Interactive Brokers, or IBKR, is one of the leading brokerage firms operating the largest electronic trading platform by the number of daily revenue trades. The company offers a range of trade options for investors, from stocks, options, EFPs, and futures options to Forex, funds, and bonds. It is also one of the few US companies that trade in cryptocurrencies. Interactive Brokers offers advanced trading tools and sophisticated order type configurations, all at reasonable fees. This makes it an ideal platform for experienced and professional traders.
For many Interactive Brokers investors like you, selling option is one of the most popular strategies to generate passive income while they wait for the price to drop down to a fair value they are willing to pay. As an option seller, you benefit from time decay. Since the value of options decay with time, you will profit from the erosion of the option's value. With this in mind, selling your options can significantly reduce your exposure to market volatility.
Selling options will also offer you a higher probability of making a profit than buying them. The odds always favor the seller because the seller receives a premium upfront and retains it if the option retires worthless. In a nutshell, the longer you hold an option, the higher the risk that the value of the option will decay.
Here are a few simple steps to sell options in IBKR:
You will only sell options on Interactive Brokers if you have an active trading account with the platform. If you don't have one already, set up an options trading account by completing the necessary paperwork and other requirements.
To access the platform, you need to download and install the Trader Workstation (TWS) platform. Alternatively, you can utilize a web-based platform known as Client Portal.
Interactive Brokers offer multiple market data packages that you can choose from based on your goals. Make sure you subscribe to the relevant options data.
The next step is to have your options trading approved on your account. Interactive Brokers usually categorize options into diverse levels based on factors such as experience and risk tolerance.
Access the options chain for the underlying security you would wish to trade. To find the option chain, search for the symbol in the trading platform. Once you have located the option chain, review available options and choose the specific option you want to sell.
Review your order to check for the total value of transactions and all other associated fees or commissions. Once satisfied, submit the order for execution. The order will be submitted to the exchange to allow willing buyers to trade.
Interactive Brokers offer multiple educational materials and tools to empower traders and help them make informed trading choices. These materials include courses, videos, glossaries, webinars, and demo accounts.
If you encounter any challenges when trying to sell your options on Interactive Brokers, don't hesitate to contact their customer support team for help.
GetHuman has been working for over 10 years on sourcing information about big organizations like Comcast in order to help customers resolve customer service issues faster. We started with contact information and fastest ways to reach a human at big companies. Particularly ones with slow or complicated IVR or phone menu systems. Or companies that have self-serve help forums instead of a customer service department. From there, we realized that consumers still needed more detailed help solving the most common problems, so we expanded to this set of guides, which grows every day. And if you spot any issues with our What do I do if my Xfinity TV or internet is out? guide, please let us know by sending us feedback. We want to be as helpful as possible. If you appreciated this guide, please share it with your favorite people. Our free information and tools is powered by you, the customer. The more people that use it, the better it gets.
After helping consumers for 10 years, we realized that you need an impartial, live person you can talk to about comparing the various TV, cable, Internet and phone plans in your area- somebody who can compare the best deals across telecom providers. So we created a free concierge service you can call at the phone number below.
Call Anytime: 888-379-2546Our concierge is unaffiliated and therefore able to compare deals across many companies