You got here so you should have heard about about algorithmic trading. That’s the first and probably the most important step, well done. Let’s dive into what it take to algo-trade with Interactive Brokers.
The 1st thing you’ll need is an Interactive Brokers account. You don’t need to be a US citizen to get an account, and the process is pretty easy. There is a load of countries where you can use Interactive brokers: Albania, Canada, China, Mexico, United Kingdom, Sweden and many more. You can find more at their website.
The 2nd thing you need is to fund your account. $25,000 is still requirement to day trade actively in the USA. You may want to have at least slightly more in case there are any interim losses.
The 3rd thing you need is a Breaking Equity Algo Lab or Marketplace account. If you do not yet have one signup here.
Linking Interactive Brokers to Breaking Equity
Once you have an account go to https://app.breakingequity.com/#/profile/3 and link your IBKR account by simply singing into it. That’s it, you now ready to algo-trade with Interactive Brokers.
LIMITATIONS: A given set of credentials (username/password) can only create a single session at a time. This means that launching TWS will disconnect a brokerage session in the Breaking Equity, and vice versa. In order to access your IBKR account simultaneously, it’s advised to create an additional user in your account. Follow the instructions at https://guides.interactivebrokers.com/cp/cp.htm#UAR/addingauser.htm
Interactive Brokers Offers Paper Trading but There’s a Trick
You may want to paper trade with Interactive Brokers before going live. You would need to open a separate Paper Trading Account, here is what the official website says:
Once your regular trading account has been approved and funded, you are eligible to open a Paper Trading Account. All paper trading accounts start with 1,000,000 USD of paper trading equity, which allows you experiment with the full range of IB trading facilities in a simulated environment which uses real market conditions.
See the setup instruction at https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/software/ptgstl/topics/papertrader.htm
Breaking Equity supports both Paper and Live accounts for Interactive Brokers.
Where Do I Get the Algos?
There are a couple of good places. Check out twitter account for the backtested strategies and examples. You can also navigate to https://app.breakingequity.com/#/strategies and pick one of the Strategies there. Finally you can create a new one with Breaking Equity Algo Lab. Backtest, paper trade and trade live with IBKR all within the same web interface.
