Are IB's margin requirements for Futures Options higher than TD?

I appreciate help from anyone more knowledgeable on this topic.

I was looking at selling a put in /CL and comparing costs in my IB account vs my TD account.

It looked like IB required more margin, and on the IB website they state that;

" In addition to the exchange-mandated SPAN margin models, IB’s margin system considers risk scenarios for options on futures which incorporate extreme market moves in the underlying products. In order to account for the risk inherent in extreme market moves, IB’s required margin for your options positions may be higher than the exchange-mandated margin requirements."


Can someone confirm if selling naked premium in futures options locks up more capital at IB?

.... i feel like I might be making a mistake, maybe because IB has a different way of accounting for the collected premium of the sale.

thx for help

 

You need to know if by "initial margin" the broker you are looking at is defining it as SPAN minimum Initial Margin + the value of the premium being sold, or simply SPAN IM.

To make up an example, let's say the SPAN IM for a CL put is $1500 and the premium is $300. One firm might have an initial margin of $1800 (adding IM and put premium) and another might have $1500 (IM only).

That said, Interactive Brokers is all over the map when it comes to margins on short futures options. In some products they're at or very close to SPAN minimums, others 15-20% more, and I've seen them at multiples of SPAN minimum in the energies (depends on time of year and overall volatility).

 

You might be better off at an FCM that only does futures.

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