Trading Lab Curricula
Educators create assignments and projects for students based
on real trading experience on our platform.
- Tailor the content to specific classes. For example, Finance and Trading students can study and practice using the order types and algos, Market Scanners and Fundamental Analysis features built into our platform.
- Get started with our sample assignments and build your own assignments for specific classes.
- Our free webinars and prepared webinar tests enhance your students' learning.
- Integrate short videos, and Traders' Academy courses into your lesson plan.
Stock Trading Sample Assignments and Resources
IB Trading Platform Basics
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with one or more of our three trading platforms – desktop, browser-based and mobile - using a variety of IB educational resources. Specific assignments can test your students' general knowledge of our trading platforms and can be organized based on the contents of QuickStart Guides, Users' Guides or Webinars.
Assignment
Trader Workstation
Learn the basics of our market maker-designed TWS desktop trading platform.
Resources
Documentation
Traders' Academy
Webinars
IBKR Mobile
Learn the basics of our mobile platform on a cell phone or tablet.
Stock Orders
Instruct your students to learn the basics of trading by placing basic and advanced orders.
Assignment
Basic Orders
Place at least three different basic stock order types. For example, market, limit and stop orders.
Resources
Order Types page
- Order Types
Sort by "stocks" to view all stock order types.
Documentation
Traders' Academy
Reference Material
Advanced Stock Orders
Instruct your students to place at least three different advanced stock order types. For example, All or None (AON), Bracket and Conditional orders.
Resources
Order Types page
- Order Types
Sort by "stocks" to view all stock order types.
Documentation
Traders' Academy
Short Selling
Instruct your students to place an order to sell short.
Assignment
Market Data Fields
Add short selling market data fields to Classic TWS.
Additional Reference
Statements and Trade Confirmations
Instruct your students to check their daily activity statements and trade confirmation reports. Assignments can include running and analyzing a default statement; creating, running and analyzing a customized statement, and running and analyzing a trade confirmation report.
Statements and Trade Confirmation Reports are available from within Account Management.
Assignment
Statements
Run default statements and create customized statements to view detailed information about the account activity, including positions, cash balances, transactions, and more.
Resources
Reporting Users' Guide
Trade Confirmation Reports
Run trade confirmation reports to view trade confirmations separately by asset class.
Reporting Users' Guide
Market Scanners
Instruct your students to use our Market Scanners to quickly and easily scan markets for the top performing stocks contracts. Possible assignments include:
- Scan multiple products.
- Scan for top contracts on US stocks.
- Choose from popular scan parameters.
- Create custom scans - Variables, filters and parameters allow you to create unique, completely customized scans.
- Submit orders directly from the scan results.
Assignment
TWS Market Scanner
See the bullet list above for sample Market Scanner assignments.
mobileTWS
See the bullet list above for sample Market Scanner assignments.
Trading Stocks on Margin
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our margin requirements and how to monitor the margin requirements for their own accounts.
Assignment
Learning About Margin
Learn the basic principles of trading stocks on margin.
Resources
IB Website
- Margin
Includes detailed overview and specific margin requirements for all asset classes, including stocks. - Market Scanners
Traders' Academy
Monitor Margin Requirements
Learn how to monitor margin requirements.
TWS Users' Guide
US Stock Commissions
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our commissions.
Assignment
IB's Stock Commissions
Review IB's stock commissions and other pertinent pricing information.
Resources
Option Trading Sample Assignments and Resources
Options Overview
Provide your students with an overview of options.
Assignment
Use our educational resources to learn about options.
Option Orders
Students can learn about trading options by placing options orders.
Assignment
Submit an option trade using a volatility order.
Strategy Builder
Instruct your students to use the Strategy Builder in Mosaic to quickly build options combo orders directly from the option chain display.
Assignment
Build options combo orders directly from the option chain display.
