Automating savings with Interactive Brokers?

[occambogle]

Investing in my employer Vanguard 401k is totally hands-free - payments are deducted from paycheck and invested in a Target Date fund automatically every month - It's a nice set-and-forget arrangement.

I have recently set up an Interactive Brokers account (taxable) and after I will make a lump-sum investment in a 3-ETF portfolio, probably VTI/VXUS/BND, I'm looking for how best to make regular additional investments in those 3 in set proportions. I realise that IB doesn't have a properly automatic way to do this like my 401k, but was wondering what strategies people use to make regular savings.

Is there any way to semi-automate and minimise the manual workload/calculations of regular investment in such a situation? Can you automate the ACH transfers to IB? Is there some way to set up a trade template to buy all 3 funds? PS - Only talking about IB, and only ETFs.

[AlohaJoe]

Can you automate the ACH transfers to IB?

Yes, you can created scheduled withdrawals/deposits to IB. Just click "make this recurring" when you are setting up the transfer.

Is there some way to set up a trade template to buy all 3 funds? PS - Only talking about IB, and only ETFs.

IB has basket trading (and "index trading"). If you google BasketTrader and IndexTrader and Portfolio Builder you'll find more. I've never used any of them, so the limit of my knowledge is that they exist. People who want to completely automate savings don't really use IB, even though it has a powerful API that should, in theory, make it possible. It allows all kinds of algorithmic trading so buying stuff once a month seems like it should be doable...it just isn't something that people who use IB tend to want to do.

M1, SoFi, or using mutual funds from Vanguard are a better option for people who want to be 100% automated.

[le_narwhal]

I have recently set up an Interactive Brokers account (taxable) and after I will make a lump-sum investment in a 3-ETF portfolio, probably VTI/VXUS/BND, I'm looking for how best to make regular additional investments in those 3 in set proportions. I realise that IB doesn't have a properly automatic way to do this like my 401k, but was wondering what strategies people use to make regular savings.

Is there any way to semi-automate and minimise the manual workload/calculations of regular investment in such a situation? Can you automate the ACH transfers to IB? Is there some way to set up a trade template to buy all 3 funds? PS - Only talking about IB, and only ETFs.

Hi! I was able to setup monthly transfers to IBKR from BofA and that works just fine.

My problem is that I cannot seem to find a way to automate buying VOO (or any ETF) so that I can "set it and forget it".
I found https://passiv.com (but it's not automatic, you still have to manually click "rebalance" it seems), and https://capitalise.ai (but it requires a IBKR research subscription which costs money).

I was wondering if anyone found a free way to make 100% automatic monthly investments in IBKR ? That way one could keep investing the monthly transfers from a bank account into some ETF(s).

I understand there's an API which could be used to program something, but I was trying to avoid reinventing the wheel if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[manuvns]

have you tried to use the developers API ?

https://www.quantstart.com/articles/Usi ... te-Trades/

https://levelup.gitconnected.com/execut ... fb6059a0f0

https://github.com/corbinbalzan/IBAPICode

[muffins14]

If you’re willing to spend ~1 minute per month you can open the mobile app, place a buy order, then come back the next month.

It’s not automatic, but a couple minutes per month is not bad. It gives you a chance to check for TLH opportunities too

[sharukh]

There is a order type called conditional, you can use time as trigger and set the date you want.

Create orders for the next few weeks and they will be placed on the selected trigger date automatically

[manuvns]

of you are ok with market orders , you can create a pie in m1 finance automate it and transfer assets to IBKR when it reaches a certain dollar amount/ threshold .