What Teachers Are Saying

As a professor teaching a course on investments, the use of the Interactive Brokers Simulated Trading platform has become a valuable component of my curriculum. I organize an investment competition where students manage their own investment fund using this platform: they must allocate USD 1 million across different asset classes (equities, fixed income, derivatives) with the goal of achieving financial returns while managing portfolio risk. This real-world investment experience adds significant value to their learning, exposing them to the depth of financial instruments available. Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and I can highly recommend Interactive Brokers Simulated Trading for similar classes, both at undergraduate and graduate levels.

As a Finance Professor, I use Interactive Brokers to give students an opportunity to use a realistic brokerage platform with a wealth of fundamental and technical information about the securities they trade. I utilize Interactive Brokers for my personal trading, both for investment and retirement accounts, and I can attest that the students' experience using the paper trading account feature tracks almost precisely my experience with live trading. The paper trading platform is so realistic that it will, realistically, restrict students from taking certain positions in companies which would violate S.E.C. rules, not to mention properly simulating gains and losses on leveraged trading. The account statements, which I have students submit at the end of the class, are also incredibly detailed and realistic, helping me to track student investments precisely. This is very important, since I want their experience to be as authentic as possible so they can use their portfolio returns over the semester as a precise estimator of what they can expect to earn if managing their personal investment account long-term. Students then construct a financial planning spreadsheet, starting at college graduation, that contains both an investment plan and a consumption plan to become millionaires by the time they reach their fifties. The returns they earn in their Interactive Brokers paper trading account function as the prospective rate of return for their investments many years into the future. At the end of the term, I have them turn in their spreadsheet and their Interactive Brokers account statement, which will confirm that they made a variety of investments, which must include long positions, short positions, bonds, and derivatives to satisfy the requirements of the class. I actually personally know board member Larry Harris, as he was one of my graduate school professors at USC, and I am happy to have the opportunity to use the platform to get both college and high school students started on their trading journey.

The JSA Investment Club has greatly benefited from the IBKR Student Trading Lab. With powerful research tools like the Fundamentals Explorer and the Advanced Market Scanner, combined with a simulated trading environment, our members engage in friendly competition that drives a dynamic learning experience. This hands-on approach sharpens our skills in portfolio development and trading strategies, effectively bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application.

Experience with Interactive Brokers real-time simulated trading really helps bring to life important concepts, and pen and paperwork students do in the class.

I am really appreciative of the IBKR Education offering because it allows academics such as myself to offer the experiential learning opportunity to students without consideration for costs or heavy investment in resources.

I like using IB to: - plot (virtual) securities for showing potential arbitrage opportunities, like 1500 BRK b and BRK a and to easily setup an Algo to exploit mispricings. - Show which (option) strategy is best to best exploit differences in forecasted and market expectations in the future probability distribution. If I remember correctly the tool is called “Probability Lab”.

I have used Interactive Brokers in my investment class for more than 10 years. Not only do I teach my students to trade various assets (stocks, currency, options, and futures) on this platform, but I also use it for stock research, option exercise and implementation of hedging strategies. To be able to receive timely news and live data is also a plus. It is the best trading platform I suggest using in either academia or the real world.

Running ROBOTRADER competition for 15 years, we have always trusted in IBKR Student Trading Lab. The tools and API's available makes our work easier and the students love them to design their automated trading strategies.

As an instructor at the Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay, I use the IBKR simulated trading program to teach my students, allowing them to experiment with strategies in a risk-free environment with hands-on learning using real-time data from international financial markets and derivatives. This tool enhances their understanding of complex market dynamics, builds their confidence, prepares them for real-world trading, and serves as an invaluable resource for their academic growth and future success in the financial world.”

I have my students build a diversified portfolio of assets that include stocks, ETFs, closed-end funds, TIPS, T-notes, investment-grade corporate bonds, and high-yield corporate bonds. Then I have them hedge and speculate using call options, put options, and futures via IB charts. I let my students know that the paper trading account platform is exactly like my real (live trading) account I have with IB.

Using Interactive Brokers trading app in our BUS3600 Advanced Financial Analysis course has transformed the way students engage with market dynamics. The Curiosity element we incorporate in the learning process not only fosters real-time decision-making skills but also highlights the importance of leveraging robust trading tools for informed analysis. It's one thing to learn theory; it's another to apply it in a simulated environment where every decision carries weight.

We very much enjoy working with you and using almost every tool available, depending on the level of study and the course in question. We use Simulated trading in several courses - different order types, market scanners (custom, bond), Fundamentals explorer, Impact dashboard, Portfolio analytics and risk management metrics. We love that each year you come up with some new tool, which we have the opportunity to implement in the class. Your platform allows our students to be up-to-date and competitive.

IBKR has been supporting the highly ranked MS in Mathematical Finance and Financial Technology Program at Boston University, since 2022. In particular, IBKR is the simulated trading platform adopted for my class, Algorithmic and High Frequency Trading, one of the most popular upper-level electives in the program. With IBKR Student Lab, my students were able to conduct realistic trading simulations, with real world market conditions. They get to form virtual hedge fund groups, that develop and deploy trading algos range from medium to high frequency, trading in all asset classes, including stocks, bonds, futures, forex and options. It allows me to combine mathematical and algorithmic rigor with market realism. And it also encourages collaboration and teamwork. The IBKR Student Lab has become an indispensable educational and job training resources for the next generation of quants.

I teach an undergraduate financial risk management class, which is to say I teach a class on derivatives. In class I go over the mathematics and modeling to help my students understand how derivatives work (pricing and valuation), then I demonstrate their uses with contrived classroom examples. However, the real learning takes place a few minutes later when I require my students to log in to their Interactive Brokers paper accounts and establish derivatives positions. Put-call parity, short selling, naked puts and calls, protective puts, covered calls, bull and bear spreads, calendar spreads, collars, preselling and prebuying, risk-on and risk-off, delta and gamma hedging, transforming asset and liability exposures, and value-at-risk and conditional Var, are just some examples. The next class period students report on their positions, close out positions and update their positions (e.g., delta hedging) due to changes in asset prices. Then we begin anew with additional risk management applications.

We are using IB to bridge the gap between theory and practice, particularly in the area of optimal portfolio choice. The students work in groups to complete an exciting coursework assignment where they actively buy and sell assets while maintaining a pre-specified portfolio target. It’s a fantastic way to immerse them in the world of real-time trading and portfolio management! Students just love it!

As a Professor lecturing an investment class, the Interactive Brokers Simulated Trading has become a valuable element of my class syllabus. During the semester, we run an investment competition in which groups of students get to manage their own investment fund on the Interactive Brokers Simulated Trading platform: They have to allocate USD 1 million into the different asset classes (equity, fixed-income, derivatives) with the goal of making a financial return while managing the risk of their portfolio. The students indeed benefit a lot from this real life investment exercise and learn from the depth of the financial instruments available to them via the platform. Their overall feedback is very positive and I can highly recommend Interactive Brokers Simulated Trading for similar classes at the undergraduate and graduate level.