IBKR Toolbox: Using Connections in Desktop 

In today’s increasingly complex financial markets, understanding the relationships between different instruments, sectors, and economic indicators has become essential for successful investing. Interactive Brokers’ innovative Connections feature addresses this challenge by providing traders with a powerful tool to discover and leverage market relationships that might otherwise remain hidden. This intelligent research solution seamlessly integrates into the IBKR platform ecosystem, offering users a comprehensive view of market interconnections at precisely the moment they need it. 

IBKR Connections functions as a contextual discovery engine that reveals the intricate web of relationships surrounding any financial instrument you’re researching. By surfacing related companies, alternative products, thematic connections, and strategic opportunities in a single unified interface, Connections transforms how investors approach market research and decision-making. 

Accessing this powerful tool is remarkably straightforward. From within IBKR Desktop, simply click the Quote icon in the left-side panel, then select the Connections tab at the top of the Quote page. This immediately opens a world of related market opportunities organized into intuitive categories designed to enhance your investment perspective. 

The true power of IBKR Connections lies in its multi-layered approach to revealing market relationships. For companies within the S&P 1500, the tool presents four distinct sections: Related Companies, Related Products, Investment Themes, and Strategies. Companies outside this index still benefit from three comprehensive sections: Related Companies, Related Products, and Strategies. 

In the Related Companies section, powered by sophisticated data from Reflexivity, investors can quickly identify direct competitors and companies with similar business models or market exposure. This proves invaluable when analyzing competitive positioning or seeking diversification opportunities within a sector. By clicking the arrow next to any category, users can expand the view to see the full list of related companies and easily add them to watchlists or generate quotes. 

The Related Products section extends your research beyond equities, showcasing alternative instruments tied to the security you’re analyzing. Depending on the instrument, this might include Forecast Contracts, Options, Futures, ETFs, Mutual Funds, Bonds, and even Cryptocurrencies. This cross-asset class perspective enables investors to consider multiple approaches to gaining exposure to a particular market theme or hedging existing positions. 

For S&P 1500 companies, the Investment Themes section offers particularly valuable insights by grouping companies according to their exposure to specific market themes or trends. This thematic approach helps investors identify opportunities that might be overlooked in traditional sector-based analysis. 

For example, when researching a technology company, Connections might reveal its involvement in emerging themes like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, or cybersecurity. Similarly, analyzing Exxon Mobil (XOM) through Connections exposes its relationships to themes like Carbon Capture, Industrial Chemicals, or LNG Projects. This thematic lens provides crucial context for understanding how companies might perform as broader economic and technological trends evolve. 

What truly distinguishes IBKR Connections is how seamlessly it bridges the gap between research and execution. The Strategies section leverages Interactive Brokers’ powerful Option Wizard to suggest specific trading strategies based on your market outlook. 

Users can select bullish or bearish market views, adjust expected price movements using standard deviation parameters, and specify their investment timeframe. The system then generates tailored options strategies complete with critical metrics like break-even points, maximum potential profit/loss, and probability of profit. With a single click, these strategies populate the order entry panel, allowing for immediate execution once the trader has confirmed their parameters. 

The practical applications of IBKR Connections extend across the entire investment process. For portfolio managers, it offers efficient diversification opportunities by quickly identifying related but non-correlated assets. Risk managers can leverage the tool to discover hedging instruments across multiple asset classes. Meanwhile, thematic investors can use Connections to build comprehensive exposure to emerging trends by identifying companies with varying degrees of involvement in specific themes. 

Consider an investor researching Zillow (Z) who discovers through Connections not only direct competitors in the real estate technology space but also related REITs, mortgage companies, homebuilder stocks, and housing market forecast contracts. This comprehensive view enables them to construct a more nuanced housing market strategy than would be possible through traditional research methods. 

A Unified Research Experience Across Platforms 

IBKR Connections is available across the entire Interactive Brokers platform ecosystem, including IBKR Desktop, Client Portal, Trader Workstation, and IBKR Mobile. This cross-platform integration ensures that investors can maintain their research continuity regardless of how they access their accounts. 

By consolidating relationship-based insights into the everyday workflow of traders and investors, IBKR Connections transforms the investment research process. As markets grow increasingly interconnected, this powerful tool enables more sophisticated, context-aware strategies that capitalize on both direct and indirect market influences. For investors seeking to develop a more comprehensive understanding of market relationships, IBKR Connections represents an essential addition to their analytical toolkit. 

The practical applications of IBKR Connections extend across the entire investment process, offering efficient diversification opportunities by quickly identifying related but non-correlated assets. Investors can leverage the tool to discover hedging instruments across multiple asset classes. Meanwhile, thematic investors can use Connections to build comprehensive exposure to emerging trends by identifying companies with varying degrees of involvement in specific themes. 

IBKR Connections is available across the entire Interactive Brokers platform ecosystem, including IBKR Desktop, Client Portal, Trader Workstation, and IBKR Mobile. This cross-platform integration ensures that investors can maintain their research continuity regardless of how they access their accounts. 

For more information on the IBKR Connections tool please see the Traders’ Academy Connections  video.