OptionTrader
OptionTrader is a robust trading tool in TWS that lets you view and trade options on an underlying. Instruct your students to use OptionTrader to perform the tasks listed.
Assignment
- Load option chains
- Establish straddles on historically volatile stocks
- Create and manage options orders
Option Strategy Lab
Instruct your students to create and submit simple and complex multi-leg option orders that are based on a price or volatility forecast using the Option Strategy Lab.
Assignment
- Enter your own price or volatility forecast on an underlying to generate a list of strategies.
- Filter results by premium, delta, strike and/or expiry.
- For each strategy, see the potential profit and loss and risk/return ratio in the scanner results.
Volatility Lab
The Volatility Lab is a comprehensive toolkit of nine volatility tools designed to help traders uncover superior trading opportunities. Instruct your students to use the Volatility Lab to perform the tasks listed below.
Assignment
- Gauge and view what the option market is projecting for a stock's future direction based upon its historical movement.
- View at a glance call and put open interest across available expirations to see where traders are positioned.
Probability Lab
The Probability Lab was created by Mr. Thomas Peterffy, founder of Interactive Brokers. It offers a practical way to think about options without the complicated mathematics, and is designed to optimize the analysis and management of option strategies. Instruct your students to perform the tasks listed below.
Assignment
Review the following concepts:
- Probability distribution (PD)
- The nature of stock prices
- Calculate the PD from option prices and vice versa
- PD implied by the market and your opinion
- The best trades and potential consequences
Options Portfolio
Use the TWS Option Portfolio tool to help students adjust the risk profile of your portfolio by any of the Greek risk dimensions. Instruct your students to perform the tasks listed below.
Assignment
Find the most cost-effective way to achieve your objective in Delta, Gamma, Vega or Theta by describing your objective and specifying any conditions.
Resources
Documentation
Additional Reference Material
Market Scanner - Options
Instruct your students to use the TWS Market Scanners to quickly and easily scan markets for the top performing options contracts.
Assignment
- Scan multiple products.
- Scan for top contracts on US options.
- Choose from popular scan parameters.
- Create custom scans - Variables, filters and parameters allow you to create unique, completely customized scans.
Trading Options on Margin
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our margin requirements for options and how to monitor the margin requirements for their own accounts.
Assignment
Learning About Margin
Learn the basics of trading options on margin.
Monitor Margin Requirements
TWS Users' Guide
US Options Commissions
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our options commissions.
Assignment
Encourage your students to review IB's option commissions and other pertinent pricing information.
Resources
Additional Reference Material
Assignment
Provide this material as background for your students.
Futures Trading Sample Assignments and Resources
Futures Products
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with futures products available through IB.
Assignment
Trader CME Leading Products
Equity Index, Agriculture, Interest Rates, Energy.
For instance, student can trade the following futures:
- CL - Light sweet crude Oil futures NYMEX
- ES - E-Mini S&P 500
- YM - Mini-Sized Dow Jones Industrial Average $5
- NQ - Emini NASDAQ 100
- GE – Eurodollar
- ZC - Corn
Resources
Futures Products web pages - CME Group futures
SpreadTrader
SpreadTrader helps you quickly and easily manage futures spreads from a single screen.
Assignment
Create and manage calendar spreads for futures from a single screen.
They can check the margin impact of any order before it is placed.
Trading Futures
Instruct your students to learn about trading futures by placing futures orders.
Assignment
Place a futures order. For example, place a stop limit order. Students can view the Margin Impact value before they submit the order.
Market Scanner - Futures
Instruct your students to use the TWS Market Scanners to quickly and easily scan markets for the top performing futures contracts.
Assignment
- Scan multiple products.
- Scan for top contracts on US futures.
- Choose from popular scan parameters
- Create custom scans - Variables, filters and parameters allow you to create unique, completely customized scans.
Monitor Margin Requirements
Learn how to monitoro margin requirements..
TWS Users' Guide
Trading Futures on Margin
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our margin requirements for futures and how to monitor the margin requirements for their own accounts.
