IBKR
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. Class A Common Stock
stock NASDAQ

# Consideration
This is an example of how the main loop in IBKR is implemented. It does not compile; it is merely a conceptual implementation.
# Code
```
// *****************
// *** Libraries ***
// *****************

#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
#include <TwsClient.hpp>

// *****************
// *** Constants ***
// *****************

#define MAX_ATTEMPTS (50)
#define SLEEP_TIME (10)

// *****************
// *** Functions ***
// *****************

void* TwsClientConnection(void* args) {

unsigned attempt = 0;

const char* host = "127.0.0.1";
int port = 7496;
userId = 0;

// ************
// *** Loop ***
// ************

while (true) {

// Variables
TwsClient client;

// Counter
++attempt;

// Connection
client.connect(
host, // Host for the port
port, // Port to use
userId // User id (unique for connection)
);

// Main loop
while (client.isConnected()) client.main();

// Break loop if disconnection equal to 50
if (attempt >= MAX_ATTEMPTS) break;

// Sleep Threads if disconnect
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(SLEEP_TIME));
}

return NULL;
}
```
# Explain
The ibkr API requires us to pass the port, host and user ID to the `connect` method.
We can use the same port and host, but a different `clientId` must always be used for multiple connections.
The `client.main()` function is an implementation that each person must provide; the EWrapper class does not require us to implement it, so we must not assume that it exists.
`attempt` is our counter for the number of disconnections we can have before the loop ends and it stops retrying the connection.
If you need it to retry an unlimited number of times but want to control when to disconnect, you should have a flag to manage this and a method to deactivate it. In my case, I use JSON, and that’s where I define the exit flag.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask; just bear in mind that I’m not an expert on the IBKR API, as I’m still learning how to use it and understand its features.

1. Just the typical sign up process sa financial apps. May KYC. I don't remember kung may selfie involved. Wala yata. ID lang yata if I remember correctly.
2. Same as 1 except may selfie ito.
3. Nakalimutan ko na yung reason ko haha pero minimum 20k php ginagawa ko na deposit.
TBH, mas madali pa kung basta ka na lang mag sign up now, kesa maghanap ka pa ng guide haha. As in madali lang yan. So mag sign up ka na sa IBKR and Wise. Tapos punta ka sa IBKR website (not the app) to link your Wise.

Wise to IBKR is pretty straightforward once you do it once. Set up your Wise account, convert PHP to USD there, then in IBKR you'll grab the deposit details for a wire transfer and plug those into Wise. The whole thing takes maybe a day or two to settle.

For the deposit amount, I'd say don't bother with anything under $500. The wire fees eat too much of your cash otherwise. And yeah you're spot on about Irish domiciled ETFs, that 15% dividend withholding beats the hell out of 30% any day.

Turning 18 soon, I want to invest in IBKR

I’m moving from the uk to Thailand and the only thing I need to do on IBKR is update my tax residency address and W-8BEN form. Pretty straight forward

Read this to learn more about [domicile and its tax implications](https://www.reddit.com/r/phinvest/s/bHNCwxL42D). Tax will compound with your investment over time.
This is why people are using IBKR even though Gotrade looks simpler.

I hope someone sees this. Some of the money I am planking on depositing in IBKR will come from crypto assets I bought legitimately, will this cause issues if I say so?

Has anyone found a good broker, meaning not IBKR or Schwab, that allows US citizens to open a brokerage account while living outside of the US?
I am only trading US stocks so no options, forex, or futures.
I am dreading switching to Schwab with my style of trading: small caps and low floats

Hello friends!

I’m a dual Canadian/US citizen living in Canada, and I have no intention of giving up either citizenship. I’m trying to figure out the simplest long-term setup from both a Canadian and US tax perspective.
I currently have investments in a TFSA and FHSA, and all of my current holdings are PFIC-friendly. I’m trying to figure out whether it makes sense to continue using these accounts or whether a regular non-registered/margin investment account would be simpler overall.
I’m considering using Interactive Brokers primarily because I can deposit CAD, efficiently convert it to USD, and then buy US-domiciled ETFs.
I’m willing to give up some Canadian tax advantages if it means significantly simpler US tax reporting and less hassle at tax time.
My priorities are:
* Invest in low-cost, diversified US-domiciled ETFs
* Minimize unnecessary US tax/reporting complexity
* Keep my year-end tax filing as simple as reasonably possible
* Have a straightforward setup that I can maintain long-term
The other major factor is that I’m incorporating my Canadian business on **January 1, 2027**. I understand that owning a Canadian corporation as a US citizen can create additional US tax reporting and complexity, so I want to make sure I structure things properly from the beginning.
I’m planning to speak with a cross-border tax professional, but I’d love to hear from people who have actually dealt with this.
**Questions:**
* Would you keep the TFSA/FHSA as a dual Canadian/US citizen if simplicity is the priority?
* Is a regular non-registered/margin account with US-domiciled ETFs generally simpler from the US tax perspective?
* Has anyone used IBKR specifically for CAD → USD conversion and investing in US-domiciled ETFs?
* For those who incorporated a Canadian business while being a US citizen, what should I be thinking about before January 1, 2027?
* Anything you wish you had done differently from the beginning?
I’m less interested in maximizing every possible tax advantage and more interested in having a **simple, compliant setup that I can manage for decades without a huge tax headache.**
**Thanks in advance!**

I have transferred my US IBKR account to Canada. It was pretty seamless.

