Interactive Brokers (India)

[karan.]

India = 0
foreign = $200 minimum

hello please clarify this $200, for example: if i am having balance of $1k to $2k USD in stocks or cash but not trading? they will charge $200 still annually? or if my yearly commission value is less than $50 ?

or you mean minimum account balance should be $200 ?
on website does not mention any inactivity fee for individuals;
https://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/index.php?f=24777&p=required#:~:text=If broker client account commissions,of less that USD 1.00.

i checked with IB just now they are saying no AMC charges just 1$ per trade is charged

 

[CougarTrader]

hello please clarify this $200, for example: if i am having balance of $1k to $2k USD in stocks or cash but not trading? they will charge $200 still annually? or if my yearly commission value is less than $50 ?

or you mean minimum account balance should be $200 ?
on website does not mention any inactivity fee for individuals;
https://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/index.php?f=24777&p=required#:~:text=If broker client account commissions,of less that USD 1.00.

i checked with IB just now they are saying no AMC charges just 1$ per trade is charged

For trading in NSE India all you need to know are:
https://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/pricing/commissions-nse.php
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/indiaStockExchangeFees.php

And there are no other charges, minimum maintenance, inactive fees, etc. applicable for an Indian resident trading in India.

For global i.e. as an Indian resident if you want to participate in foreign stocks (only), start by reading from here. Clicking the Pricing tab, it will take you to https://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/pricing/research-news-marketdata.php, there you will find:

If you maintain neck-to-neck USD100, our friends from IBKR Bombay will call you on daily basis and email at the same time! You maintain USD200, no call, no bugging! They expect you to participate via one of their broker partner (notice USD200 for brokers), seldom anyone directly reach IBKR, India for trading in foreign stocks living in India.

This $200 is a maintenance balance only. This is above and over your holdings value + commissions + market datafeed cost + any other cost that you might incur.

Edit:
@karan. this is not a charge, you will not be charged anything for non-maintenance. It's just that you won't be able to subscribe and receive market data-feed, which bears a separate cost depending what you're subscribing to.

 

[newtrader101]

Isn't it a pity that the Land of Harishchandra doesn't have a single honest broker? That we need to look for one from abroad?
O unhappy Truth!

 

[Verde]

For trading in NSE India all you need to know are:
https://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/pricing/commissions-nse.php
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/indiaStockExchangeFees.php

And there are no other charges, minimum maintenance, inactive fees, etc. applicable for an Indian resident trading in India.

For global i.e. as an Indian resident if you want to participate in foreign stocks (only), start by reading from here. Clicking the Pricing tab, it will take you to https://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/pricing/research-news-marketdata.php, there you will find:

View attachment 48735

If you maintain neck-to-neck USD100, our friends from IBKR Bombay will call you on daily basis and email at the same time! You maintain USD200, no call, no bugging! They expect you to participate via one of their broker partner (notice USD200 for brokers), seldom anyone directly reach IBKR, India for trading in foreign stocks living in India.

This $200 is a maintenance balance only. This is above and over your holdings value + commissions + market datafeed cost + any other cost that you might incur.

You know a lot about IB.
When they first opened in India, I phoned them up to ask if buying US options was available through them.

The guy who spoke did a lot to dodge the question and closed the call by giving a very vague answer.

Since buying US options does not infringe any rules and is 100% legal by Indian law, what is their problem to give a straight answer?

Is it permitted?

 

[newtrader101]

You know a lot about IB.
Since buying US options does not infringe any rules and is 100% legal by Indian law, what is their problem to give a straight answer?

?

Is there a link to this info?

 

[CougarTrader]

Since buying US options does not infringe any rules and is 100% legal by Indian law

It does...

It is illegal for an Individual Indian Resident to do Foreign Margin Trading of any sort... so you cannot trade in any foreign option just like that...

However, it is legal for a Sole Proprieter or Proprietary Firm or LLC that is based out of any part of the "free" world (outside India) to do Foreign Margin Trading anywhere of anything (including Weather futures traded at NYMEX now merged with CME ...

Is it permitted?

No

Long story short.... RBI & her LRS....

The RBI is OK with Indian residents trading Stocks (long only), vanilla ETFs, bonds and mutual funds and "non-leveraged" Forex (currency conversion) in global markets.

However, the RBI rules specifically prohibits "margin" and/or "leveraged" activities or foreign exchange transactions. The following restrictions will apply to an overseas trading account at IBKR:
1) No Margin facility (Pure cash account)
2) No trading allowed in leveraged instruments (CLPs, Leveraged forex) or margin products (Futures, options, etc.)

In lieu of that IBKR do not offer any margin facilities for Indian residents. For Indian residents anything foreign needs to be hard cash settled (legally)....

 

[Verde]

Is there a link to this info?

No link, but the RBI rule is clear.
Indians cannot buy $$ to be used as margin. Since buying options does NOT require margin it is completely legal.

It does...

It is illegal for an Individual Indian Resident to do Foreign Margin Trading of any sort... so you cannot trade in any foreign option just like that...

However, it is legal for a Sole Proprieter or Proprietary Firm or LLC that is based out of any part of the "free" world (outside India) to do Foreign Margin Trading anywhere of anything (including Weather futures traded at NYMEX now merged with CME ...


