How to Set Up Interactive Brokers and ORATS in Claude

If you trade options at Interactive Brokers, you can connect your account to Claude and give it ORATS options data to work with. Claude can then check your positions against ORATS implied volatility, look up what has worked in past markets, and stage an order instruction in your account for you to review. This guide walks through the setup one step at a time.

The setup has two parts. First you connect Interactive Brokers to your Claude account. Then you install Claude Code and the ORATS CLI on your computer. The steps are written for a Mac, with notes where Windows is different.

The two parts of the setup.

What You Need

• A paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise).

• An Interactive Brokers account with options trading permissions. A paper trading account is fine if you want to practice first.

• IBKR Desktop, where staged order instructions show up for your review.

• Node.js 22 or later. The ORATS CLI runs on Node, and Part 2 shows how to check your version.

• An ORATS API subscription. The backtest search near the end also needs a Tools API subscription, and live option prices need the live-data agreement in the ORATS API Console.

Part 1: Connect Interactive Brokers to Claude

This part happens in your Claude account, so you only do it once. Claude Code picks it up later.

1. In the Claude app, open Settings and click Connectors, under Customize in the sidebar.

1. Switch to Discover, search for Interactive Brokers, and click Connect.

1. You sign in on IBKR's own page, so Claude never sees your password. To practice, sign in with your paper trading account. Read the agreements and disclosures, sign your name, and click I acknowledge. If you have more than one account, choose the one Claude can use and click Give Access.

1. Back in Settings > Connectors, click Interactive Brokers (IBKR). Under Tool permissions, set Write/delete tools to Needs approval. That covers tools such as creating or deleting order instructions, alerts and watchlists, so the Claude app asks you before using them. Claude Code has its own prompt for this, covered in Part 2.

The connector's page in Claude, with write and delete tools set to Needs approval. The screens shown here are simulated, and yours may look different.

Once you're connected, Claude can read your positions, balances and orders, and pull market data. It can draft order instructions, but it can't place orders. The connector's description says, "Claude never submits orders directly to the market." An instruction shows up in IBKR Desktop under Portfolio > AI Instructions. Nothing goes to the market until you click Review & Submit, and Reject removes it.

To disconnect later, click Disconnect on the connector's page in Claude. You can also revoke access in the IBKR Portal: click the head-and-shoulders icon at the top right, then Settings > Manage Third-Party Consents > Revoke Access. IBKR's AI Instructions guide and its webinar AI-Powered Portfolio Insights: Connecting Claude to IBKR go into more detail on the connector.

Part 2: Install Claude Code and the ORATS CLI

This part happens on your computer. Claude Code runs Claude in your terminal, where it can use command-line tools like the ORATS CLI. Open Terminal (press Cmd+Space and type Terminal), then work through these steps. On Windows, use PowerShell, which you can open from the Start menu.

1. Install Claude Code. Skip this if you already have it.

On Windows, run irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex instead.

2. Check your Node version.

You need version 22 or later. If you don't have Node, get the LTS installer from nodejs.org, then open a new Terminal window.

3. Install the ORATS CLI.

It finishes with a single line such as "added 38 packages in 3s."

4. Install the ORATS skill.

The skill teaches Claude what each ORATS field means and which data answers which question. The command saves the skill to ~/.agents/skills/orats and links it into Claude Code if a ~/.claude folder exists. The installer in step 1 creates that folder, which is why Claude Code goes in first. On Windows, turn on Developer Mode before you run it (Settings > System > For developers on Windows 11, or Update & Security > For developers on Windows 10).

The end of step 1, then steps 2 through 4.

5. Save your ORATS API token. Copy your token from the API Console in your ORATS account. Then run the line below with your token in place of paste-your-token-here, keeping the quotes:

Nothing prints, which is normal. Open a new Terminal window (Cmd+N) so the token loads. If your shell is bash, use ~/.bash_profile on a Mac or ~/.bashrc on Linux instead of ~/.zshrc. On Windows, run setx ORATS_TOKEN "paste-your-token-here" and open a new PowerShell window.

6. Start Claude Code in a working folder. First make a folder for your trading work and move into it:

On Windows, use mkdir $HOME\trading; cd $HOME\trading. Then start Claude Code:

When it asks for a login method, choose Claude account with subscription, then sign in with the same Claude account you connected to Interactive Brokers. A browser window opens, and you click Authorize. Back in Terminal, press Return through the welcome screens and choose Yes, I trust this folder.

7. Check that Interactive Brokers is there. Type /mcp. You should see claude.ai Interactive Brokers (IBKR) in the list. Connectors you add to your Claude account are available in Claude Code when you sign in with that same account.

The /mcp list in Claude Code, showing the Interactive Brokers connector.

8. Test ORATS. Ask Claude something only ORATS would know:

If Claude runs an orats command and gets a number back, the CLI and your token are working. Claude Code asks before it runs a new kind of command. Choose Yes, and don't ask again for the ones you trust; it may ask once for each kind of orats command. For Interactive Brokers tools that create or delete something, such as order instructions, choose Yes instead, so Claude Code asks every time.

