Strange Option Position Grouping in IB

Discussion in 'Interactive Brokers' started by ET180, Apr 28, 2021.

  1. ET180

    ET180

    I noticed something that's not exactly wrong, but kinda odd and a maybe a bit misleading in how IB groups some of the combo positions. Below are all the SPY contracts that I currently hold. I never actually bought 18 Apr 30 431 calls nor did I short 24 Apr 30 431 calls and 12 Apr 30 422.5 calls. If you add up the total number of contracts, it is what I hold, but the way they chose to group and account for it is kinda odd. For example, I'm currently long 5 of the Apr 30 420 SPY calls in total. But the way that they account for it is that I'm short 9 Apr 30 420 calls (naked), long 2 as part of a combo, and then long 12 as a part of anther combo. In many cases, I like the grouping where it makes sense. I often start off with a ratio position and then adjust it after some time until it becomes something else. If it no longer resembles the original ratio combo, vertical, or diagonal, it's fine to just break it apart and leave it as singles vs. show more contracts than I am long in one position and more contracts than I am short in another position. Is there an option that stops that kind of accounting or would I have to resort to turning off the combo grouping for everything (I don't really want to do that). I haven't seen this before so maybe this is just a fluke that will go away after Friday.

    upload_2021-4-28_19-54-48.png
     
  2. guru

    guru

    IB doesn’t really group options, and all groupings are just the combos you’ve purchased, except when you trade against your own positions and things get mixed up. This is rather a bug without any specific logic.
    Though part of this may be coming from an internal feature where IB is trying to determine that you’re rolling a leg, replacing one option within a combo with another.
    Things do get mixed up and afaik there is no way to fix this and regroup the messed up combos the way you’d like.
     
  3. ET180

    ET180

    Thanks, that's what I figured. There should be an option to not show more or less contracts on any given position than you actually have (even though the sum across all positions is accurate). Even if that involves breaking up the original groupings.
     
  4. JSOP

    JSOP

    Looks like IB lists the options individually but chronologically oldest to newest and then by strikes from the lowest to highest unless you traded them as combos.
     
  5. ET180

    ET180

    There is something wrong. This is actually a bug. I just put on a long 425 short 430 short 445 x 2 XPS position (4 of them) for June. This is how it shows up in TWS:

    upload_2021-4-29_7-48-12.png

    There's no logical reason to represent the position that way. It's unnecessarily confusing. I previously did not have anything on in XSP so it's a totally new position. I restarted TWS and it still shows up the same way. I'll contact IB about this. Using latest version of TWS updated yesterday, but noticed this in the previous release as well.
     
  6. ET180

    ET180

    This position grouping bug is getting annoying...seeing it on many different positions, usually related to ratio spreads.
    upload_2021-5-4_11-57-31.png