mskl , nice ! My is still pending...I hope it will be approved sometimes next week. Do you hold any short calendars by any chance ? If yes , are the margins really 37.50 per calendar as the demo shows ? TIA
I have no calendars - but it was like the demo - as expected -$37.50 per option contract for my hedged positions.
When I tried the demo it worked for buying GOOG. Margin was 15% of notional value. PM is going to fill the void for swing traders who might have fled retail to a prop account for more overnight leverage.
i've been approved since Wednesday. The demo is accurate. However, for certain positions, IB is substantially more strict that OCC TIMS which is the baseline for PM. For instance, some positions only required $1200 on TIMS but $9000 on IB. It's still better than Reg-T though If the demo is reporting the same margin req as Reg-T, then that position doesn't benefit from PM.
The other change I see is some traders switching from options on futures to equity/index options. I don't see much reason to trade ES anymore. The commissions are too high.
For any of you IB traders: On the "Portfolio Margin Highlights" page of IB's website it has a line I don't understand: "Classes with large single concentrations will have a margin requirement of 30% applied to the concentrated position." What constitutes a "large single concentration"? What is the 30% applied to? I have called IB twice and sent an email to them and no one has yet been able to answer this question. I can only presume that you guys use IB for the low cost since their customer service is the worst I have encountered.
I can try to explain in simple terms. It is quite complicated behind the scene. If you have a portfolio of one stock, your margin will be 30%. If you have half of your portfolio in one stock and another half in twenty other stocks, your margin will be somewhere between 15 and 30%. If your portfolio will not be concentrated in one direction, you can forget about an extra charge.
So you are saying if someone had just long GOOG stock they would have a margin of 30% rather than the minimum of 15%? If so that make sense; more concentration = more risk and therefore a greater margin requirement. What about options? If someone has all their money in short Calls and/or short Puts in one stock or index, then what? The minimum requirement with a broad based index is +6%/-8%, how would that be affected by "concentration"?
So you are saying if someone had just long GOOG stock they would have a margin of 30% rather than the minimum of 15%? Yes. What about options? If someone has all their money in short Calls and/or short Puts in one stock or index, then what? It is applicable to options. You can be concentrated based on your stock option positions. The minimum requirement with a broad based index is +6%/-8%, how would that be affected by "concentration"? It is not applicable to indices.