Old contract on ICE, TF, volume is now just 10 thousand contracts per day. New contract on CME, RTY, volume is now 100 thousand contracts per day But at IB: TF intra day margin is $2500 RTY intra day margin is $5000 I been asking them to swap the margin over for six months now, when RTY first over took TF. But no luck they just ignore my messages. I got a feeling that when TF is delisted completely in a few months that IB still wont offer reduced intra day margin for RTY.
I have an account with IB but for futures I trade with AMP. Their intraday margins on the RTY are, no joke, $250/contract. Make a change if you're dissatisfied.
Yes i should but got to rewrite my code for a new api, will take me several months with no guarantee everything will work as well as it does at the moment.
Oh, I see. Yes, that would be frustrating. Not that I'm plugging AMP here intentionally, but they do offer a LOT of different platforms for free, so maybe you can find one that uses the same language and just transfer the work you've already done.
In addition, the RTY is $5 per tick and not as volatile as the NQ / YM. Agree with Southall, makes no sense. Another head scratcher is the margin required for the Midcap 400 futures (EMD on IB). It's not any more volatile than the RTY and req has been sky high for years. Since the trading on the EMD is so thin, I noticed that relative large volume spikes tend to be real shifts in direction / momentum so it is a good indicator relativev to the other e-minis. Watch it for awhile. You'll see what I mean. No "gaming" going on with that one.
To the best of my knowledge the Russell will be traded exclusively n the CME as RTY. I believe the ICE their contract will end soon. We can provide low margins for intraday and can provide an API of C#, C++ and FIX if necessary.
They could possibly justify not having reduced intra day margin on EMD because it is has such low volume. But RTY is now doing over 100,000 contracts per day. For a few years now IB have been pruning the products that are on their 50% reduced intra day margin list and it seems they don't want to add any additional contracts to that list. If i was in the US i would consider optimus or amp instead of IB. I am currently with IB UK, who are FCA regulated which means i get about 85K GBP/120,000 USD account protection.
Thank you for writing back. I Understood and respect your comfort level. We do have segregated accounts here in the USA, and our regulatory bodies came a long way in ensuring customer's safety. I would just encourage you to open a small account and we could provide you with enough margin for your trading. Just an option for you.