IB like to cover their behinds. Always been like that. DRYS mysteriously went to RED, as in NO BORROWS the other day after having been shortable all the way down.
IB is so protective they would increase the margin past the face value of the contract..... and come up with some reason of course
They've been fucked a few times... that's why... I would do the same, if you weed out the bad traders who want massive leverage on their 5k account... done deal. They don't make money on them anyway, so they want more sophisticated retail traders and semi-profs. And they don't really care for a little bit more margin...
whatever you say, show me another retail broker who has been in this business that long and has not had one life threatening incident due to poorly run risk. I do not remember any.
but not to the degree that they had to consider selling themselves out to others or had to consider packing up. Yes, they have been hurt by individual account mess-ups and as you said they have learned. You put it perfectly when you stated earlier that those who are crying are almost without exception your 5k accounts that believe they are entitled to run 10 ES contracts at once and are fuming that IB does not allow them to get away with 500 bucks intraday margin. Then you have a few serious players that are larger spreaders and as I said before admittedly IB is not their ideal pick and should not be because they are not IB's target audience. To run prudent options risk as a broker you need to be very specialized and focused. That is simply not what IB chose to do. I do not get how so many moan and bitch reportedly after they found greener pastures and are supposedly happy now.
Just google Interactive Brokers and Lawsuits and you get a lot of hits http://www.news.com.au/finance/mark...e/news-story/07214d83ae0cbe1f3323b54789382adf http://www.investmentnews.com/artic...-ordered-to-pay-1-2-million-arbitration-award https://www.levinlaw.com/news/were-your-life-savings-auto-liquidated-your-broker https://www.stopbrokerfraud.com/broker-complaints-interactive-brokers-llc-crd-36418.html http://www.investmentlossattorney.com/forex/interactive-brokers-margin-debit-arbitration-defense/ https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/long-road-interactive-brokers-recovery-022007214.html https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/recent-market-turmoil-spells-trouble-auto-liquidators-craig-mccann
You are not answering the question. Which other broker gives access to worldwide markets for retail accounts?
No, I was answering why they charge higher margins. It is because they keep screwing up and getting sued. Do you work at IB? You are always defending them