Fuck off dude, this is MY thread, open a different thread if you like. You rudely hijacked my thread and don't comprehend how tbills are being traded at IB. I repeatedly asked you very politely to get off my thread and take your different question elsewhere which you selfishly ignored. You clearly don't know what you are talking about.
How it was described in the IB message was EXACTLY as I described to you. To the dot. I told you and your buddy many times that any margin requirements in the futures account can and are first satisfied by available cash in the futures account, then cash in the securities account then by collateral in the securities account. If you don't have sufficient cash to satisfy the margin requirements then you may still be able to satisfy the margin requirement itself through collateral such as tbills but still get charged financing rates for lending you cash. Which part is still unclear?
I am interested in Canadian tbills which is the Original Topic of this thread, created by myself. If you have other things to discuss perhaps it should be you to move elsewhere.
Good to know, thank you. I have not bought many T-bills yet; I'm just getting started. I typically got an immediate fill at IB when I put in a limit order at the best ask per Fidelity for my order quantity. I will try putting in a limit slightly higher than the mid price next time and then wait. That is what you are suggesting, right?
Of course it has more benefits. It is beneficial at the moment to not let a single dollar cash sit in your account and to instead invest in tbills. Gets you close to 4.75% in return. Cash gets you signicantly less (as function of account balance) . So, even if your margin requirements are 50000 dollars and you have another ADDITIONAL 50000 dollars sitting around in cash it makes sense to purchase tbills.
I reread your OP and see that you asked about using canadian bills for collateral for your unspecified trades at IB. Those of us who are interested in using governments (not just canadian) specifically for collateral for futures trades at IB have been having a valuable and IMHO on-topic discussion in this thread. I gather from your comments that you don't trade futures at IB so don't care about this issue. I assume that you don't care about the original question anymore either since you posted that you found a solution to your issue. However, for some reason, it seems to bother you that people are posting in this thread about this topic. If it's annoying to get the notices that someone posted, you can turn those off. BTW, I've been participating in internet discussion boards since long before the web existed (e.g. usenet) It's never been a convention that the thread starter gets to regulate who is allowed to post on "his" thread.
This is consistent with my experience trading treasuries at IB. I don't think it's limited to small orders or t-bills. I've found that I don't get an instant fill even if I try to lift the entire ask size. IB customer service is, of course, useless in explaining why I haven't been filled. Apparently, the electronic quotes they are showing don't have to be real. This kind of info possibly makes it worthwhile to read posts by someone with such an immense amount of attitude based on their "many months" of experience.
The reason why you don't get a fill when you put in a buy order at the ASK that IB indicates, might be that your order quantity is less than the minimum quantity of that ASK quote. IB doesn't show the minimum quantities of the order book. I usually go to Fidelity to get an idea what the order book with the minimum quantities looks like. (But my understanding is that each broker has their own order book for T-bills, so the Fidelity order book might not be 100% the same as IB's order book.) Please note that when I say minimum quantities, it's not a typo. T-bill quotes have minimums that the counterparty (dealers or institutions) can specify. That's different from the order size in the equity markets, which are maximums. I learned all that just recently. I also understand that retail orders are not visible to other retail customers. You can only trade with the selected dealers at IB.
a) nothing in any of my posts indicates that I do not trade futures (a pure assumption on your end) b) my issue has not been settled as you can gather from Dave's response early on in the thread. (again and assumption on your end) c) It does not bother me at all if others posted ON TOPIC. You and a few others DON'T. Instead the discussion revolves around "free lunches" and all sorts of other misconceptions of how t-bills are traded at IB, how margin requirements are satisfied, how cash is swept between different accounts to earn interest for clients. I can't count the wrong statements on each of the past 5 pages. d) You posted here 37 times since 2006, could it perhaps be you who is not really up to date on how threads are handled here at ET? According to my understanding and something many confirmed here over time there should be a basic respect regarding the original topic; you instead made it all about futures margin requirements when the thread topic was about Canadian and European t-bills. And you have the audacity to suggest that the topics are related because both relate to government securities. Pretty narrowminded in my book. But I am glad your issues have been resolved, the experts have exchanged their goodies and can now safely go back to trade. Am I about right?