No idea but I always use the spread between BID/ASK as a sign of liquidity of an option and not the traded volume.
Yesterday (June 15), the higher margins were in effect all day during RTH. Today they're back to normal. I think ES and TF change to the higher margins just after 16:00, and VX changes around 15:45.
I had been able to trade using the much lower margin requirements during regular trading hours until today. Under my account balance screen, it says I have over 6k in current excess liquidity but it won't let me trade. Do you folks think this is going to be the case moving forward? Or will it revert back? I am thinking it's because I was grandfathered in on my June contracts but am now screwed b/c I am in the September contracts. Anyone have a suggestion on a good platform that will let you trade futures from IRA? I have used think or swim in the past and do not like it. Thx!
I've started using TDAmeritrade for futures. Commissions are slightly higher (around $2.50 + exchange fees per side). The data feed is free (IB charged around $100/month for data for NYBOT issues such as TF). Setting up an order using the thinkorswim desktop platform is a bit clunkier than with TWS; it involves bringing up the main window, which can be made no smaller than around 1100x500 with all trade form fields visible . (If anyone knows of a way to get rid of that 300-pixel-wide left side panel, please let me know.) TDA currently doesn't allow trading futures options in IRA accounts. I'm still using IB for those. I'm using IB for charts. While TOS offers a terrific set of technical indicators, all I really need is a chart that can show bid, ask, and trades simultaneously, which apparently can't be done on TOS (displaying last, bid, ask, and mark are all mutually exclusive).
Just to add to your info I've had to move some of my trading to TD Ameritrade and I found TOS has an option that allows you to click a checkbox and "paste" orders into their platform (it reads from the clipboard but must be in the correct format). Much easier than manual entry which TOS makes very confusing.
You must be a bit careful regarding Ameritrade and TOS because when the markets are very active the feed can freeze and usually at the most inopportune moments (middle of an active trade)..they answer the phone quickly and do a good job of manually finishing the trade I like TOS (it was very good before Ameritrade bought it) but I usually have a second account (right now with IB) open, running and funded enough for futures when I use TOS. Each of the major brokers (IB, TOS, Tradestation) all seem to have some positives which the others don't cover.
Forgot to say, the data feed interruptions are not very frequent (usually during extreme volitility). It happened Monday morning (Aug 24, 2015) for around 5-10 minutes. Before that it was maybe back last October during the correction for 10 minutes and it does happen on Fed decision days as well. Worked well during the July NYSE downtime though
I noticed recently that the margin requirements on my IB IRA account have dropped substantially but I didn't receive any notice about a relaxation in their IRA margin requirements - has anyone else noticed changes? I hold NQ, ES and CL futures positions.
I see this is an older post... But, has this been resolved for every one? I recently started trading futures in my Interactive Broker IRA account... I now remember getting a notice quite some time ago about them raising margin on futures, but I do not still have the message from them... Bottom line is this... The margin to trade futures in an IRA at Interactive Brokers is 3 X the overnight margin... So, for ES, this means 3 X $5,937 = $17,812 per contract...