According to IB customer support I've just had SPY orders rejected becuase because I do not have over 25,000 of base currency (GBP) in my account. I had day-traded for about 2 months with them and my account balance has not changed significantly either way from its current and initial 20,000GBP. So a dollar-based account can trade with 25,000USD but I have to have over 36,000USD equivalent in my account to avoid the pattern day-trader rule... No prior notification of this arbitrary rule either. Anyone else heard of this? Q1
It may have to do with option positions - http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=5348 In my case, it was because option value is NOW (starting about 2 weeks ago) subtracted from net liq. This meant that I had to sell calls against my "bullets," and close or move other option positions. I hope this helps.
I wish that was the problem but I don't trade options. I have asked to be shown the rule which states that 25,000 of your base currency is needed to daytrade but I am continually referred to the $25,000 rule which does not appear to be relevant. I can only assume there is some other reason why I am not welcome at IB and any old excuse will do to get rid of my account.
the 25K rule has been around for a while, so they either missed you before or there is something else going on.
One or two years ago you did not get the type of "useless answer" that you get nowadays. Maybe you wait until def can have a look at your problem. Or ask at IB discussion board ( www.interactivebrokers.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.pl )
good luck with that. last week i too had to explain to a IB rep what a base currency is -- it took 5 messages back and forth before i succeeded. unless def will help you out, i don't think you'll get a relevant answer from IB. - jaan
Yes, I wonder why you sometimes get strange answers from IB_Help. I guess they have to work very fast to get all emails done and avoid to spend a lot of time with something that is difficult for them to explain (for example margin requirements for options).