Here we go again! Interactive Brokers Bulletin Board IMPORTANT NOTICE regarding Intraday Margin In light of the market volatility and the continuing turmoil in financial services stocks, IB will eliminate intraday margin reductions. Commencing at 12:00 EST today (18:00 CET), contracts which utilize value-at-risk margin models such as SPAN, Eurex, or TIMS in the commodity sub-account will be margined using the same parameters as for overnight margin. Please note that it may take up to 45 minutes for the new margin requirements to be expressed in the TWS but traders may consult the account window in the Trader Work Station to see what the overnight margin will be. We expect that intraday margin reductions will remain suspended for subsequent trading sessions and we will make further announcements as market conditions develop. Regardless of the likelihood of large, rapid changes in market conditions, we recommend that traders examine their portfolios to consider their exposure under extreme-move scenarios. Interactive Brokers Risk Management
Does this apply to YM too? The whole statement is a little bit cryptic for me. I haven't traded those for a while so I am not very up-to-date. Thanks for your help.
This is the third time IB have done it at the market bottom. Great contraian indicator.. Go long ES when IB announce they are raising intraday margin...
IB sends these special insider buy signals to their customers because they want their customers to make lots of money and have large account balances. That way the customers pay more commissions over the long run.
Here's a longer thread on this: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131740&highlight=IB+Margin
IB: "In light of the market volatility and the continuing turmoil in financial services stocks, IB will eliminate intraday margin reductions. Commencing at 12:00 EST today (18:00 CET), contracts which utilize value-at-risk margin models such as SPAN, Eurex, or TIMS in the commodity sub-account will be margined using the same parameters as for overnight margin. Please note that it may take up to 45 minutes for the new margin requirements to be expressed in the TWS but traders may consult the account window in the Trader Work Station to see what the overnight margin will be. We expect that intraday margin reductions will remain suspended for subsequent trading sessions and we will make further announcements as market conditions develop. Regardless of the likelihood of large, rapid changes in market conditions, we recommend that traders examine their portfolios to consider their exposure under extreme-move scenarios." The S&P was down 20 point at midnight EST and opened down 1 point. If you trade futures with these people you never know what your magin requiremnets will be .