I use IB and while it is true the margins are going up as dictated by the exchange, I agree that it is a good thing as it protects the new trader from overtrading. I have traded the ES for years and I make a good living using an effective margin that is closer to 7-10 K per contract as opposed to even the "high" margin of 5625.
i open ticket after my first post in this rhread, but no answer..btw-it's not even assigned to anyone yet.
mmmm..ok...but i'm hardly a *new*..been with IB for almost decade..i'm just looking here for an logical explanation of their margin calculations. that's it. how they come up with those numbers?
Bob, I wasn't talking about you (or anyone) specifically and I must admit, there have been times when I get frustrated with IB's margin policy. When I asked them what the issue was, the rep told me the standard "it is to protect the traders that won't protect themselves" line. I have been trading full time since 2002 and if margins had been higher, my first couple of years wouldn't have been so very painful. Now that I am consitently profitable and have years of mistakes behind me, I do wish I had a little more flexibility. However, IB is such a great broker overall (especially when using the ButtonTrader front-end) that I will live with the margin issue unless it gets a lot worse.
not sure when the last margin increase was, but i just noticed its now: YM $6875 initial $5500 overnight ES $6188 initial $4950 overnight NQ $4000 initial $3200 overnight bizarre how NQ havent gone up much, while YM has gone up ~3x. YM margin was also less than ES until recently. just maybe a few wks ago YM was ~$5K initial?
IB is offering exchange minimum margins, nothing more, nothing less. Most futures brokers still offer 50% or bettter INTRADAY margin requirements. Osorico
That is a major jackup by CME Group for YM margin. Before this YM always had more leverage than ES. 16.2% margin for YM to contract value. 14.2% margin for ES to contract value.
if its an exchange minimum, then why are other brokers significantly less than those amounts listed? if its the minimum required by CME, then ES should also be $6188 by all brokers? i've only been trying out ES & YM since ER2 is out.
Holy cow, IB must be in deep doo doo. Im sure it's for our won good. They should have been lifting requirments at Dow 14000, not Dow 8000.