I just want a straight answer I have a ticket (or two) with IB asking about intraday margins, specifically when they begin. i'll spare y'all a long story about trying to get a simple answer by asking ... When do they begin? their online info states when 100% margin is in effect but not when intraday margin is in effect. I was told "margin requirements will revert back to the 100% requirement until the opening of normal trading hours the next day" normal trading hours the next day is different for all markets/exchanges? oi!!!
Yes it is. Intraday margin reflects the lower risk to the broker that normal daily fluctuations and liquidity provide. So you need to be in the exchange's day (not my Hong Kong exchange day).
oops! I accidentally put a question mark at the end of my last statement of course it is. That's precisely why i'm asking if 9:30 EST for intraday margin (what I was told) applies to all markets/exchanges (sorry, I was trying to avoid a long story)
It is product specific. 9:30 AM for the US markets. Intraday margin is granted normal liquid trading hours for each product type. Each day at 15 minutes before the close of the normal trading session for a product, margin requirements will revert back to the 100% requirement until the opening of normal trading hours the next day. Margin requirements will always be applied at 100% for all spread transactions.
how is 9:30 EST product specific? by 9:30 EST floor trading has begun in many markets in the u.s. you quoted IBs online info, which I referred to. You can see it's not specific about what is actually the start of the "normal trading session" according to that language the end of the normal trading session means something different for each market. Well, why not the the start? am I making any sense?
The "normal day" when options start trading, the NYSE opens etc commences at 9:30 AM EST. So this is when ES is set. However, out of the 130+ products offered by IB on Globex, some like the currencies may be an hour earlier and some like Cattle may be an hour later. As I believe your concern is US equity index futures, 9:30 is the opening of "normal trading hours".
ok. I was actually thinking crude oil and gbp futures for instance, crude oil intraday margins would be in effect at 9:00 EST because that's when floor trading begins for crude. is that correct? anyway, that's what makes sense to me thx def!
If I've got my time zones correct, you're correct. To check, you can line up a 1 lot, right click on the order line and choose check margin. A window will pop up with the margin details.
Why is it that IB uses pit traded hours as the reference for "regular trading hours" when most of the volume of commodity futures contracts are traded electronically and around the clock? Why does IB still use this antiquated measure?