I use Yahoo-finance for that.
I bought (for fun and to introduce her in finances) for my daughter some Disney stocks.
To give her the “feelings” and check how much she has, dividends, etc… I made a portfolio there and she can follow the stocks without seeing my global IB.
You can create a linked account.
Worth the hassle if you have more than 200k, otherwise you pay 10usd/month for the second.
You need 100k per account (in total) (eg. you can have 200k on one and 1k on the other)
A linked account would be the most elegant solution but (currently) not interesting from a cost perspective. But thanks.
Any idea regarding having two positions of the same instrument? Excel works definitely as backup, but I don’t want to overcomplicate things.
A quick workaround might be to just buy the same thing in a different currency if it’s available.
What is the best way for exchange CHF to HKD ?
Seem no direct way available 
Thank you
Just a guess: governmental restrictions?
There is no trading pair for CHF and HKD (See here). So I guess you can go via EUR or USD first.
HKD is pegged to the USD (though not at 1:1 rate), so might be cheaper due to less volatility.
Hey everyone,
I made a IB account today and made my first transaction through the web portal and was a bit confused by some details.
I just have some quick question about my process.
My base currency is CHF and will only buy VT (USD) this year. I made 500 CHF transfer to test via my bank (0 fees). In the “convert currency tab” I selected “apply the entire balance 500 CHF”, but was not able to go through. Probably due to the transaction fees. I now have only 0.22 CHF left in my balance. Is there a way to automatically exchange the entire balance including the transactions fee in order to have 0 CHF as cash balance ? I subtracted the fees, but still got a difference. It is no big deal, but wondering if it can be done otherwise. and more precisely.
I then proceeded to buy VT VANGUARD TOT WORLD STK ETF ARCA. I choose “limit” and entered the current price and the transaction was done immediately. TIF was set on “day” is it how you proceed as well ?
I wanted to liquidate all my cash balance, but I read some confusing stuff about holding fractional shares. So in the end i bought a round number and have cash left in my balance (will be useful for the monthly fee). Do you only buy full share or you don’t mind fraction ?
Now the dashboard is a bit confusing to me… Do you “convert all to CHF” ? Does it change only the dashboard or does it create a real transaction ?
As for the rest if I get it correctly, I bought 5 shares at 472 and up till now have a loss of -0.53 USD. But I don’t really get how it is calculated and why there is a difference between the market value of 469.89 and the one of 498.81 on the right corner…
470 USD is 419 chf + 79 chf = 498 chf.
@xorfish thank you. So everthing is in base currency and when it’s USD it’s stated.
I still wonder what does convert all to CHF button really does (I don’t know about you, but the FAQ system at IBKR is offline…)
This morning I logged in and couldn’t do anything because I did not have market data authorization. I had to update my account and select every region in “stocks” (except for penny stock in the US, because I asked me to change my goeal to “Active trading and speculation” in order to be able to trade them). Since I only buy VT at the moment I guess it is not a problem ?
Also on the main menu, Icannot access the “report” tab, I get the following message " Trading Permissions Blocked for China Connect"
If it’s what I think the market data message is usually just a warning, you should be able to dismiss it.
On the China stuff…I’ve never seen it but I guess you selected too many regions…if you only trade VT you only need North America.
As a general advice, when you start using interactive brokers I’d suggest to spend some time in the “paper account”, so that you can familiarize yourself with the interface and the different functions before committing real money.
The “convert all to CHF” let you place a market order to actually convert all your currency positions back to CHF, it’s explained when you click on the small question mark to its right, you can just disregard it.
I don’t know if you can do that specifically, but in general if you have small leftovers of some currency it will automatically be converted to your base currency for free every month.
Hi could somebody explain to me in non tech English how I am to read (and treat) the mark-to-market calculation on an IB annual statement? Is it effectively a capital gain/loss? thanks
Thanks, I did as you said and it worked. indeed, I had too many region.
That’s a great advice, thank you.
Good to know, we will se thank you.
What about fractional shares ? It seems it doesn’t change a think in case you want to sell them as it is an option the broker offers (the full share is in possesion by the broker).
As well, as “order type” do you recommend limit with limit price set at the trading price or soemthing else ? I know some use market, but it can be disadvantageous in some case. Don’t really know about mid price…
Hi everyone, big fan of this forum and thanks for all the tips so far. Not sure if anyone has answered this question before so apologies if someone already has…
Does anyone know much about Fast Order Entry to Split the Spread on IB? https://www.clientam.com/en/index.php?f=26817
I have received an email about it from time to time from IB and wonder if it is worth doing for buying VT ETFs?
Thanks in advance.
Isn’t the spread on VT 0.01 USD anyway? Unless you can bid in the middle(?) that won’t make much difference, so not sure it’s that different from a market order.
Hello All,
I have four “basic questions” about IBKR platform:
Where and how exactly can I see my transaction / custody / admin and all other “account management” fees? Exchange fees also for my exchanges from CHF to USD?
My portfolio performance in IBKR (cumulative rate of return TWR; by default on the main page) shows a performance of 3.5%. I have a very simple excel file tracking my portfolio with real time data from function “stocks” in excel and I see a portfolio “performance” of 8%. Why can it be that there is such a big difference?
When I deposit funds in CHF into my account I am getting a message that CHF carries a negative interest rate and I will have to pay a fee for keeping my balance in CHF. How much is that fee and how often is it charged? I mean would it make sense to convert directly CHF to another currency or deposit funds in another currency directly or anything else…?
Where I can see my dividends (if I have received any) on a summarized form in IBKR?
Many thanks in advance for all your time and replies!
there is a report for that. Also the activity report will show all the fees with each trade
Could it be that IBKR is showing performance in CHF and your excel in USD ?
No issue as long as you have not more than 100’000 CHF in cash (exact limit might vary, but it should not be an issue for a buy and hold investor
Activity report (there might be others, but there you see dividends, withholding tax etc.)
