FYI Notifications

FYIs are notifications and automatic actions in your trading account based on your portfolio, order history and trading activity that are designed to help you stay on top of relevant dates and events. You configure FYI automatic actions on the IB FYI screen in Client Portal. You configure FYI notifications in TWS.

FYIs are intended as a convenience; do not rely on them as a comprehensive or primary source of information.

  • Dividends - Automatically exercise US dividend-related stock and ETF options. If you select this Automatic Action, IBKR's system will determine whether is likely to be beneficial to you to exercise call options early, using predefined mathematical criteria and based on well-established theories of option pricing and efficient markets. The system will then send you a notification two days before the stock trades ex-dividend and, if the determination remains favorable, automatically exercise the option early with no action required from you.

Only IB LLC, IB Canada and IB Japan clients can trade US dividend-related options are eligible for this automatic action. The following are also NOT ELIGIBLE: Hong Kong residents, Australia residents and UK residents.

All clients who can trade US dividend-related options are eligible for this automatic action EXCEPT:

  • Japan accounts
  • India accounts
  • UK passport country residents
  • UKL standalone accounts
  • Hong Kong residents
  • Australian residents
  • Economic Event Order Suspension - Twenty seconds before a major economic event, pauses all of your active orders for 40 seconds. Once you enable this automatic action in Client Portal, you will receive bulletins inside the trading platform which report the times and descriptions of the economic events. Economic events include GDP, non-farm payrolls, PPI, CPI and so on.

You cannot configure FYI notifications in Advisor Portal. You must log into TWS to configure them.

You cannot configure FYI notifications in Client Portal. You must log into TWS to configure them.

  1. Click the User menu (head and shoulders icon in the top right corner) > Settings > Account Communication > FYI Notifications
  2. Click the check box next to the automatic action you want to enable. Deselect a check box to disable an automatic action.
  3. Click Continue.
  4. Read the disclosures and agreements that appear, type your signature in the field provided and click Continue.
  5. Click Ok to return to the Account Settings screen.