Assignment
Learning About Margin
Learn the basics of trading futures on margin.
Resources
TWS Users' Guide
IB Website
- Margin
Includes detailed overview and specific margin requirements for all asset classes, including stocks.
Monitor Margin Requirements
Learn how to monitor margin requirements.
TWS Users' Guide
US Futures Commissions
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our commissions.
Assignment
Review IB's futures commissions and other pertinent pricing information.
Additional Reference Material
Assignment
Read the latest Futures-related articles from IBKR's Traders' Insight, a Global market commentary from Interactive Brokers Group traders and market participants.
View additional webinar recordings that IB has co-sponsored events with CME Group and ICE Futures.
Resources
- IBKR Traders' Insight
- Recorded Webinars
Select Industry-Sponsored Tab (choose CME or ICE Futures from Sponsors Filter drop-down)
Forex Trading Sample Assignments and Resources
Forex Overview
Provide your students with an overview on forex trading.
Assignment
Forex Markets
View our Traders' Academy course, which is designed to help investors understand how to trade shares of overseas-listed companies in foreign currencies, become aware of settlement concerns and know how exchange rate fluctuations can affect profits and losses when using a cash account or borrowing on margin.
FXTrader
The FXTrader provides an optimized trading interface with IB-designed tools to trade the forex markets.
Assignment
Trade all available currencies.
Students might want to hedge positions with the currencies' derivatives (futures or options). For instance, CME forex futures trading.
Forex Order Types
Instruct your students how to place a Forex order.
Assignment
Place a Forex order. For example, practice placing stop limit orders. Students may use IB's default trigger methodology or configure their own customized trigger methodology.
Trading Forex on Margin
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our margin requirements for options and how to monitor the margin requirements for their own accounts.
Assignment
Learning About Margin
Learn the basic principles of trading forex on margin.
Resources
TWS Users' Guide
IB Website
- Margin
Includes detailed overview and specific margin requirements for all asset classes, including stocks.
Monitor Margin Requirements
Learn how to monitor margin requirements.
TWS Users' Guide
Forex Commissions
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our commissions.
Assignment
Review IB's Forex commissions and other pertinent pricing information.
Additional Reference Material
Assignment
Read the latest Forex-related articles from IBKR's Traders' Insight, a Global market commentary from Interactive Brokers Group traders and market participants, and review the Forex Holiday Calendar.
Resources
Algorithms, Quantitative Finance, Computer Science, and Machine Learning Sample Assignments and Resources
TWS API
Students can use our proprietary Application Program Interface (API) to build their own automated rules-based trading application in their favorite programming language or protocol.
Assignment
Select a programming language supported by our API:
- Java – Our most popular API technology;
- Python;
- .NET (C#) - You can use the C# library with any .NET supported language;
- C++ (POSIX-compliant);
- ActiveX – Integrate our ActiveX control into other programs such as Excel and Matlab;
- DDE – Use our Excel sample application to get you started, or any DDE-aware program.
Students should also outline how their system will work, enter and exit markets, etc
Resources
Overview and Software
Reference
Traders' Academy Courses
Short Videos
Webinars
- Python vs R - Byte Academy
- How is Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning disrupting trading? And why now? - qplum
- TWS Excel APIs, featuring the RealTimeData Server
- Financial Time Series Analysis using R - Majeed Simaan, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Introduction to the TWS Python API
- Statistics: The Missing Link between Technical Analysis and Algorithmic Trading - Samssara Capital
- Trading using R on Interactive Brokers - QuantInsti
- Introduction to TWS C# API
- Introduction to the TWS Java API
- A Framework for Applying Machine Learning to Systematic Trading - Chris Longmore
- Introduction to the TWS C++ API
- Implement Algo Trading coded in Python using Interactive Brokers API - QuantInsti
- Contemporary Portfolio Optimization Modeling with R - Ronald Hochreiter
- Getting Started with the DDE for Excel API
- TWS API - Advanced Q&A
API Guides
Use our API guides to help you learn the details of our Application Program Interface.
