IB makes a claim that they can set up your account with the ability to actively trade your IRA / Day Trade your IRA by allowing margin that does not actually give you leverage it is just available to clear trades through to get around T+3. I have heard mixed things on this and no one has given me a straight response. Anyone in here have any experience with this? Does it work? Can you actually buy xyz @ 9:30 a.m. sell xyz @ 10:30 a.m. and have the proceeds from the sale available that same day to trade with. The rules say it is not allowed but IB says they can do it? ??????????????????????
I've daytraded stocks in my IB IRA with no problems. You just need the normal $25K minimum like any account.
The rule say it is not allowed to have your IRA principal as collateral (e.g. a margin account that gives more than 1:1 leverage, etc.). That is why IB does not have true margin account. It is just a same-day-substitution account with no extra leverage and no short-selling of equities. The day trading NASD rules still apply. If you have less than 25k, IB will still not allow you to open the 4th position if you have already made 3 round-trip trades in rolling 5 business days.
You can trade futures and futures options in limits of margin requirements as much as you want on IRA account.
Thanks ids. Is there any difference between regular account and ira account as far as futures day trading is concerned.
One thing... If you want to trade fut's in a foreign currency, you need to convert an appropriate amount of your funds to that currency. (very easy) Unless things have changed...