Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
US automated forex broker Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ GS: IBKR) announced a set of enhancements it has made or is rolling out to the desktop version of its proprietary trading platform Trader Workstation (TWS) and the addition of new products, exchanges and funding currencies.
First on the list is a new system that would be of interest to Interactive Brokers’ clients who have some positions for which the market is open and others for which it is closed. The new feature will value their portfolio using two prices: real and forecast. For the instruments that are open for trading at the moment, the two prices are the same. For the instruments that are closed for trading, there will be two: one reflecting the prevailing market prices and a forecast, based on an estimate on correlated contracts that are currently trading in other markets. The forecast mark prices are visible by hovering the mouse over its Market Price in the Portfolio Section of the Account Window (TWS version 957 and higher).
The introduction of the two prices, however, will not affect the Net Liquidation Value (NLV) of the portfolio and it will continue to be calculated using the real market prices.
Another enhancement is the adding of futures to the recently introduced Adaptive Algo trading. There is also a new Cash Quantity parameter to IB Algo orders that allows clients to specify the cash value they want to invest or receive, instead of specifying the order size in shares. Once you specify your desired cash amount in the Cash Quantity field, TWS respects this value and attempts to buy or sell enough shares to reach that amount without going over. This feature, however, is not available for all IB Algos.
The Update Orders of TWS also got a makeover and now lets users quickly change multiple orders to a new type or algo. It is available for selected orders in a quote monitor from the Trade menu, or on a basket of orders in the BasketTrader using the Edit menu.
Interactive Brokers has also included some new options for personalization of TWS, namely: customization of the product display, which lets clients see only what they’re trading, addition of layout tabs for quicker access and adding of tools as mosaic tiles.
Besides the improvements to the TWS platform, Interactive Brokers also announced new products, exchanges and funding currencies:
New Products
- HKFE: RMB futures (USD.CNH)
- SGX Bank Nifty index futures (NSEBANK)
- CES G10 Index
- Ultra 10-Year US Treasury Note Futures (TN) on ECBOT
- Mini FTSE 100 Index Options (UKXM) on CBOE
- Mini FTSE China 50 Index Options (FXTM) on CBOE
- Portuguese stocks
- Commission-free ETFs:
- Infrastructure ETFs
- O’Shares ETFs
Exchange
- ISE Mercury
Funding Currency
- Polish Zloty (PLN)
Connecticut-based Interactive Brokers is a broker and a market maker. It, together with its numerous subsidiaries, offers online automated trading of stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, contracts for difference (CFDs) and funds to traders, investors and institutions in over 100 market across the globe. It has offices in the North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The group companies holds licenses by the relevant authorities in the US and the UK.
Earlier this month Interactive Brokers reported that the DARTs in June were 643 000 – relatively unchanged from May (641 000), which was the worst month in those terms since the beginning of the year.
Interactive Brokers also revealed that both its Q2 2016 DARTs, pre-tax income drop over the quarter.