They will not reopen this session. Maybe Bush doesn't want the market down 200 points when he announces tonight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over. Not with standing he DID NOT get Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. At least that 's what it appears. One dead soldier is not worth this shit.
Tough to calculate, simply try to buy 500 shares. If you have enough margin IB will let you, otherwise you'll get an error message. If it denies you, try buying 400 shares, etc. and work your way down. If Globex re-opens during the day session then close both. Problem is if Globex doesn't re-open again during the day session (like today), then IB may automatically liquidate some/all of your SPY holding since you don't have enough margin to carry it overnight.
kinda reminds me of the time i was in vegas when i didnt have money to split 2 aces. ended up drawing 2 face cards SOL
*** Quote from Gordon Gekko: If I was short 1 ES, how could I calculate how much SPY IB would let me buy (if any)? *** If margin is not sufficient for SPY, you could use SPX options. Or OEX since they are more liquid.
but did anyone think of running over and buying dow minis to cover yourself? Probably would get you around the buying power problem for spy on ib and the two are correlated prettty well. I don't know how many you would have to buy though, but the mini dow stayed up all day with no problems.
Surprised nobody considered single stock futures for possible hedge or whatever such as QQQ. Do not believe there is one for SPY but I would think you could find some appropriate SSF(s). Geo.