No

Long story short.... RBI & her LRS....

The RBI is OK with Indian residents trading Stocks (long only), vanilla ETFs, bonds and mutual funds and "non-leveraged" Forex (currency conversion) in global markets.

However, the RBI rules specifically prohibits "margin" and/or "leveraged" activities or foreign exchange transactions. The following restrictions will apply to an overseas trading account at IBKR:
1) No Margin facility (Pure cash account)
2) No trading allowed in leveraged instruments (CLPs, Leveraged forex) or margin products (Futures, options, etc.)

In lieu of that IBKR do not offer any margin facilities for Indian residents. For Indian residents anything foreign needs to be hard cash settled (legally)....

Buying options needs no margin as the max risk is the cost of the option and paid upfront.
It is a leveraged trade, but I do not think that RBI has any rules on leveraged trades as long as $$ are not used as margin.

Do you have any link to RBI rules stating that leverage is not permitted? IMO, their only rule is about $$ margin.

 

[CougarTrader]

Do you have any link to RBI rules stating that leverage is not permitted? IMO, their only rule is about $$ margin.

Please check your facts on FEMA and FERA which are byelaw Acts of India's Central Bank...

Leverage is not permitted on overseas products... And so is with Margin products (a synonym of leverage only) not allowed... Only cash allowed as per LRS...

this is the case (legally) for a very long time... with LRS some relief was brought and this was made final for global participation of an Indian resident:

The RBI is OK with Indian residents trading Stocks (long only), vanilla ETFs, bonds and mutual funds and "non-leveraged" Forex (currency conversion) in global markets.

(https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_CircularIndexDisplay.aspx?Id=6819)

Buying options needs no margin as the max risk is the cost of the option and paid upfront.

Options are a derivative product of an underlying and leveraged <PERIOD> hence whether you buy or sell - not allowed to trade legally in Global markets...

and why would anyone want to buy foreign options??? is daily NF/BNF action not enough...

as market participants we all wish that we are allowed to participate wherever we want and do what we wish to do with our money...

however there are very good reasons why RBI have such restrictions... there lies immense risk of making India a hub of money laundering and safe-haven of Black money if our economy is made open like the free world... we got no control of ourselves to be honest.... in short we manufacture & export less but import heavily...

if let loose Gandhiji will soon appear sitting on Indian Rupee notes like this:

Main problem is that, "there is no problem". US just keep printing dollars and currencies in-need of USD like INR depreciates. US will always try to create more & more of their need by their commodities, products, services, defense, etc... If that need is let loose, Modi will sit on that above rock too...

So solution is that, "we need to make foreigners invest in us, in no way it should be other way round (absolutely NOT with leverage)", which has always been the case in India....

You show me one index like this in entire world that has given a return of +1800% in last 20 years... things are well crafted... you cannot nibble here... this was just a trailer... you and I complain because we want to make money, get rich in an instant... but there's always a bigger picture...

Needless to mention, ramification of FII selling for past 1 year - domestically we are able to hold because of retail becoming strong (which is result of indirect foreign investment only)... Inflation in India has always been foreign induced... And this Inflation induces Growth for us!

'nuff said.....

 

[karan.]

@CougarTrader ty again for your quick and detail response. I wish they would put a full FAQ integrative brokers or make a video from start to finish what all things from Indian citizen point of view one has to do including fund the account. As i had to see bunch of yutube video and take help from you too to get things going. Was not simple to figure it all out.

Maintenance Equity Balance Requirements, it means in form of stocks and not cash balance ? as they started buzzing me on email with liquidation warning as soon as i subscribed to just one single market data for $1.5 month, on 1st day of account approval. I did buy few scripts eventually much more than than $100 but i do plan to not leave all the time scripts in it and and will keep as and when needed? or i just need to keep some stocks worth $200, at all times with them?

2. Can you please tell me a good EOD data source for all or most of the US stocks to feed to Ambibroker, but good one which is reliable not expensive. I am only looking for daily data with high/low/close/volume. 5min, 1min not required.

 

[CougarTrader]

@CougarTrader ty again for your quick and detail response. I wish they would put a full FAQ integrative brokers or make a video from start to finish what all things from Indian citizen point of view one has to do including fund the account. As i had to see bunch of yutube video and take help from you too to get things going. Was not simple to figure it all out.

Maintenance Equity Balance Requirements, it means in form of stocks and not cash balance ? as they started buzzing me on email with liquidation warning as soon as i subscribed to just one single market data for $1.5 month, on 1st day of account approval. I did buy few scripts eventually much more than than $100 but i do plan to not leave all the time scripts in it and and will keep as and when needed? or i just need to keep some stocks worth $200, at all times with them?

2. Can you please tell me a good EOD data source for all or most of the US stocks to feed to Ambibroker, but good one which is reliable not expensive. I am only looking for daily data with high/low/close/volume. 5min, 1min not required.

AB's IB plugin would suffice if you're concentrating on few stocks... but back-filling using that plugin is very slow because of IB restrictions...

Since you want EOD only, you can use tiingo.com via AmiQuote.... for more details (in case you want entire US Stock universe) please contact Rishi Singh (@Rishi_at_tiingo) from forum.amibroker.com