IB is a competitor in the market making game with other market makers who compete with each other in the trading pits..like dogs eating dogs
no warning. basically they halted trading without warning by limiting money buying power in the market. effective today. 20% of daily options and futures is pretty big.
This is just like when the SEC raise the $25,000 daytrading minimum. They need more money for you to deposit. period. They are not protecting anyone!!! They are either seeing massive account withdrawals or their bank citibank is cutting off lending or credit lines.
Yes it is a big deal..300% increase in business capital cost to do business overnight. didn't i tell you this business changes overnight.
like IB gives a shit if their customers blows up their account. IB trades against the traders in intra-day.
if the firm is just broker, why would it matter. the fact is IB is a market makers making positions for their own account.
This is simple. From a customers point of view this is a disadvantage if you need to margin up to the hilt (ie you are undercapitalised or have some strategy that makes you trade like you are). From a customers point of view this is an advantage if you: - are well capitalised - don't want the broker to get all fuxked up if the shxt hits the fan in the markets - realise that when a broker has a lot of margin calls and can't keep trading any more then you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TRADE EITHER. Insurance doesn't help today ... it takes time. This is not a matter of whether IB cares about you or I. They want to still be in business with no interruptions ---- and if you are their customer that's what you want as well. The best broker for a conservative trade is a conservative broker. If you are an IB customer and this pxsses you off then you should fxck off to a broker with razor thin margins. GO NOW ... PLEASE
you sound like typical wall street broker. Don't have money, get the f#ck out here. so you f#ck you wall street bastards!
And you sound like a typically anti-ib whinger. Either a shill or some loser who wants to whinge. The name says it all really. I just hope you're not an ib customer because losers like you take up customer service time that they could spend on someone worthwhile.