade for example?

2. Does IB require a minimum net worth/minimum income, etc... any qualifications for trading futures?

Thank you in advance for any responses.
 
Quote from ksonsinc:

yea they require to give proof of income
If not them they only approve for a cash account
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err this is wrong. You have to state your income and approx. net worth but not provide "proof" and I don't know whether they actually make use of this info, though presumably there's a cut-off for granting somebody a margin account.

In order to trade different types of instruments (futures, options, bonds etc.) you basically need to check a box that says "I'm an experienced stocks/bonds/futs trader."

With a cash (ie non-margin) account I believe you can only buy (not short) stocks and bonds, no futures, and your stock trades are subject to the free-riding rule. Don't know about options.
 
Quote from Specterx:

err this is wrong. You have to state your income and approx. net worth but not provide "proof" and I don't know whether they actually make use of this info, though presumably there's a cut-off for granting somebody a margin account.

In order to trade different types of instruments (futures, options, bonds etc.) you basically need to check a box that says "I'm an experienced stocks/bonds/futs trader."

With a cash (ie non-margin) account I believe you can only buy (not short) stocks and bonds, no futures, and your stock trades are subject to the free-riding rule. Don't know about options.
More...

I'm curious about the options part because at a typical "retail" broker they divide up options strategies into various approval levels with the lower levels needing only a cash account while the higher levels needing margin.
 
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