Just a simple question. I don't trade box spreads and most of my margin calls at Ameritrade come from short puts or long calls getting assigned. This usually happens to me, right after expiration Friday, and I appreciate being able to fix up my account, myself, during the following days. Would IB simply sell the stocks, for you, immediately on Monday morning?
The changes will be made as soon as possible and will be released without additional explicit notice as you are now informed. You can expect the change to go in no earlier than tonight but more likely over the next weekend. I do not know how long the improved margin model will take to insert but you should ensure your account has enough capital to cover a margin requirement of : boxMargin = MAX(1.02*markedToMarketPositionValue,strikeDifferential)
if you didnt have the $$ to meet NYSE maintenance margin, then yes, liquidations would commence at 09:40 EST on the next business day. You would have 10 minutes to cover the positions yourself (from 09:30-09:40)
Sorry if this has been brought up (or if TWS does it already), but a large popup warning and sound stating you are in imminent danger of liquidation, and possibly an email too, would not be very hard for the IB code wizards to add to TWS. I know the info is plainly there to see, but this would simply serve as a "good will" item for IB customers. There is already automatic protection from limit orders too far away from the market. This would just be another helper for the overburdened trader. I doubt this would cost much in time and could just be thrown on the pile of TWS improvements that are done on a regular basis. What the parameters and basis for the warning would be, I don't know. But I bet the IB guyz could come up with a fine solution! Maybe something positive can come out of this? I hope so. Good trading to all.
Maybe slightly off topic, but anyway: If I exceed margin at say 10:05. When do auto liquidation start? Thanks
Well, that for me is a good enough reason never to use IB, or any other broker with a similar policy. The cheapest broker isn't always the cheapest broker. I'd rather pay a few quid more in exchange for a bit of common sense. Option Trader I wish you luck, but I suspect IB's procedures are well documented and water tight. Get yourself a decent broker.
There is a very simple solution to all of this. All that is need is a simple alert letting the user know that he is under margin and if the margin is not back within limits in X minutes liquidation will occur. Simple right. I think so.
What if the market is in free-fall and the offender is short puts? The system shouldn't have a time-component. The fix is to trade within foreseeable variation margin. Anyone trading to a nickel or dime[per contract] of their haircut limit should know the risks.