I had the honor of being short 2000 BSC over the long weekend with only 14000 in the account. Like many other stocks BSC is not marginable. I know that I would be bought in at the open, at least partially, so I placed a market order to cover all 2000 prior to the open. Later that morning, after being away from the market, I find out that even though I closed the position on my own, IB bought me in for 1000 shares, so now I was long 1000. Not so bad since I was up 1.70 on the 1000 and had been up even more, but didn't know it at the time. Good thing the open was the low instead of the high. WTG IB!!
I wonder what the title of this thread would have been if IB covered your shorts at the high and you ended up down 1.70 on the 1000 long. I hope at least they tried to contact you.
No, they did not try to contact me, as my position did not officially violate margin requirements until BSC opened for trading on the NYSE. The pre-market 3rd market trades do not count. I had enough experience with IB to know that they would take action, but thought that if I beat them to it by placing my own market order on the open, it would negate their need to do anything. If they covered well after the open, at the high of the day, it would be a more typical story. Since I would have been flat at the time, I would have been screaming bloody murder.
How can you allow IB to trade your account without your permission? That's fu@king scary that IB actually did it to your account! Regardless of the result (profit or loss), you should complain to IB as strongly as you can.