I first signed up with IB a couple of years ago, specifically because of their rep for having such a "wide" range of products. However, it's been an unpleasant surprise to discover that I can't even trade -Canadian- stocks! That's a little weird...especially for a broker who has a Canadian division. Can IB tell us what the problem is with offering Canadian stocks like .TO issues and especially the 'venture' and Vancouver exchanges)? Energy firms and junior miners are of great interest to me. There is a lot of money to be made there on swing-trades. I'm also a little blown away that OTC stocks appear to be not available for trade either. Is this truly the case with IB, or have I just missed something in setup or subscriptions? Brokers like Scottrade et al may suck compared to IB in 100 other ways, but at least one can trade small-caps and Canadian miners there. IB: why aren't these issues tradeable, and when will they be enabled? thank you.
two other quick questions for IB/users: 1) what is the symbol for "PREM" in TWS? 2) what is the symbol for "DX" i.e. the "dollar index" in TWS ? thanks much!
Not sure if this applies to what you are talking about but IB doesn't do markets that aren't electronic.
appreciate the reply spr. Canadian mkts aren't electronic ?? huh.... same for the OTC:BB stocks then? I thought they were fully an electronic trading format among dealers now ??
I trade Canadian stocks all the time. Go here http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/products.php scroll down to Canada & choose an exchange. You will then be able to find the symbol for any stock that you are interested in.
One more thing, you may need to subscribe to the data sources since they are not part of the basic IB package.
We offer the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange. We also offer OTC Bulletin Board Stocks in the U.S. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/products.php?ib_entity=llc
thanks jmc...bringing up that bloated web-page now over this slow rural modem... <g> I'd contacted IB about a particular stock I couldn't bring up in TWS, and the reply was "we don't offer canadian stocks". Doesn't it sometimes seem that there are two 'levels' of IB customer service? The IB people who post on ET seem top-flight...sharp, courteous, and they get things done. Whereas, the "first responders" who reply to emails seem incompetent, inflexible, and ill-informed. well...time to see what that page sez... thanks again ps; do you know about small-caps on IB? i.e. OTC/BB stocks?
Yes on that link I gave above, scroll down to Knight Securities, click on that and you will be led to a symbol list of OTC.BB stocks that are available.
thanks for your response Steve. out of curiosity, how long have you offered the TSX exchange? also, in the past week, I have tried entering several different OTC symbols into TSW, and all have failed. Is there a special procedure or code required for these? One final question, how do enable the TSX and OTC symbols/data, and is there an additional charge for this?