I'm in the process of using Midland IRA so I can open a futures account where I want to. I'm not going to trade my RothIra myself. I'm going to choose a few managers. My account will be at FC Stone but Midland Ira will provide all the filings as FC Stone does not accept IRAs directly.
Can anyone say if IB has gone so insanely conservative in terms of risk parameters for legit exchange SPAN spread margin credits for spread positions in IRA accounts ?
I don't trade futures in my IRA account but I just put a fake ES future option order and it was accepted and then after 2 minutes I cancelled it.
I don't want to go off the subject but iust look at my option trades today. Look at the commissions. The negative numbers are rebates. That makes me addicted to IB
My knowledge is much much less than yours in terms of margin requirements and trading futures but as far as I know , IB DOES require different margin for futures (like ES as I have traded it just a few times) during the trading hours and keeping the position overnight. When I used to trade it in like 2011 it was about $2500 and $4000 for overnight.
If IB has increased margin rate and if I want to be careful in trading, I would also be cautious. I would assume they know more than I and they know that market might become more volatile in the near future so I would not use full margin and just inch up my cautiousness.
I just called my rep at IB. He sent me to this page. Some futures offer better margin for day trading and some don't. The list is here: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=marginnew&p=fut