I am considering opening an account at IB but was wondering about how tax lot accounting (matching of trades to compute profit-loss) is handled. Is a download of data possible so that we don't have to input the trades manually? Many of online firms, like Datek, AB Watley, and E*TRADE, have download capabilities, and I was curious as to how IB handles this. Thanks for your assistance.
Since no one else has answered you I'll tell you that you can. I just haven't done it myself yet aside from the online statements and email. Check out this link: http://www.armencomp.com/ They supply accounting software that supports direct download from IB. Also www.captools.com has a similar priced product. Quicken also has an automatic interface with IB. See www.interactivebrokers.com under Account & Funding--Statements for more info.
I use Captools which has worked great with IB execution files. Captools software lets the user design a template to download from IB or other brokers. The templates can be designed to work with about any download file format. I got 20% off the cost of Captools for being a member of "American Association of Individual Investors" , see aaii.com . Catoosa
i hear good things about tradelog. (see above posts). In addition, as of monday there will be a statement page on the IB web site which will explain the various statements and will allow downloads of data into a format compatible with quicken. Microsoft money compatibility and others will soon follow.