IBKR: Leveraged Products & MiFID

Today i tried to buy an leveraged ETF on IBKR. My order was rejected and i came across this note:

Why was my order rejected for no trading permissions when I have permissions for ETFs?

Opening orders from Retail investors residing in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom that are associated with a product that does not comply with the EU's Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Product Regulation (PRIIPS) will be rejected. The regulation is intended to enhance understanding of these products through provision of disclosure documentation referred to as the Key Information Document (or "KID"). The KID provides information such as product description, costs, risks & performance.

The products that this applies to have returns associated with a reference value and include derivatives (options and futures), ETFs, ETNs, funds and certain debt instruments. It does not apply to stocks, FX and standard bonds. Orders will be rejected if the manufacturer, or issuer, of the product has decided not to provide the KID required to distribute the product to EEA retail residents.

Notes

The restriction does not apply to existing positions subject to the KID requirement that you are attempting to close. To close any related position you held prior to the implementation of PRIIPS use the Close button to create a closing order.
It is possible to be reclassified from a Retail to Professional investor once certain qualitative, quantitative and procedural requirements are met.
Once an EEA resident is approved to trade ETFs under PRIIPs as Professional investor there may be an additional permission needed for "Complex or Leveraged Exchange Traded Products" required to trade ETFs or ETNs.

Getting recognized as professional trader by IBKR seems not trivial, they ask for documents as proof of your trading history and depots with other brokers…

Anyone here who had that issue and got it resolved?

Do you live in Switzerland ?
With which interactive broker company have you open your account?

Yes, living in Switzerland; i opened UK, but received notice that i will be transfered to LU. However, still my portal shows .co.uk in the URL.

I tried to buy TQQQ.

Maybe try to figure out why, I think eu brokers will have to apply priips.

Most of us are still on ib uk and trading is mostly unrestricted.

Like i wrote, i still seem to be at the UK website; otherwise i would have expected to be redirected to the .lu site.

Blockquote However, IBLUX will not offer the ability to transact leveraged foreign exchange or to adhere to the Stock Yield Enhancement Programme that is currently available to you.

(https://ibkr.info/node/3544)

Did you guys get transfered to IBIE? Is there a different regulation in that case?

Can you check your activity-statement? At the top it shows the IB-body youre registered at.

E.g. for me it shows “Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Ltd.”

I think usually swiss residents didn’t get transfered. IBIE should be same as LU in terms of regulations.

Activity statement shows “Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Ltd., Level 20 Heron Tower, 110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY, UK. Regulated by FCA”; that should be fine.

I went through my account settings and seems like i did not have the permissions for leveraged products yet. So… sorry for the fuss i - might - have caused.

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Everybody is a bit on edge about the whole PRIIPS-thing :slight_smile:

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