IBKR Desktop 2.2 added a small feature that solves a very real options problem: how do you judge a contract when the bid/ask is stale, wide, or barely tradable?
Based on Interactive Brokers’ public release and the current IBKR Desktop option chain documentation, the new Synthetic Price column is designed to estimate a theoretical option price using market data plus option inputs such as the underlying price, rates, dividend estimates, strike, expiration, right, and volatility estimate.
That matters most when the displayed market is not giving you a clean answer. In liquid names with tight spreads, the market usually does the work for you. In thinner contracts, far-dated expiries, or before and after regular hours, traders often need a better reference point than “bid 0.35 / ask 1.10.”
This guide covers:
- what Synthetic Price in IBKR Desktop actually does
- where to enable it in the option chain
- when it is useful
- where it can mislead you
- how to combine it with bid/ask, open interest, and spread width before placing an order
The short answer
Synthetic Price is a theoretical reference, not a guaranteed executable price.Use it when:
- the option chain is thin
- bid/ask spreads are wide
- the contract has little recent trading
- you want a better anchor before entering a limit order
- you are checking options before or after regular market hours
The practical workflow is:
1. add the Synthetic Price column
2. compare it with the live bid and ask 3. measure the spread width 4. check whether volume and open interest support a realistic fill 5. place a limit order near a defensible level instead of blindly hitting the askFor most traders, the main value is simple: Synthetic Price helps you avoid treating a bad quote as fair value.
What Interactive Brokers says Synthetic Price does
According to Interactive Brokers’ March 27, 2026 public release coverage for IBKR Desktop 2.2, Synthetic Price in the Option Chain uses an algorithm that incorporates:
- underlying asset price
- interest rates
- dividend estimates
- option right
- strike price
- time to expiration
- volatility estimate
The same release notes also state that the Synthetic Price value can populate before or after market hours, which is one of the clearest use cases for the feature. During those periods, visible quotes can be thin or distorted, and a theoretical estimate can be more useful than a dead book.
This does not mean IBKR is promising that you can trade at that number. It means the platform is giving you a model-based estimate of what the option should be worth given current inputs.
That is a big distinction.
Why illiquid options are hard to price from the raw chain alone
In a liquid front-month mega-cap option, the order book often tells the story fast. If the spread is a few cents wide and contracts are trading constantly, fair value is usually somewhere close to the midpoint.
Illiquid options are different.
Common problems include:
- wide spreads — for example, a bid at 0.40 and an ask at 1.00
- stale quotes — one side has not updated for a while
- thin size — only a tiny quantity is quoted
- low volume — the contract has barely traded today
- odd strikes or expiries — farther-dated and farther-out-of-the-money contracts can look tradable while offering poor execution
That is where a theoretical estimate earns its place.
What Synthetic Price is good for
1. Building a fair-value anchor
The cleanest use is as a reference point.
Suppose an option is quoted:
- bid: 1.20
- ask: 1.80
- synthetic price: 1.47
2. Screening out obviously distorted quotes
Sometimes one side of the book is simply bad. A stale ask can sit far above the market. A stale bid can make a contract look dead when it is still reasonably priced.
Synthetic Price gives you a second lens.
If the model value is far away from one side of the quote, that side deserves skepticism.
3. Evaluating contracts before or after regular hours
Interactive Brokers explicitly says Synthetic Price can populate before or after market hours. That matters because options quotes often get much less reliable outside the normal session.
A theoretical column can help you:
- compare strikes before the open
- review candidates after the close
- prepare limit levels for the next session
- avoid mistaking a weak overnight quote for a true market
4. Choosing between similar strikes or expiries
If you are comparing two nearby contracts and both look thin, Synthetic Price can help you decide which one is trading closer to a reasonable market and which one is simply carrying more quote noise.
What Synthetic Price is not
The feature is useful. It is also easy to overrate.
Synthetic Price is not:
- a guarantee of execution
- a replacement for bid/ask analysis
- a substitute for liquidity checks
- a prediction of where the next trade will happen
- a reason to ignore volatility shifts or event risk
- there is no size near that level
- market makers widen spreads around earnings or macro events
- the implied volatility input is moving quickly
- you are trading a contract with weak demand
A trader who treats it as one input among several gets the benefit.
How to add Synthetic Price in IBKR Desktop
Based on the public IBKR Desktop 2.2 release note and IBKR’s option-chain interface guidance, the path is:
1. Open IBKR Desktop
2. Go to the Quote workspace and open Option Chain 3. Click the gear / configure icon in the upper-right of the Option Chain 4. Open the Columns tab 5. Under Available Columns, expand the Options section 6. Click the + next to Synthetic Price 7. Close the configuration panel to save the layoutAfter that, the new column appears inside the chain and updates with the rest of the option data.
If you are new to the platform, Interactive Brokers also publishes an IBKR Desktop option-chain lesson that covers the broader chain layout, list view, tab view, and column configuration workflow.
How to read the Synthetic Price column correctly
Once the column is visible, the right question is not “Is this number accurate?”
The right question is:
How does this number compare with the executable market in front of me?Use this sequence.
