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Paper Trading Account

Trading Term

Paper Trading

Paper trading lets you use the full range of trading facilities in a simulated environment using real market conditions. Set-up paper trading using Client Portal.

Use this paper environment to learn trading features such as order types without risk, learn market dynamics in new exchanges and products, and simulate and test trading strategies.

When you use a paper trading account, you have limited access to Broker Portal functions. Paper trading accounts are created within 24 hours under normal business circumstances. You will be notified by email when the account is ready for trading.

All new clients automatically receive a paper trading account with 1,000,000 USD of paper trading Equity with Loan Value, and this equity will fluctuate as if the trades had executed in the real market. Older accounts may not have paper trading accounts.

Trading permissions, market data subscriptions, base currency, and other account configurations are the same as specified for your regular account.

Your Paper Trading account can be used on all our trading platforms including Client Portal, TWS and the IBKR Mobile App. At the time of login, you must select either the Live or Paper mode (above the username field) using the toggle. If you wish to trade in the paper trading account, kindly use the paper trading username and password.

API

IBKR’s Web API and TWS API can be used with IBKR paper accounts with minimal differences in functionality compared to live use. Paper trades are executed by the same simulator employed by IBKR’s own platforms.

Limitations

Although a Paper Trading Account simulates most aspects of a production account, you may encounter some differences due to its construction as a simulator with no execution or clearing abilities. These differences include but are not limited to:

No support for some order types including: VWAP, Auction, RFQ, and Pegged to Market.

Fills are simulated from the top of the book, no deep book access.

Limited combo trading.

Stops and other complex order types are always simulated in paper trading; this may result in slightly different behavior from a production account.

Penny trading for US Options is not supported. You will be able to submit the order, but it will not receive a penny fill.

The trade simulator will reject the remainder of any exchange-directed market order that partially executes. This may or may not match behavior of a real-world exchange. Market orders received while there is no quote on the opposite side will be held until the market data arrives (i.e. until the first partial fill).

Mutual Fund trading is not supported in a Paper Trader Account.

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