- Solve real problems with our hands-on interface
- Progress from basic puts and calls to advanced strategies
Interactive Options Course
Lesson 4 of 17
New to Interactive Brokers?
In this lesson we will take a look at how users may customize fields shown in the Portfolio, Watchlists, and other pages where columns are displayed.
First let’s take a look at columns on the Positions page in the Portfolio, which shows columns in default view.
While users may add, remove and rearrange these columns from the Preferences page, column display is also organized through “views,” which provide a much cleaner way to organize fields. At the top of page to the right of the tabs, you can see Portfolio View which is the default column set created for your portfolio.
You can also see a total of five predefined views:
Each view includes a related column set. This allows the user to quickly change column display just by selecting a different view. And those views can be applied to most pages. Further down the panel you can see user-built Custom views. More on this later.
To see and modify the columns included in any view, open the Columns page in Preferences using the gear icon. Fields in the “Selected Columns” list are the columns you see on the page.
Note that you can add, remove, and rearrange columns in any of your custom views. You cannot add, remove or rearrange columns from the predefined views.
Users may create their own view by clicking on Column Management and then selecting the Custom Views tab.
At the bottom of this list the user clicks Add Custom View to create a new view called “My View.” Select the pencil icon next to My View to open the editing screen. User can rename the view in the top box.
Click a column to add it to the view selecting from the Available Columns list. Expand a category, then double-click or use the plus sign next to a field to add it.
When all fields are added, user may reorder them by clicking and dragging the three horizontal bars next to the column name.
Once the user has finished managing the columns, simply close the Preferences box and the view is saved.
The next time you use the View dropdown you’ll see your custom view, and by selecting it, column display is applied to the page.
A quick note. When looking at your columns, in several tools you may notice that a column is cut off or wonder if there are more columns than you can see. To see more columns, you can expand the real estate using the expand icon. You can also use the scroll bar. To see the scroll bar, hover your mouse above the bottom link until the scrollbar appears. Then just grab and slide.
Resources
For specific platform feedback and suggestions, please submit it directly to our team using these instructions.
If you have an account-specific question or concern, please reach out to Client Services.
We encourage you to look through our FAQs before posting. Your question may already be covered!
The analysis in this material is provided for information only and is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. To the extent that this material discusses general market activity, industry or sector trends or other broad-based economic or political conditions, it should not be construed as research or investment advice. To the extent that it includes references to specific securities, commodities, currencies, or other instruments, those references do not constitute a recommendation by IBKR to buy, sell or hold such investments. This material does not and is not intended to take into account the particular financial conditions, investment objectives or requirements of individual customers. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Interactive Brokers, its affiliates, or its employees.
I’m unable to sort the various columns eg by name, % change etc
Thank you for commenting, Larry. We are actively working on sorting which we expect to be available in a release in the near future. We also will look into related features such as allowing the user to drag columns and rows to rearrange; however, we do not have ETA.
how do i bring up the mid on the platform
Hello Wayne, thank you for commenting. Can you please describe what you mean in more detail?
Here is a page on column customization from our IBKR Desktop user guide: https://www.ibkrguides.com/ibkr-desktop/preferences/columns.htm
Hello, I would like to add a column in which i would see the amount of USD I have invested in each instrument (not the cost basis which varies, but the original full invested amount in usd). What is the name of the column for this? Thank you.
Hello, thank you for reaching out. No, this is not possible at this time. In the future, please submit specific suggestions and feedback directly in IBKR Desktop (speech bubble with thumbs-up icon). We hope this helps!
How do I see my purchase price for stock or ETF, and add it to my column view?
Hello, thank you for reaching out. It is possible to add Average Price as a column in TWS. To add a column to your TWS watchlist, portfolio or quote monitor page, hold your mouse cursor over a column header for 1 second and select Insert Column.
Please view this User Guide for more information: https://www.ibkr.com/faq?id=27271523
We hope this helps!
hi i would like to add column which tells me the volume traded in each stock .
If you could kindly help me on that .
Thanks
look forward hearing from you.
