I asked the question on ibot. Here is the answer: "With respect to the PRIIP and MiFID regulations, Interactive Brokers is required to categorize its clients as Retail or Professional in order to determine the correct level of investor protection and transparency. It is possible to be reclassified from retail to professional once certain qualitative, quantitative and procedural requirements are met. Qualitative Requirements: we must conduct an assessment of your expertise, experience and knowledge to ensure that you are capable of making your own investment decisions and that you understand the risks involved. Quantitative Requirements: we must ensure you have satisfied two of the following criteria: you have carried out trades in significant size on the relevant market at an average frequency of 10 per quarter over the previous 4 quarters; your portfolio including cash exceeds EUR 500,000; you have worked in the financial sector for at least 1 year in a professional position. Procedural Requirements: If you believe you meet the requirements to be reclassified as a professional: you must state in writing by submitting a ticket that you wish to be treated as a professional client; you need to sign the Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited Professional Client Notification document which explains the protections and investor compensation rights you will lose from being classified as professional. If all of the above are satisfied, our compliance department will review the request." The "submitting a ticket" link points to: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/software/am3/am.htm#am/support/creatingaticket.htm
"the protections and investor compensation rights you will lose" - I guess this is it: https://www.lynxbroker.de/media/doc...cation_and_Order_Execution_Policy_Consent.pdf I read it and don't really understand if these are important issues to consider...
Maybe this helps: https://marcuardheritage.com/wp-con...ories-and-their-differences-in-protection.pdf My personal take on this whole client classification issue is as follows: if you ever want to be in a position to held your broker or bank harmless for any investment / trade decisions you have made then stay with client classification as retail client. If you don't need that and take full responsibility for all your investment / trade decision you can elect to be treated as professional client. The problem we face is that we can't trade US ETF's any longer because of missing KID's. Hence we need to decide whether we can live with essentially no consumer protection rights or refrain from trading US ETF's and have consumer protection rights. We can't have both, so as often in life there is no free lunch unfortunately.
I find 1 US ETF that is tradable for retail its new ETF (13.07.18) ticker symbol QDIV https://www.globalxfunds.com/funds/qdiv/ I threw the symbol into TWS platform its not blocked
What are the disadvantages of having professional status? You pay more for market data fees!? What more?
You don't pay more for market data, certainly not at IB. The classification for non-professional status or professional status for market data is completely different from the qualification as professional status for PRIIP and MIFID purposes.
Correct. You need to open a ticket via account management / messages and request the change. Then you will receive the forms which you need to fill in and sign as I posted earlier.
So it doesn't have anything to do with changing the Market Data Subscriber Status to professional? Are you "professional" or "non-professional" under user settings / market data after the change you made?