I doubt IB had let him sell naked. (especially on GOOG.) The margin would have been enormus. I sure he sold covered call. Sure the guy bitch about losing money on the call, but the gain from stock should have offset it.
He was long ATM GOOG calls at expiration. I bet policies have changed in the past couple years. Cautionary tale: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51251&perpage=6&pagenumber=1
RE: IB Account U338132 Based on information received by the IB Compliance Department, we have determined to terminate our relationship with you. Accordingly, you are advised to close the account referenced above by 25 FEBRUARY, 2008. You may transfer your accounts to another brokerage firm through the Automatic Customer Account Transfer System (ACATS), or you may liquidate any existing positions in your accounts and we will disburse any remaining funds to you. Consistent with the foregoing, your accounts have been placed in liquidation-only trading status, meaning that you may close out existing positions but you may not establish new positions. If you choose to transfer your account to another broker, you will need to contact this receiving broker and make the proper transfer arrangements. If you choose to close your account, please log into your account via LOGIN/Account Management Menu and follow the procedure below: Check Positions: Review your Trader Workstation within LOGIN/Trade or check daily account statements within the Statements feature under Report Management to verify that all positions have been liquidated or transferred to an alternative broker via the ACATS system. Convert: Any foreign currency you may hold must be converted to your accounts base currency. This conversion can be processed using the IDEAL/Forex system from the Trader Workstation. If you need assistance with the conversion process please contact our Trade Department at 1-877-442-2757. Verify Mailing Address: For USD based accounts, IB will issue a check within 3 to 10 days of the closure request to the mailing address shown on our records. Please check your information to confirm that IB has your correct mailing address within the Info Change feature located under Account Administration. Verify Bank Wire Instructions: For all non USD based accounts IB will issue you a wire within 3 business days to the Banking Standing Instructions on file. Should you wish to create or change banking standing instructions, go to the Withdrawals feature located under Funds Management. Under Wire Transfer choose Create Instructions to create banking standing instructions or Edit Instructions to modify existing banking standing instructions. Close Account: Select the Close Account feature under Account Administration and complete the form for processing. Please note that if the above criteria are not met, our system will not be able to process your closure request. Sincerely, Interactive Brokers Compliance Department New Accounts Department Interactive Brokers, LLC-US
Seems that IB should be only for the native born AMERICANS like AMERICAN PATRIOT "FIghtTheFuture" I got this reply from another "AMERICAN PARTIOT" under name Tom Dear ......: Interactive Brokers has received your response to our closure notification. You need to care about the IB system because you have operated in the IB system for this account. Please note that as a result of the Management decision to close your account that the account has been placed in Liquidation-Only status, which means that you will not be able to open or add new positions, however you will continue to be able to reduce or close any existing positions. Effectively, the account cannot trade. This restriction will not be lifted. Your account must close as you have been previously directed. Since you have not made any attempts to close your account to this point, and it is past deadline, your account will now go under the review of the Compliance Officer, who will make the determination whether or not to liquidate the account, as IB has the right to do in cases where an account remains opened past the deadline provided for closure. It is nearing three (3) months since your deadline passed. There will be no further extensions provided for you to complete this action. Regards, Tom New Accounts Department Interactive Brokers, LLC-US
Sounds like you failed to provide identification several months ago as requested. About 1 month ago, I had to provide identification again so I could continue trading. I did not question why, I just complied. Everyone has to comply, there are no exceptions, no special people. It sounds suspicious that for some reason you do not want to simply provide identification, not even to close your account and receive your funds. There are plenty of brokers out there to choose from. You could have continued trading months ago, if you had provided identification. You could have received your funds months ago, if you had provided identification. It all sounds suspicious.
I did provide ALL documents. I do not see a point to discuss this question with YOU. As a âNORMAL AMERICAN PATRIOTâ please continue to comply with everything without asking questions.
Back in your Feb 16th post you said you had an account with HSBC. If the account is in the same name and has the same identifying number (SSAN) all you need to do is put in an ACATS request at HSBC. IB will transfer the entire account (all open positions and your credit balance) to them. If you liquidate and request the balance, IB must send you cash (check) and they need to verify your identity if the money is going anywhere other than the bank account previously associated with your account. You are not posting enough info about the situation if an ACATS will not work.
You provided identification to open the account. What about other requests for ID? Sounds like you did not want to. If you do not understand what IB is requesting, talk to them on the phone. 02-16-08 09:33 PM 02-16-08 10:43 PM
This is serious stuff. I want IB Resident Representative on ET to answer these questions: Why did IB close this customer's account? Why did IB refuse to provide a reason for closing this customer's account? Under what circumstances will IB close a customer's account?