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
This maybe true - but how about some fucking clarity about their margin policy. They just can't eliminate intraday margins whenever they feel like it. How about having a clear policy such as: VIX = 10-20 = Intraday Margin VIX = 20-30 = 50% increase in Intraday Margin VIX = 30+ = No Intraday Margin
I bet it was the $10 move in CL in just minutes that caused this change - that move probably blew out many accounts at IB. But if that was the case then eliminate intraday margins on CL instead of on all futures.