I want to trade futures. Just upgraded my IB stockmargin acct. to a Universal acct. Completed that OK. Opened the acct manager, then opened the "upgrade acct" window, chose stocks & futures and selected "SUBMIT." Here's where the prob begins: Got a return message saying that I was declined because my "trading experience, investment objectives etc" were insufficent (or something to that effect). What gives? Has anyone else upgrade to a Universal Actt. only to be declined access to futures trading with this message? Would appreciate any insight, help or outright solution to this problem. I want to trade futures but IB says no. HELP!
you probably ticked off the box that said one of your objectives is preservation of capital (i forget the boxes off hand). for futures your objective should be speculation, trading profits and/or hedging.
Via account login, click the "financial info". Under that menu there is the check list. If for some reason that doesn't work, open a chat session. The people on the help desk can walk you through.
I will chech again and try to change those entries. Q: To your knowledge has IB prevented anyone from trading futures for any reason after upgrading from a stock margin acct to a universal acct? (Other than for the reasons you already mentioned of course) Thanks again!
Not to my knowledge but there are requirements regarding net worth, speculative capital, age, experience etc. I'm not sure what the limits/levels are but even if I did, I don't think I'd post them. BTW, I just upgraded one of my accounts and got the same reject error. I updated my trading experience and objectives and it sent me to the next level.