Project Background

The Interactive Brokers brand is known for catering to a sophisticated audience of traders, as opposed to more casual retail investors. Because of this, we can assume a more advanced understanding of the products among the user base. However, the web platform is meant to be more intuitive than the more advanced desktop application. This means we need to have the same basic functionality, but with slightly reduced complexity and depth.The implementation of the option chains in the web platform was a rudimentary interface that was not suitable for high-level options traders. The interface lacked the ability to execute complex strategies. Additionally, the interface was heavy with information but still lacked depth.

Key Objectives

• High level information must always be present. Volatility and volume are critical stats for traders and need to always be on screen
• Dates need to be easily compared. It’s important for traders to be able to navigate back and forth between expiration dates quickly
• The options chain needs to be easy to scan. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by a large amount of data on screen. Focusing on a small number of data points and then expanding on the information progressively is more optimal
• Flexibility: some traders look exclusively at the Theta. Others trade off the Delta. In order to satisfy both, the interface needs to be flexible enough to be customized to the specific trader’s needs

Customization

Advanced settings within the option chain allow users to select what information is displayed in the UI. These settings are retained for the user’s future logins into the platform.

Data Settings

Users can leverage the column management modal to add and remove data points from the columns in the options table. This is how we account for users who trade different strategies.

Advanced Orders

The options chain order ticket is much more advanced than the standard stock order counterpart. Advanced information regarding the selected strategy is visualized using tables and charts. This makes it easy to change the order and see the effect on potential risk and upside.