Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use the Interactive Brokers MCP pretty heavily. I don't do any cool automatic fun "trading", but instead I use it to have "pseudo-QQQ". I didn't like the relatively high fees for QQQ, and I realized that Invesco releases the weights for QQQ for free. I also think Tesla is too overvalued, and I want to avoid the SpaceX IPO. With the Interactive Brokers MCP, I just feed it the CSV of QQQ's weights, tell it to remove…
I have thought about this but snag on rebalancing, because it would create a taxable event, or be drawn out over months/years. Although maybe a bit spicier, VGT is half the cost of QQQ, so that is what my "NASDAQ" has been. I also blend in VTI to cut the volatility a bit, which is 1/3 the cost of VGT.
Some tax software nowadays will allow you to simply upload the tax documents with all the transactions and it will tabulate everything for you, so I don't think it will be too hard for me.
I'll admit that there's primarily just kind of a coolness factor to be able to say that I ripped off and copied QQQ without any fees, but I do genuinely like the idea that I can avoid companies that I think are terrible in the process.