Interactive Brokers (IB) is a major broker for stocks, options, futures, and more. If you want to build an algo trading app, a dashboard, or connect TradingView signals to live execution, you’ll need to talk to IB’s APIs. There are two main options: the TWS API (Trader Workstation) and the Client Portal API. Both can be used to place orders, read positions, and get market data—each with different trade-offs.
TWS API
The TWS API is a socket-based interface that connects your application to the Trader Workstation (TWS) or IB Gateway. Your code runs on the same machine as TWS/IB Gateway, or connects over the network. You get real-time market data, order placement and status, positions, account summary, and historical bars. It’s powerful and low-latency, but you need TWS or IB Gateway running and configured to accept API connections (with the right ports and trusted IPs). It’s well suited for automated trading and professional setups.
Client Portal API
The Client Portal API is REST-based and works through the IB web client. You authenticate via the web, then call REST endpoints for portfolio, orders, and market data. It’s easier to run from a server or cloud because you don’t need a local TWS instance—but it has different rate limits and capabilities than the TWS API. Good for dashboards, reporting, and lighter automation.
What we build with IB
At FintechPaa we build trading systems that integrate with Interactive Brokers: order execution, position and P&L tracking, and market data. We handle connection management, error handling, and idempotency so that your strategy or signal layer can focus on logic, not boilerplate. We also connect TradingView alerts to IB (or other brokers) so signals become live orders with the right risk checks. If you’re planning an algo, a signal execution service, or a wealth app on top of IB, we can design and build it for you—from paper trading to go-live.
Getting started yourself
To experiment: (1) Open an IB account and enable API access in Account Settings. (2) Download TWS or IB Gateway and enable the API in Configure → Settings → API. (3) Use the official IB API documentation and client libraries (e.g. Python, Java) to connect and place a test order in paper trading first. Always use paper trading before going live. For production systems, consider connection redundancy, order state handling, and compliance with your jurisdiction—we help clients with exactly that.
Need a full trading system built on Interactive Brokers? We build order execution, portfolios, and signal pipelines for clients.
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