What you are saying makes no sense. No one forces you to use margin. If you don't borrow, you wouldn't be forced to close and it would act like a cash account.
Portfolio margin is not affected? From the e-mail that they sent out: Did they actually increase margin requirements for portfolio margin accounts? I can't tell and no where near using up all my margin, but just curious.
I'm not sure either, as I have PM, but rarely if ever use any more leverage than would be available to me if I wasn't on PM. I did get the following notice... But it doesn't really affect me.
IB should track every trader's portfolio drawdown during volatile periods and segregate them accordingly. IB reps please take note of this feedback.
I received the bulletin, both in TWS and by email. I will share one observation that has occurred over the past few days – and for context my positions are only futures and FOPs, so margined under SPAN rules, though IB’s house margin in volatile times will always be significantly higher than the exchange minimums. I’ll be honest, I’ve been in negative excess liquidity “on-and-off” but mostly “on” for the last few trading days, and for those who don’t know what that means – I’ve received a margin call from IB, though perhaps not the actual exchange (due to the margin spread between IB and the exchange) and they “have not” liquidated any positions as per normal rules. I’ll track back a bit, one position was liquidated Thursday at like 6:01PM EST and rightfully so, my excess liquidity was down “way more” than during the other times – most likely due to house/exchange margin adjustments. Back to my point – though IB has been changing risk and margin parameters on the fly (and I don’t blame them – protecting themselves is essentially protecting everyone, clients included) I’ve noticed some flexibility within the risk and margin system that is not normally present. For example, if my account was negative excess liquidity and they issued the “red” notice, I may be given until 4PM EST to shore up the account, but generally I won’t get much time, and if the amount is large (large is defined by a calculation only IB knows) liquidation orders happen almost instantly after the notice. Anyway, I’d love to hear if anyone else has seen/been in this scenario also? Trade wisely folks – I think this is going to get far worse before it gets better. Unfortunately.
My algo account with IB didn't use much margin 1-13th of March. Up to ~50% of NetLiquidation. No warnings or liquidations at that level. Those changes will impact folks who are heavy margin users. Considering volatility, it's understandable why IB is doing this.
Sure, be sarcastic. But the model isn't nearly as good as it should be. Obviously I didn't advocate for individual monitoring of every trader.
Yes, it did appear in the daily statement, and furthermore I was logged into TWS about to make the same trade (liquidation) myself but the risk system beat me too it.