Last Updated on December 31, 2025 by Chin Yi Xuan
Do you have different investment or trading strategies that you’d like to experiment with?
For instance, I have a short-term trading strategy that I’d like to implement, but I don’t want to confuse it with the account I use for my long-term investments.
What can I do to separate my different trading activities?
In this post, let me show you how to open and link multiple trading accounts in Interactive Brokers (IBKR) to accommodate different purposes in your trading journey.
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Benefits of opening and linking an additional IBKR account:
- Separate accounts for different strategies or purposes
- Your newly created IBKR account is linked to your existing IBKR account, which means:
- Verdict:
Guide: Opening an additional Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account
Pre-requisite: Open an Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account.
To link multiple trading accounts in IBKR, I’d assume that you already have an IBKR account.
If not, check out my step-by-step IBKR account opening guide HERE.
Step 1: Log in to your IBKR account.
Click the button below to log in to your IBKR account.
Step 2: Under ‘Profile’ at the top right corner, select ‘Settings’.
Then select ‘Open an Additional Account.’
Step 3: Under ‘Individual Brokerage Accounts’, select ‘Individual’.
If you have a Joint account (ie. your account has 2 account holders) and want to open an additional trading account, create an account under ‘Joint’.
Note: This guide will be focused on opening an additional account under ‘Individual’.
Step 4: Complete ‘About You’ section
This includes personal information, such as your employment and source of funds.
For some, IBKR might have pre-filled the details based on your saved information.
Step 5: Complete Financial Information:
(i) Select your Account Type based on your trading needs
- Cash account: Trade based on the cash value of your account without the ability to borrow money on margin.
- Margin account (most common): Ability to borrow money to trade (ie. trade on margin), and can use unsettled funds to trade.
- Portfolio Margin account: Risk-based margin account and required to have options permissions and a Net Liquidation Value of at least 110,000 USD.
(ii) Select your Investment Objectives and Intended Purpose of Trading
- Investment Objectives: You can choose one or multiple investment objectives. Your selection will determine what investment products you’ll be able to trade
- Trading permissions: Choose the products you’d like to trade, in line with your investment objectives.
- Note: You can still modify your selection anytime after your account is open by visiting account settings.
- Potential issue: There might be instances where your investment objective clashes with your product selection. For this, you’ll have to make necessary adjustments to your selections.
- Example: If I select Capital Preservation as my investment objective, and tick for permission for Futures trading, I will not be able to proceed and have to make adjustments to my selection(s).
(iii) Choose whether to enroll in Stock Yield Enhancement Program
Decide if you’d like to opt-in to IBKR’s Stock Yield Enhancement Program, which will pay you interest by loaning your shares to IBKR. This is optional.
Step 6: Review your details. Read & sign the agreements to proceed
Step 7: Once your application is submitted, you’ll have to wait for your account to be approved
Step 8: Once your account is approved, you’ll be informed via email:
At the same time, you may be required to review and confirm your account information before you can access your account:
Verdict: Open multiple Interactive Brokers (IBKR) accounts for different investment/trading strategies and priorities.
So there you have it – how to open an additional account on IBKR without having to go through the entire account-opening process all over again!
This feature makes it convenient for me to separate my long-term investment portfolio and shorter-term trading portfolio – so I’ll never get confused with one another.
I hope this guide has been helpful – and if you’d like to learn more about IBKR, check out the button below!
Disclaimer:
This review is purely based on my personal experience and is updated as of the time of writing.
This article may contain affiliate links that will earn the blog a small fee if you click on them. This comes at no extra cost to you as a reader.
Promotional Relationship Disclosure:
This content is provided by a paid Influencer of Interactive Brokers. Influencer is not employed by, partnered with, or otherwise affiliated with Interactive Brokers in any additional fashion. This content represents the opinions of Influencer, which are not necessarily shared by Interactive Brokers. The experiences of the Influencer may not be representative of other customers, and nothing within this content is a guarantee of future performance or success.
None of the information contained herein constitutes a recommendation, promotion, offer, or solicitation of an offer by Interactive Brokers to buy, sell or hold any security, financial product or instrument or to engage in any specific investment strategy. Investment involves risks. Investors should obtain their own independent financial advice and understand the risks associated with investment products and services before making investment decisions. Risk disclosure statements can be found on the Interactive Brokers website.
Interactive Brokers is a FINRA registered broker and SIPC member, as well as a National Futures Association registered Futures Commission Merchant. Interactive Brokers provides execution and clearing services to its customers. For more information regarding Interactive Brokers or any Interactive Brokers products or services referred to in this video, please visit www.interactivebrokers.com.
The information in this podcast does not constitute tax advice and cannot be used by the recipient or any other taxpayer to avoid penalties under any federal, state, local or other tax statutes or regulations, or to resolve any tax issue.
Any trading symbols, entities or investment products displayed are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to portray recommendations.
