This CFTC link: http://www.cftc.gov/files/tm/fcm/tmfcmdata0509.xls SHOWS THAT Ib HAS ONLY $118m in cust segregated assets. I'm quite surprised. I Would think that IB would have MUCH MORE than that in customer accounts. Your thoughts....
This question has been asked here already and answered. I suggest you do a search, user "def" supplied the answer. Regards Bernd Kuerbs
They have $1,890,315,996 liabilities to customers according to this http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/IB_LLC_2Q05_Unaudited_Financials.pdf They have an additional $120 million since Refco went under.
The point is in segregated futures accounts they have about 118M, even your link shows that - see clause 3.
Sir Kuerbs, def has over 3000 posts, there is no way I can qucikly ferret out the post you refer to . If you are aware of the explanation he previously gave, please share it.
Cash moves into the securities half of the universal account every evening to benefit from insurance even if you only day trade futures in your account. The 118 million is probably the overnight position trades that stay in the futures side.
Even if that is the case and you assume an average 20% margin-to-equity ratio, then they have cust assets of about $600M - still very small compared to the $5-6B held by Man, Calyon, Fimat & REFCO (pre- bennett fiasco)
They have customer liabilities in excess of $2,000,000,000. The amount from the accounts plus the accounts they have attracted since the refco fiasco. Maybe they have more stock traders than futures traders.
You guys are forgetting that IB sweeps all available cash into equity account, that might explain it.