they should have allowed u to close existing positions ... creating new positions yes ...but not allowing you to close exiting position is errorneous fight on that point u can not fight the point that their liquidation took 4 hours delay ...
The captrader employee confirmed on the phone yesterday, that I could not have closed that positions as net liquidation value has been negative. I still have 2 very tiny positions, which I tried to close. Even this does not work. And since I am minus in USD, but my base currency is Euro, I have also lost here 800euros already in 5 days, since I cannot even convert the currency.
I have been calling them every day and opening tickets. When I call them, they say they had indeed technical issues and I should make a ticket. So I made the tickets. The only option now is to wait what they say. But obviously something is totally not right, as some other positions have not even been liquidated until today. For example: if USD/EUR FX doubles tomorrow, I will own them 100k. Ridiculous. But these are two separate issues. Even the Head of Sales of Captrader wrote me an E-Mail today, telling me that they forwarded my problem to IBKR again.
You have to manage your own position. They don't have to liquidate all your positions, and it is within their discretion. They can do just enough so that the other customers are safe, and not necessarily all positions. Since no one can predict the market, it could have gone both ways. It could have been better for a late, rather than early liquidation.
It is strange that they didn't allow you to liquidate, but I think I seen it before. It is a technicality because you need cash to buy options to cover the short options. If you don't have the cash, you might have to sell some other long positions you have to generate the cash or send a wire, so that the long side can be settled. While it may seem dumb, it does make some legal sense to allow buying (closing) only when there is cash to buy something.
Thank you for the answer. You cant really manage you own positions, once you are negative. That is the problem. And just sitting, waiting for liquidation when they feel like it: 1 hours ,4 hours , 2 months is not an acceptable option. Theoretically, they decide if to liquidate you at -10k now or when they want for maybe 800k (just as an example).
^^^ This.... lots of issues here. 1. A phone conversation... nothing in writing 2. You got margin called. I didn't read the rules, but in a forced liquidation I'd expect IB to treat it like a Stop order. Stop orders become market orders when a price is breached... and in times of market volatility there's no guarantees of time, price, or anything. 3. Basically they dumped your stuff immediately, to stop the bleeding, and put it out there at the worst possible time and price: when it was rocketing to the moon. 4. This is why the pros cover their calls. I have lost big myself, and the important thing in these situations is not to lose the lesson. Take from this the covered call, or buy-write strat... also the associated protected put. I know very little about options, but I'm certain that if you're going to sell options it is absolutely necessary to understand these strats to hedge against big moves like this. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coveredcall.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/protective-put.asp