Hello, thank you for reaching out. To display volume for a stock, you can add the “Volume” column in TWS or Mosaic. To add a column to a watchlist in Mosaic, click the settings icon in the top right corner, go to Available Columns, select Volume under High/Low/Volume/History, click Add, then Apply and OK. In TWS, go to Edit > Global Configuration > Quote Monitor > Default Layout > Market Data Columns, select Volume, click Add, Apply and OK. The volume traded will now be displayed. Please view this FAQ for more information: https://www.ibkr.com/faq?id=27271523
We hope this helps!
Is it possible to add an indicator called Diff/Dea to the platform…?
Hello Will, we appreciate your feedback. At this time, this is not available. Please view this FAQ for instructions to submit any specific suggestion(s) on how we can improve: https://www.ibkr.com/faq?id=32653353
Hi, – How can I add % Net Liq on the Portfolio tab? This is available on the Mobile App and WebPortal but I dont see the option on IBKR Desktop. – Would I able to create custom column? (Understand that there are many useful metrics, just curious) – The IBKR Desktop kept crashing it takes very long to launch. I am using MacBook (M1), wondering is it not fully compatible?
Thank you for asking. At this time, this feature is not available. However, you can view the available custom columns here:
https://www.ibkrguides.com/ibkrdesktop/how-to-customize-columns.htm
In the future, if you have a specific suggestion(s) on how we can improve, we would like to hear it! Please review this FAQ on where you can leave your feedback:
https://www.ibkr.com/faq?id=32653353
In order for this feedback to reach the appropriate team, you can report this as a bug for IBKR Desktop in the platform by clicking the thumbs up icon in the left menu panel. Or, you can create a web ticket in Client Portal: https://spr.ly/IBKR_TicketCampus
Hi, how can I adjust the order of my securities in my IBKR Desktop wachtlists? Thanks.
Hi David, thank you for asking. At this time, this is not possible. The order in the watchlist is based on the order in which you enter the security. However, you can insert rows in between to configure the watchlist by right clicking the security. We have passed this feedback to the appropriate team. In the future, if you have specific suggestion(s) on how we can improve IBKR Desktop, we would like to hear it! Please review this FAQ on where you can leave your feedback:
https://www.ibkr.com/faq?id=32653353
Hello, is it possible to add custom computed columns?
Thank you for reaching out. It is not possible to add custom computed columns in TWS. You can view the available columns you can add here: https://www.ibkrguides.com/ibkr-desktop/watchlists/watchlist-views.htm
We hope this helps!
Hello, The Option Chain allows up to 10 columns, but will only display four. If the window is expanded they just get wider (way too wide). Where is the setting to change column width to show more columns, particularly on Option Chain page? Thanks
Thank you for your question. There is currently no setting to change column width. Using a bigger screen would be a temporary solution while scrolling is not available.
I cannot find the information: I want to be able to regroup columns in one watchlist: as in: I have financial instrument last change and then on the same line, another financial instrument last change ? or said differently: how to split a watch list, so that we can put two series of (financial instrument + last + change) on the same line ? There is so little info on how to build layouts, it’s very difficult. thanks
Olá! Como altero a modalidade de cobrança escalonada para fixa?
Olá, obrigado por perguntar. Você pode alterar sua estrutura de preços: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=40341799
I am using the desktop app and this doesn’t work. You cant hover your cursor over a column heading and the “insert column” option doesnt appear.
How to import a list of tickers to the watchlist?
Hello, thank you for asking. You can import tickers from a file using the instructions in this User Guide. We hope this helps!
Hi, Where can I get video’s to customize layouts. I mean look and feel of the screen. Please suggest
Hi Bhas, thank you for asking. This IBKR Campus course may be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDyUbs5WeoI
We hope this is a good resource!
How can I add a column that displays the Extrinsic value of an option? How about another with the Intrinsic value of an option?
Hi Jack, thank you for reaching out. No, IBKR does not offer those specific columns. Please view the available Options columns: https://www.ibkrguides.com/traderworkstation/option-columns.htm?Highlight=column
We hope this information is helpful!