And well below its Jan and March highs, your point is? Anyway Vix shmix, I daytrade ES and price action looks the same to me, all I know is that from trading 3 lots I'll be back to 1. Maybe big swinging dicks with $100k accounts don't care but its shafted us little folk.
Right...earlier this year IB went to no intraday margins as well, when the Vix was up here and higher. Where were you? Trading 3 lots with under $10K is the route to blowing your account up. I'd cut your size back to a one lot permanentlly. That said, you're the guy IB is afraid of here, and is targeting with this move in margin. OldTrader
lil swinging dick, Get a second account at Velocity or someone like that and throw in 5k or 7500 and swing at 500 dollar margin. FWIW, my money feels safer at IB knowing they are NOT letting lil swinging dicks........swing with too much margin. get a second account elsewhere and swing right at 300 or 500 dollar margin.........either u will swing right or blow out that account. IB has way too many customers to allow anyone to swing like that. And somewhere like Velocity has a TT RM system that will cut u off before u do damage to them.
I don't think IB's move has as much to do with volatility as it does with their fear that a major player is going to collapse. If something like "C just went bankrupt" is announced in the middle of the day we could go limit down in a matter of minutes. I've gotten caught in a major drop before and trust me when I tell you, the first thing you do is freeze. You do not instinctively reach for the "FLAT" button. You sit there and you do nothing for a few minutes. Once that wears off you get it together but by then it's usually too late. IB is definitely doing the right thing here.
This is a safety measure to protect them and customers (I'm one of them). They don't want a huge move (remember January?) during an overnight session or gapping down to blow out a lot of accounts. Be aware that this is most likely temporary, as when there is extreme volatility, they and a lot of other discount brokers will pull the intra-day margins and impose exchange-imposed overnight margins. I approve of this as it is a great way to protect the firm and its customer base.
I remember the aftermath of the '87, crash... My broker said, "We prefer you stop trading the SP500 for a while. But if you must, we require $50,000 margin per contract."
And that is exactly why IB sucks, at least for futures trading. As a business, if a supplier is not consistent and reliable you'd find a different supplier. In the case of IB you just sit quietly in the corner as your prices go up 50% in one fell swoop and you adjust the core of your business? That's exactly what IB is hoping you do.
csz, that is not a valid argument. Positions put on after RTH hours (or whatever time period IB considers RTH) are always imposed with exchange minimum margin or higher. I am not aware of ANY (retail) futures broker providing reduced or intraday-margins for overnight trading. As for other brokers pulling intraday margin... last year when IB pulled this shenanigan, I *think* it was Tradestation that increased margin, but for a significantly shorter time than IB did. No other brokers I deal with or was aware of at the time increased or eliminated intraday margins. In fact several sent emails verifying the intraday margining policies.
Lets not forget IB is a public company. Your statement that they have "way too many customers" is verifiable. Bottom line: they are not that big, and then there is the half-baked concept that not every one of those customers trade futures. But you are correct... for futures, it is advantageous to do business with a brokerage that has a *specialized* risk system in place.