Migrating from TD Ameritrade SG (TDA) to Interactive Brokers (IBKR)

Starting in December 2023, TD Ameritrade Singapore (TDA) will focus on Accredited Investors only—discontinuing services to non-Accredited Investors. If you do not wish to become an Accredited Investor or if you do not meet the requirements, you’ll need to act immediately to avoid any account impacts, such as fees and restrictions.

You can get Background Information & Essential Timeline from here. You can refer here for Accredited Investor criteria.

I am migrating to IBKR

I started looking for options on where I could migrate to. After sourcing around, I have decided to move to Interactive Brokers (IBKR). I have been using IBKR for many years mainly for my China and Hong Kong trading. Hence, this was a natural move for me.

[Update: My initial request for the transfer on 22 October 2023 was rejected as I have options which were expiring on 27 October 2023 (Friday). I cleared those positions on 27 October 2023 and ensured the rest of my options had at least 2 weeks till expiry,

I resubmitted my request again on 30 October 2023. All my assets transferred successfully on 2 November 2023 (Thursday). So it took 3 working days to clear for my case.]

Objective of this article

This article here is intended to share what I learnt in my search. It is crucial to emphasize that you should conduct your own due diligence and consider your unique circumstances before making any financial decisions or account transfers.

I would also like to clarify that I am not receiving any financial returns from IBKR from this post. This is provided purely for educational purpose only. I do not endorse, recommend or promote any specific brokerages.

Important notes about transfer

It take 4 to 8 business working days (estimate) to complete the transfer depending on the broker. After the receipt by broker, you may not withdraw the transferred equity value for 10 to 30 business days.

After submitting your transfer request, no trading will be allowed, to prevent a rejection on assets that are being transferred. If you are afraid of significant movement/change to your existing open positions (such as options), you may want to consider closing the trades before initiating the transfer.

You need to have a LIVE funded account with Interactive Broker before you can initiate the transfer.

Steps to transfer from TDA to IBKR

I found this 3min video which is very detailed in explaining how to transfer your assets from TD to Interactive Broker! So you might want to consider this.

Video is credits to Kelvin Learn Investing!

How to trade using IBKR Trader Workstation (TWS)

If you are not familiar with IBKR TWS, below is a great video on how this could be setup for trading Stocks or Options. You can get the download TWS from here.

Credit to Adam Khoo on this.