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For Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers, wired once and owned.

Socket ports, the API settings three menus deep in Trader Workstation, client IDs, trusted addresses, and paper and live accounts that are easy to confuse. The adapter is written against the TWS API as source in your project, tested on paper, and kept.

The setup

The wiring is the part nobody finishes.

Most attempts to put Interactive Brokers under systematic control stop in the API setup, long before the strategy was going to matter.

01Trader Workstation stays the gateway

TWS, or IB Gateway, remains the connection to your account. Enabling socket clients in its API settings is a step you take once, in your own terminal, with the settings it needs named for you.

02The adapter is written, not awaited

Ports, client IDs and trusted addresses are matched in an adapter written against the TWS API as a Model Context Protocol server in your repository. You can read it, test it, version it and keep it.

03The strategy, in plain language

Entries, exits, sizing and the loss you refuse to take, described the way you would brief a colleague. It is written as readable source you own, not a configuration inside someone else’s platform.

04Paper first, then a deliberate step

Backtest against history, then run against your IBKR paper account and watch it behave. Live order routing is built and tested before it touches capital, and nothing makes it the default.

Held to account

Why there is no supported-brokers page.

Platforms in this category sell a list of brokers they maintain. QuantIDE ships the layer beneath that list, and the connection to your account is code in your repository.

Not a pre-built integration

Interactive Brokers is not a feature we maintain, and we will not claim it is. What ships is the connectivity layer that lets an IBKR adapter be written against their API in your project. If you also trade elsewhere, that venue is connected the same way.

Your keys never leave the machine

Credentials sit on your disk, scoped to the one connection that uses them, and are never included when a Stack is shared. The work travels; the account stays with you.

Results stated plainly

When something looks better than it should, you are told. A modest Sharpe and a material drawdown are said out loud rather than buried under the equity curve.

Due diligence

Interactive Brokers, the questions asked first.

Do I have to set up the TWS API myself?

Only the part that lives in your own terminal. Connecting to Interactive Brokers normally means enabling socket clients, matching port numbers, sorting out client IDs and trusted addresses, and then discovering the whole thing points at the wrong account. The settings TWS needs are named for you, and the adapter on the other side is written to match them, as code in your project.

Do I have to write the code, or learn the IBKR API?

No. Describe what the strategy should do and it is written, in whatever language suits the job; nothing here is tied to one. The code is real and readable, so you can open it, change it, keep it, and ask what any part of it does.

Does QuantIDE trade live on IBKR out of the box?

No. Nothing trades live out of the box. Order routing is built against the TWS API in your project, with your credentials, and tested on your paper account before it touches capital.

Can I paper trade first?

Yes, and you should. Backtest against historical data, then run against your IBKR paper account and watch it behave for a while before any live capital is involved. Nothing about the setup makes going live the default.

Where do my API credentials live?

On your machine, scoped to the single connection that uses them. They are never bundled into anything you share: a Stack you send to someone else carries the setup, never your keys.

What can I trade?

Whatever your Interactive Brokers account and the TWS API can reach: stocks, options, futures, forex. There is no supported-venue list, so a second broker or data source is connected the same way.

Does my computer have to stay on?

The app does not have to stay open: a running process is supervised and survives you closing QuantIDE. The machine does need to be on, with Trader Workstation or IB Gateway running, since that is the connection to your broker. If you want it running around the clock, that is a machine you control, not a runtime we host.

What does it cost?

One monthly plan: no tiers and nothing to unlock. Current terms are shown before you download rather than printed here. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and you can cancel anytime.

Further

Where to go from here.

You already have the account. Put it under your own code.