Managing a portfolio

You do not have to be a US citizen to manage one or more portfolios on Interactive Advisors, but you are still required to satisfy our minimum criteria. As SEC-registered Investment Advisors, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients to ensure that we act in their best interests. Check out the following FAQs if you would like to join our marketplace as a Portfolio Manager.

Thinking of signing up?

Do I have to be a Registered Investment Advisor to become a Portfolio Manager on Interactive Advisors marketplace?

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Yes. You need to be a Registered Investment Advisor ("RIA") in order to manage a portfolio on our marketplace.

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How can I become a Portfolio Manager and join Interactive Advisors marketplace?

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Read through the details given here and contact our Manager Relations team. Once you submit the form, our Manager Relations team will contact you to determine whether you are a fit for the Interactive Advisors platform. We generally require Portfolio Managers to meet certain minimum criteria (such as AUM and proportion of personal funds invested in the strategy) and to certify that they will not trade ahead of Interactive Advisors clients in the other accounts they manage using the same strategy. We periodically confirm your registration status and obtain various compliance certifications from you, as provided in the Portfolio Manager License Agreement.

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If I am accepted to manage a portfolio on Interactive Advisors marketplace, what are the next steps?

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Interactive Advisors will ask you to complete our paperwork. Then you will be required to open and fund a brokerage account with Interactive Brokers LLC - our affiliated broker-dealer. That account will be used to track your trading. Afterwards, our Investment Management Team will follow your strategy for a two to four week live test or incubation period. The performance of your account during this incubation period will be displayed on the portfolio page if and when the portfolio becomes available to clients for investment. Our clients cannot invest in your portfolio during the live test period. Based on the realized risk metrics during the live test period, our Investment Management Team assigns a risk score to your portfolio. Only clients with a personal risk score equal to or higher than the portfolio risk score will be able to invest in your portfolio once launched. Our Investment Management Team periodically re-evaluates portfolio risk scores. You will also need to provide us with a write-up and general description of the strategy, which will be posted on the public portfolio page. You need to periodically (at least quarterly) review the general description of your strategy on our website and confirm that it is accurate and inform us of your intention to make material changes to the strategy at least 30 days before implementing such changes so that we may evaluate whether these changes and the portfolio risk score are appropriate.

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How much money will I need to place in the brokerage account that will be used to track my trades?

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You'll need to fund your brokerage account with at least $1,000, and possibly more if your strategy requires it.

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How much can I earn?

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We do not impose limits on the amount of compensation you may earn on our platform but your compensation depends on the amount of assets our clients decide to invest in your portfolio. Portfolio Managers determine the annual management fee for the portfolios they offer on our marketplace after consulting with us. Management fees range from 0.10% to 0.75%. We retain just 0.25% of the management fee and pass the rest to the Portfolio Managers.

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What will Interactive Advisors do to market my portfolio?

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We promote portfolios via social media, our blog and newsletter. Portfolio Managers are encouraged to contribute content to our blog and may also promote their portfolios directly. Portfolio Managers wishing the promote the portfolios directly should carefully review our Communication and Marketing Guidelines and provide us with any proposed communications beforehand.

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What are the requirements?

Why do you impose trading rules on Portfolio Managers?

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As an SEC-registered investment advisor, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients to ensure that we act in their best interests. Our trading rules seek to ensure that our clients are not unduly exposed to risky or unsuitable trades.

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Do I have to disclose my identity?

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Yes. When managing a portfolio, your identity must be disclosed.

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Do I have to reveal all of my trades and holdings?

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No. As a Portfolio Manager, you can choose to keep your holdings and trades hidden from all but logged-in clients and/or clients invested in your portfolio(s).

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Does Interactive Advisors support currency, futures or options trading?

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Interactive Advisors supports stock trading. We do not offer currency, futures or options trading.

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Opening an account

I am not a US citizen. Can I manage a portfolio?

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Yes. Non-US citizens can manage portfolios as long as they can open a US-dollar-denominated brokerage account with Interactive Brokers LLC, and they are registered as an investment advisor in the US with either the Securities and Exchange Commission or one or more US state securities regulators and their jurisdiction does not prohibit us from opening an account for them. You will be able to establish positions only in US listed equities (including ADRs) and ETFs.

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Do I have to fund a brokerage account or can I just enter signals?

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You have to open and fund a new brokerage account to manage a portfolio on Interactive Advisors marketplace. One of the core principles of Interactive Advisors is that the Portfolio Managers stand behind their strategies by having their own capital at risk, as do the clients who invest in those very same strategies.

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Can I use my existing brokerage account?

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To enable us to replicate trades in your brokerage account you must open a managed account with Interactive Brokers LLC and authorize us to trade in it on your behalf. Once you sign up for an account with us, we send you all information needed to open an Interactive Brokers LLC account linked to Interactive Advisors.

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How do I submit the agreement?

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You can either fax the agreements to 1.857.453.4530 or email them to managerrelations@interactiveadvisors.com. For any questions, please contact our Manager Relations team.

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Can I provide my performance history?

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Portfolio managers may submit fact sheets or other information about their strategy that do not contain performance information, which we will analyze and consider displaying on the portfolio page with appropriate disclaimers. Due to the difficulties associated with meaningfully presenting and explaining historical performance information for portfolios on our platform, we no longer accept or display such information on our website.

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Already signed up?

When is my portfolio information updated on my customized dashboard'?

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Portfolio profiles and performance are updated prior to the market open each day. This allows us to apply corporate actions (dividends, stock splits etc.) and reconcile our records to those of Interactive Brokers LLC. If you have questions about performance information displayed on the portfolio page, please contact our Manager Relations team.

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I have a question about my portfolio's performance.

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Contact us with all questions about your portfolio's performance.

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Are benchmarks assigned to individual portfolios?

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Benchmarks relevant to each portfolio are assigned by Interactive Advisors based on overall strategy, portfolio trade history, and/or other criteria as determined by Interactive Advisors.

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How often do you rebalance my portfolio?

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Interactive Advisors rebalances all in-house portfolios (e.g., Smart Beta, Asset Allocation, and Index Tracker portfolios) on a quarterly basis. Portfolio Managers running the remaining portfolios may choose to rebalance their portfolios in accordance with their strategy, and the frequency of the rebalancing is usually discussed on the portfolio page.

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Managing my account

Can I manage multiple portfolios?

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You may manage multiple portfolios on Interactive Advisors, but you are still required to satisfy our minimum criteria (including AUM and proportion of personal funds invested in the strategy) across all those multiple portfolios to do so. We do not allow Portfolio Managers to run multiple portfolios using the same strategy. Most managers only manage one portfolio on the Interactive Advisors platform. You may contact Manager Relations to determine whether you meet these criteria and could manage multiple portfolios. Managers who wish to run more than one portfolio need to submit a new Portfolio Risk Form, and open and fund a new account at Interactive Brokers LLC, exclusively associated with the new portfolio.

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How can I market my portfolio?

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Feel free to share or link to your profile on Interactive Advisors. If you submit content for Interactive Advisors Smarter Investing blog, you can republish it on your own blog or website. Please review our Communication and Marketing Guidelines before marketing your portfolio on Interactive Advisors.

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Can I remove my portfolio?

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Yes, you may ask Interactive Advisors to remove your portfolio from the platform after providing us with a 30-day written notice. Please specify in your written notice your name, the name of your portfolio and the reason you wish to remove your portfolio from the platform.

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