Step 1: Compare synthetic price to the spread
Start with three numbers:
- bid
- synthetic price
- ask
- Is synthetic price close to the midpoint?
- Is it much closer to the bid than the ask?
- Is one side of the market obviously out of line?
| Bid | Synthetic | Ask | First read |
|---|---:|---:|---| | 2.10 | 2.18 | 2.25 | fairly normal market | | 2.10 | 2.19 | 2.70 | ask looks stretched | | 0.45 | 0.63 | 1.10 | quote is wide; limit order discipline matters |On Discord-style surfaces this would be better as bullets, but in the article itself a small table is fine because the site supports markdown tables.
Step 2: Check liquidity before trusting the signal
Synthetic Price gets more useful when paired with:
- volume
- open interest
- recent trade activity
- spread width
Step 3: Use it to improve your limit order, not to justify urgency
If Synthetic Price suggests the visible ask is rich, the next move is usually:
- place a limit order closer to a defensible fair-value area
- wait for price improvement
- skip the contract if the market stays broken
When Synthetic Price helps most
Wide-spread single-leg options
This is the clearest use case. If spreads are broad, any fair-value estimate is more helpful than staring at two weak quotes.
Farther-dated options
Longer-dated contracts can be tradable while still showing poor displayed liquidity. Synthetic Price gives you a more stable anchor than a random visible ask.
Before the open and after the close
Interactive Brokers specifically notes that Synthetic Price can populate outside regular hours. That makes it useful for preparation and review when visible options markets are less trustworthy.
Comparing contracts in the same structure
If you are building a spread or deciding between two nearby strikes, the column can help you judge relative richness or cheapness before you start working the order.
When Synthetic Price helps less
Extremely event-driven names
Around earnings, FDA decisions, major macro releases, or unusual news, the live market can move faster than a clean theoretical estimate can keep up with in a way that feels stable to a trader.
Deeply illiquid contracts with almost no real trading interest
If nobody wants the contract, theoretical value still does not create executable liquidity.
Contracts where your fill quality depends on size
The model can estimate a price for one contract. The real market may react very differently if you need scale.
A practical workflow for finding fairer entries in IBKR Desktop
Here is a cleaner process than “open chain, click ask, hope for the best.”
1. Pull up the underlying in Option Chain
Use the standard IBKR Desktop option chain layout and narrow the expiries and strikes you actually care about.
2. Add the right columns
For this workflow, the useful columns are:
- bid
- ask
- synthetic price
- volume
- open interest
- implied volatility if relevant to your workflow
3. Eliminate obviously poor candidates
Skip contracts with:
- very wide spreads relative to price
- tiny open interest
- almost no size
- weak trading activity unless there is a strong reason to use them
4. Use Synthetic Price as the anchor for a limit order idea
If the chain shows:
- bid 1.00
- synthetic 1.18
- ask 1.45
5. Decide whether the trade is still worth it after execution reality
Sometimes the right answer is still to skip the contract.
If fair value looks acceptable but the live market remains too wide, your edge may be weaker than it looked on the chart.
Synthetic Price vs midpoint: which should you trust?
In tight, active contracts, the midpoint is often enough.
In wider or more distorted chains, Synthetic Price can be the better reference because it incorporates option inputs rather than just averaging two potentially bad quotes.
A practical rule:
- tight, active markets → midpoint often works well
- wide, noisy markets → Synthetic Price can be the better anchor
- very weak liquidity → use both, then decide whether to trade at all
Does this replace a proper options pricing model?
For most retail users inside IBKR Desktop, this feature is the built-in practical version of that need.
You still benefit from understanding the main pricing drivers:
- underlying movement
- time to expiration
- implied volatility
- interest rates
- dividends
That is the real advantage.
Should beginners use this feature?
Yes, with the right expectations.
Beginners often make one of two mistakes in options:
- they trust the quoted ask too much
- they overcomplicate pricing and avoid useful tools
A beginner can use the column safely by keeping the goal modest:
- spot wide quotes
- improve limit order discipline
- avoid obviously bad execution
Final verdict
IBKR Desktop’s Synthetic Price is worth turning on.It is a practical quality-of-life upgrade for anyone trading options in contracts where displayed quotes are noisy, wide, or thin. The feature becomes most useful when it is treated as a fair-value reference inside a broader workflow that still checks spread width, volume, open interest, and execution reality.
For thin options, the biggest win is simple: it gives you a better number to negotiate around.
If you want to open an Interactive Brokers account before using the options chain, use the IBKR referral link. New eligible users can receive up to $1,000 in IBKR stock, and we may receive a referral commission at no extra cost to you.
After your account is funded, these two guides are the next useful reads:
- IBKR Account Setup: Application to First Trade (2026)
- Interactive Brokers Bracket Order: How to Set Stop Loss and Take Profit on TWS (2026 Guide)
Sources
- Interactive Brokers public IBKR Desktop product page
- Interactive Brokers Campus lesson: Using Option Chains in IBKR Desktop
- FX News Group coverage of IBKR Desktop 2.2 release on March 27, 2026, describing Synthetic Price inputs and the configuration path