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Interactive Brokers For ETF Investors: Trading Permissions

June 29, 2025

Raph Antoine

All Insights | Brokers

IBKR Trading Permissions

📈Guide to Interactive Brokers for ETF Investors - Part 1️⃣

Guide to Interactive Brokers For ETF Investors - Part 1️⃣

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👉 OPEN AN ACCOUNT NOW!

This is Part 1 of our Guide to Interactive Brokers for ETF Investors.

IBKR offers you tons of trading instruments. But, if you just want to start with ETFs, you can switch on access to just a handful of Stock Markets.

The permissions for markets and instruments are usually selected when you open an account. But sometimes, you need to go back and revisit them.

Here is how to do it and start investing through ETFs.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

ETFs Trade Like Stocks – That’s why you only need Stock Trading Permissions. All other trading instruments are not essential.
Navigate To The Permissions Page In Account Settings. The process is quick but permissions may take a few hours to be updated.
You May Only Need Access To European Stock Markets – For UCITS ETFs, you only need access to European Markets. The most important ones are Germany, the UK, France/Amsterdam/Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.
In Rare Cases Contact IBKR Support – in case your permissions haven’t been automatically updated within 24 hours.

Here is the full analysis

How To Add permissions to trade ETFs?

Step 1️⃣

At the Top Right, click on the user icon

In most cases you probably have access already as you may have applied when opening your IBKR account. But in case your selected ETF is not available, chances are some permissions may be missing:

Log In: Access your IBKR account by logging in on the website.
Navigate to Settings: Go to the main menu and select ‘Settings’. The icon is highlighted with “1” in the image below. You can also directly use this link: Settings.

How to Add ETF Trading Permissions - STEP 1

Step 2️⃣

Scroll down until you see "Trading Permissions"

Access Trading Permissions: In the settings menu, look for the option ‘Trading Permissions’ under ‘Trading’. Click on it.
Select ‘Stocks‘. ETFs trade like regular stocks, so you need those permissions to enable ETF trading.

How to Add ETF Trading Permissions - STEP 2

Step 3️⃣

Now Select All the Markets you wish to trade

Modify Permissions: You’ll see a list of available products and regions. For UCITS ETF, you can just focus on Europe. Select “All Europe“.

For context, the European UCITS markets that are the most liquid are:

Germany (Xetra, Code IBIS and IBIS2)
UK (LSE, Code LSE)
France, Belgium and Netherlands (Euronext)
Italy (Milan, Code BVME and BVME.ETF)
Switzerland (SIX Swiss, Code EBS)

You can also consult our dedicated guide related to the exchanges on IBKR. If you have an elective professional investor status you may also select U.S. Markets.

Popular EUROPEAN Exchanges

IBKR CODE	Description	Also Known As	COUNTRY
AEB	Amsterdamse Effectenbeurs	Euronext Amsterdam	Netherlands
BM	Bolsa de Madrid	Madrid Stock Exchange	Spain
BUX	Budapest Stock Exchange	Budapest Stock Exchange	Hungary
BVL	Lisbon Stock Exchange	Euronext Lisbon	Portugal
BVME	Borsa Valori di Milano	Borsa Italiana	Italy
BVME.ETF	Borsa Italiana ETF	Borsa Italiana ETF	Italy
CPH	Copenhagen Stock Exchange	Nasdaq Copenhagen	Denmark
EBS	Elektronische Boerse Schweiz	SIX Swiss Exchange	Switzerland
ENEXT.BE	Brussels Stock Exchange	Euronext Belgium	Belgium
EUIBSI	EU IB Systematic Internaliser	IBKR Internalization	EU
FWB	Frankfurter Wertpapierboerse	Frankfurt Stock Exchange	Germany
GETTEX	Boerse Muenchen	Gettex	Germany
IBIS & IBIS2	Integriertes Boersenhandels- und Informations-System	Deutsche Börse Xetra	Germany
LSE	London Stock Exchange	London Stock Exchange	United Kingdom
LSEETF	ETF segment on LSE	London Stock Exchange - ETF	United Kingdom
OMXNO	Norwegian shares on OMX	OMX	Sweden
OSE	Oslo Stock Exchange	Euronext Oslo	Norway
PRA	Prague Stock Exchange	Prague Stock Exchange	Czech Republic
SBF	Paris Stock Exchange	Euronext Paris	France
SWB	Stuttgart Wertpapierboerse	Börse Stuttgart	Germany
TASE	Tel Aviv Stock Exchange	TASE	Israel
TGATE	TradeGate	TradeGate Exchange	Germany

How to Add ETF Trading Permissions - STEP 3

Confirm Changes: There may be agreements or disclosures that you need to read and accept related to trading in these markets. Review these documents and accept them to proceed.
Submit Your Request: After making your selections, submit your request for review. Note that there might be a short processing time before the permissions are updated. From our experience, this takes up to 24 hours.

Step 4️⃣ (Usually not required)

If your permissions haven't been updated after 24 hours

If the permissions haven’t been updated, contact IBKR support. For us, it happened once for Francesca, when she tried to open her account. The support was helpful and solved the issue.

How to contact them:

Phone Support
Email Support
Live Chat
Online Contact Form

All details can be found on the contact page.

Submit Your Request: After making your selections, submit your request for review. Note that there might be a short processing time.

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