Hmmmm.... well how far down this rabbit hole do you want to go?
I technically am trying to create a multi-asset personal quant fund that uses Equities, Options, and Futures with 12 different orthogonal edges. It uses IBKR for options and equities and NT for futures.
So to answer your question, yes, it tracks pre-trade sizing, and also live monitors broker positions, so that there is an open bridge between what is supposed to be open verses what currently is in happening in the event of a power outage or a black swan event.

The hard part is double checking that everything is uncorrelated so that you can make the same dollar work in multiple places at once, and then knowing how much to scale with unrealized profits or scale down with recent performance. So it's sort of a super brain, that tracks all open and closed position, and also creates tags and tracks data on each of the different strategies performance.
A lot of crazy things have to happen in modeling it, where you have to define what drawdown could look like when you have a few or all of the strategies each going through a drawdown period all at once.
Too be honest its way easier just to have AI code something that morning and then set it with calculations for that specific day, rather than having to think about the bigger picture of multiple strategies working in conjunction with each other.

sure, playing field is way more level now, more access to the markets for average retail guy / gal. I can vibe code a trading algo and deploy on IBKR without asking a human anything. micro seconds really don't matter for my strategies. I have no idea what is actually possible, and if someone is exploiting something like you are talking about then they likely aren't going to be talking about it on reddit anyway. I eventually may get to a place where I semi automate or fully automate my trading. r/algotrading exists

for me good plan sya. keep learning lang. don't feel intimidate sa ibkr app. if yung plan mo lang naman is buy and hold for long term mas e recommend ko Sayo ang IBKR compared to got trade. yeah IBKR has plenty tools and feature pero no worries since if di mo naman Yun kailangan you can still do just a simple buy and sell ng stocks.

u/RankUpTrading Sorry for the delay. I was traveling all last week, but I was meaning to respond to this one since you were kind enough to share such a detailed post. This is exactly the kind of workflow detail I was hoping people would share.
The part that really resonates is reducing cognitive load and reducing entry/exit mistakes. That’s basically the rabbit hole I’ve been going down.
I’ve been working on some code around this idea — not as a signal service, but more as a semi-automated execution workflow where the setup defines the entry, failure level, target, position size, and live monitoring state. The trader still controls the logic, but the system handles more of the math, state tracking, and execution consistency.
The first version was built to connect through the IBKR API, largely because I ran into the same kind of limitations you’re describing with charting-platform execution. TOS is great for a lot of things, but once you start thinking about state tracking, order logic, monitoring, and repeatable execution, it feels like the platform starts to matter a lot.
I agree with your main point: the software has to match the trading style. For fast intraday trading, the edge is not just the strategy — it’s whether the workflow can be repeated under pressure without unnecessary mistakes.
When you coded your NinjaTrader tool, was it mainly for pre-trade sizing, or did you also have it track the trade state after entry?

IBKR has good fill quality, especially if you are adding liquidity.
I use SMART routing and often my limit orders have price improvement.

I have changed my citizenship and legal name on IBKR and the process went smooth. I advise you to go to your IBKR and navigate to the "Getting Started FAQ" and type "How can I correct my citizenship information". It will give you a step by step on how to send the correct message. Changing citizenship is different due to regulations so it's best to ask IBKR directly.

Can I transfer a X country IBKR account to a Y country IBKR account ?

I've found IBKR are okay and have a good app. The app just has too much info which scared a new investor like me but I think I can now handle it lol

questrade - no need to pay commissions to IBKR unless you are trading big positions

The reconcile-don't-read pattern upthread is the right call. I hit almost exactly the same silent failure mode — not with IBKR but with Coinbase Advanced Trade. API key expired quietly, no exceptions thrown, the bot just stopped sending fresh data. Everything on my end looked fine because I was reading state I'd cached rather than diffing against live. Didn't catch it for hours.
The Emdottt point about permanent failures masquerading as working is the one that bit me hardest. My monitoring was checking if the bot was running, not if it was actually receiving and acting on fresh data. Those are different questions.
What eventually fixed my thinking: treat stale data as a failure mode equal to an exception. If you haven't gotten a fresh account snapshot in N minutes, something is wrong — expired key, network partition, silent crash — and you should alert on it exactly the same way you'd alert on an exception. Most bot monitoring setups treat silence as healthy, which is the wrong default.