Assignment
In addition to our API Reference Guide, we also feature API tutorials on the IBKR Quant Blog.
Resources
- API GitHub Guide includes tutorials
- IBKR Quant Blog
Margin
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our margin requirements and how to monitor the margin requirements for their own accounts.
Assignment
Learning About Margin
Learn the basic principles of trading on margin.
Resources
IB Website
- Margin
Includes detailed overview and specific margin requirements for all asset classes, including stocks.
Monitor Margin Requirements
Learn how to monitor margin requirements.
TWS Users' Guide
Additional Reference Material
Assignment
Product and Exchange Listings
Review our Product and Exchange Listing pages.
Resources
Economics and Finance Sample Assignments and Resources
Trading Platforms
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with one or more of our three trading platforms – desktop, browser-based and mobile - using a variety of IB educational resources.
Specific assignments can test your students' general knowledge of our trading platforms and can be organized based on the contents of QuickStart Guides, Users' Guides or Webinars.
Assignment
Desktop - Trader Workstation
Learn the basics of our market maker-designed TWS desktop trading platform.
Resources
Documentation
Webinars
Mobile - mobileTWS
Learn the basics of our mobile platform on a cell phone or tablet.
Order Types
Instruct your students to place at least three different basic stock order types. For example, market, limit and stop orders.
Assignment
Review the over 60 individual order types and algos that are available with our platform..
Resources
Order Types Page
- Order Types
Sort by "stocks" to view all stock order types. - Market Order
- Limit Order
- Stop Order
Documentation
Traders' Glossary
The Traders' Glossary is a comprehensive list of trading terms and acronyms.
Assignment
Use this online glossary as a reference when learning general trading and IBKR terminology.
Statements and Trade Confirmations
Instruct your students to check their daily activity statements and trade confirmation reports. Assignments can include running and analyzing a default statement; creating, running and analyzing a customized statement, and running and analyzing a trade confirmation report.
Statements and Trade Confirmation Reports are available from within Account Management.
Assignment
Statements
Run default statements and create customizes statements to view detailed information about the account activity, including positions, cash balances, transactions, and more.
Resources
Reporting Users' Guide
Trade Confirmation Reports
Run trade confirmation reports to view trade confirmations separately by asset class.
Reporting Users' Guide
Margin
Instruct your students to familiarize themselves with our margin requirements for options and how to monitor the margin requirements for their own accounts.
Assignment
Learning About Margin
Learn the basic principles of trading stocks on margin.
Resources
TWS Users' Guide
IB Website
- Margin
Includes detailed overview and specific margin requirements for all asset classes, including stocks.
Monitor Margin Requirements
Learn how to monitor margin requirements.
TWS Users' Guide
Technical Analysis
Technical analysis is the forecasting of markets through the study and analysis of data generated exclusively from the buying and selling of financial instruments.
Assignment
Use our resources to learn about technical analysis.
Resources
Courses
Documentation
Reference
Market Scanner - Options
Instruct your students to use the TWS Market Scanners to quickly and easily scan markets for the top performing contracts.
Assignment
- Scan multiple products.
- Scan for top contracts on US options.
- Choose from popular scan parameters.
- Create custom scans - Variables, filters and parameters allow you to create unique, completely customized scans.
Socially Responsible Investing Trading Sample Assignment and Resources
Socially Responsible Investing Overview
IBKR provides traders with a plethora of resources to evaluate data and help them build a Socially Responsible Investing portfolio.
Assignment
Instruct your students to review the basic terms of Socially Responsible Investing and understand the concept and financial applications of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.
How to Develop a Simulated Trading Competition for Your Class
Use IBKR's powerful trading platform to supplement your competition and use our simulated paper trading to teach students about global markets.