Claude runs an ORATS command and answers with SPY's 30-day implied volatility (ORATS delayed data, September 24, 2026).

If Something Doesn't Work

npm shows EACCES or another permission error. Don't use sudo. Point npm at a folder you own, open a new window, and run the install again:

A Node version manager such as nvm, fnm or Volta also avoids this.

"orats: command not found." Open a new Terminal window. If it still fails, run npm prefix -g and make sure the bin folder inside that path is on your PATH.

ORATS commands fail with an auth error. Run echo $ORATS_TOKEN (on Windows, echo $env:ORATS_TOKEN). If it prints nothing, open a new window or run source ~/.zshrc. If it prints paste-your-token-here, run open -e ~/.zshrc, replace the placeholder with your token, save the file, and open a new window.

A command says your plan doesn't include it. The Backtest Finder needs an ORATS Tools API subscription, and live data needs the live-data agreement in the API Console.

Interactive Brokers isn't in the /mcp list. Make sure Claude Code is signed in with a Claude subscription account, the same one that has the connector. If you see "Show unused connectors," choose it.

Using Both Together

Here is one request typed into Claude Code:

Check my positions against ORATS. Find what's worked in a market like this. Stage the top-ranked idea for my review.

Claude works through it in three steps. The account in this example is a paper account with made-up positions. The ORATS numbers are real data from September 24, 2026, and they will have changed by the time you read this.

1. Check the positions. Claude pulls your positions from Interactive Brokers and runs ORATS commands to compare each name's 30-day implied volatility with ORATS's volatility forecast. In this example, Micron had earnings coming the next week, and its options were pricing in a move of about 7.9%. Netflix's implied volatility was 1.42 times the forecast, which looks expensive. With earnings taken out, the ratio was 1.02, in line with the forecast.

2. Find what's worked in a market like this. ORATS has already run more than 300 million backtests. Claude asks the Backtest Finder for short put spreads and iron condors whose entry rules match today's market, across a set of 12 ETFs. The best-ranked one was a QQQ short put spread: sell a put between 27 and 40 delta (aiming for 33), buy a put between 2 and 10 delta, 111 to 200 days out, and close at 75% of max profit. The backtest opens a new spread on each day that qualifies, with up to 48 open at once. It only opens trades when the market is calm, so it had no positions open during the 2020 crash. Claude also pointed out its worst stretch. On March 14, 2022, eight open spreads were down $26,340 against $51,903 of maximum risk, and they recovered only because QQQ rallied.

Claude's summary of the best-ranked Backtest Finder result, shown as a chart. Hypothetical backtested results, not actual trading. The best result from a large set of pre-run backtests tends to overstate future results, and returns are shown as a percentage of QQQ notional. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

3. Stage the trade. Claude finds a spread that fits the backtest's rules today and checks it against your account. Here, that was one QQQ February 19, 2027 700/545 put spread at a limit credit of $17.30 a share, or $1,730. The most it can lose is $13,770, about 3.3% of the example account. Claude asks before it stages anything. Review it in IBKR Desktop under AI Instructions.

The staged instruction in IBKR Desktop's AI Instructions tab (paper account, simulated screen). Example only, not a recommendation.

Claude Code can also take on longer research jobs. For example, "Stress-test my book against every major selloff since 2007. Where does it break?" was split across five agents working in parallel, and the answer came back in about five minutes. Replaying 2008 on today's weights, the example account's stocks fell about 62% from peak to trough, and Nvidia made up about a third of that drop. The test covers stock positions only and isn't a forecast.

Next Steps

Two follow-ups to try. Ask them in the same session, after the backtest search, and swap in a stock you hold for NVDA:

• Find today's spread that fits those rules, check it against my book, and stage one for my review.

• Show me ways to cut the NVDA risk. Stage the one I pick.

Run orats --help to see the rest of what the CLI covers. Check the numbers before you trade. Claude can make mistakes, and backtests are hypothetical.

Tyler Cheves is a Product Manager at ORATS (Option Research & Technology Services), a provider of options data, analytics, and backtesting infrastructure. ORATS supplies volatility surfaces, forecasts, and historical options data to institutions, platforms, and individual traders.

For educational purposes only. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security or to use any strategy. The account shown is a paper trading account with illustrative positions, and the screens are simulated. ORATS data is as of September 24, 2026.

Backtested results are hypothetical, not actual trading. The backtest shown is the best-ranked short put spread or iron condor from a large set of pre-run backtests, which tends to overstate future results. Its returns are a percentage of the QQQ notional of all open spreads, so a single spread will not reproduce them. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The stress test replays past selloffs on today's stock positions and weights and is not a forecast.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. A credit spread can lose much more than the premium received. See Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options at theocc.com. AI tools can make mistakes, so verify all data and every order before you submit it. Live data and the Backtest Finder depend on your ORATS plan. Interactive Brokers and IBKR are trademarks of Interactive Brokers LLC. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC.