Introduction
The content within this section provides insight on how to define the Contract Object for an affiliated security type. The contents herein assume developers are readily familiar with the fields of the Contract Object and focuses on insights for specific fields required for the given instruments.
Contract Identifier
The standard details needed to lookup most contracts requires a minimum of: Symbol, SecType, Exchange, Currency; however, Interactive Brokers strongly advises the use of contract identifier, or ConId, and Exchange. These two values provide a complete contract definition as the contract identifier is a uniquely defined value for a given financial instrument.
These conids are static for each and every contract and will never change. For example, the contract identifier for Apple Incorporated as hosted on NASDAQ is and will remain as 265598 unless the contract is delisted or the company is no longer public.