Hello I'm located in Europe, trading with Thinkorswim but I'm tired with the bad fills and freezing platform. I just checked initial and maintenance margin requirements for the E-Mini S&P500 for overnight and intraday. Is it possible that the requirements are quite different between USA and Europe? Or do I miss something? It seems the requirements for US traders are quite higher as demanded by the CME, while European traders are much lower. Here an example for Europe: Intraday Initial:4228.625 Intraday Maintenance: 3382.90 Total: 7611.525 USD Overnight Initial: 8457.25 Overnight Maintenance: 6765.8 Total: 15223.05 USA: 19511.58 Does this makes sense? Thanks.
The CME quotes their margin requirements in USD. Maybe your broker is converting into your currency, so it looks lower?
No, it's in USD. Intraday margin is quite low, while Overnight margin is relatively high. https://www.interactivebrokers.eu/e...ex=us&rgt=0&rsk=1&pm=1&rst=101006100801080808
Good question. But I don't know the answer. I wonder if CME will cut the margins once the volatility settles. However, I made the error that I added initial and maintenance. Currently CME is asking 12k for the E-Mini S&P 500. I wonder how Interactive broker can offer it lower. TD Ameritrade has 13220 margin requirement. Intraday margin (50%) is suspended due to the elevated vol.
These are the numbers at this moment for the US and the EU. Huge differences. For EU: https://www.interactivebrokers.eu/e...ex=us&rgt=0&rsk=1&pm=1&rst=101006100801080808 For US: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/...hm=us&ex=us&rgt=0&rsk=1&pm=0&rst=101004100808
I believe it topped out around $33k per es contract. But many other brokers never went over the change maintanace of $12k or so
I'll contact Interactive Broker. It seems they have their own risk model for Europe. Maybe the CME requirements are not the same for Europe clients. Kinda weird...but, we see the figures.
I just left IB after 24 years w them... using TOS On a whim & have found the fills to be exceptional on ES... IB you’d need to trade thru your price to get filled more often than not.. I was actually filled 6 ticks above the market on a limit sell.. Globex session, to my benefit... their fills justify their higher commish imho. Also, never had a problem w platform freezing either, FYI... I’m in the states just outside NYC so not sure if location has anything to do with it.