Agreed, PM is quite complex. Hey IDS, since you work for IB can you give us any general info on how PM is going? Did a lot of traders sign up for it, are they complaining about complexity, are they basically happy with it?
I am not in customer support. I cannot tell you level of happiness but the numbers are growing. We will roll out detailed explanation of calculations soon and it will alleviate some concerns about complexity. The complete explanation of margin calculations is impossible though. It involves too many numbers. So, the best answer to your questions will be yes, yes, and yes.
ids, is my feature request even possible? is there any way for IB to decrease account size required for PM if it wanted to?
It's not possible because it's not directly in their control. The best you can hope for is that they lobby the regulatory bodies to decrease the amount, which I hope never happens.
Hmm, as soon as your account drops under 100K it reverts to regulation T margin.. LOL.. I can see it now, someone's margined out to the balls and their account drops to $99,999, and 80% of their stuff is liquidated instantly due to one massive margin liquidation.
You guys need to really read up on what portfolio margin actually is because it doesn't really affect most daytraders. You only get more margin if you have offsetting positions in the same asset class. For example if you are long QQQQ and short SPY then you get a reduced margin requirement.
Or more generally well diversified portfolios where positions have lower correlations with each others (negative as suggested by the QQQQ/SPY example is of course best). Or positions that have low volatility. There's a Try PM button in View > Account that shows you the impact of switching. I wonder how long it takes for PM to go through typically. It's been 3 business days already since I applied...
Does Portfolio Margin work with a stock against a stock (not options)? For example, if I have 1,000 shares of KO long and 1,000 shares of PEP short, do I get 6:1 leverage under Porfolio Margin or only Reg-T 2:1 overnight?