m_c_a98 there are two fields to tell you what is your risk of margin call : Maintenance Margin Requirement "The amount of funds, when holding positions, that you must maintain in your account at all times to avoid liquidation. The maintenance margin requirement is updated on a real-time basis and its value will fluctuate according to market movement." > that's quite clear. Initial Margin Requirement "The initial amount of funds needed to establish a position and satisfy regulatory requirements" > this one tells you if you can buy more. As long as your account is above the I.M.R you can buy more. Also updated in real time.
RE: Options assignments and replies-thanks to zboy and privateer. My interest was peaked this monday when some identical JAN msft credit put spreads were assigned at one broker, but not another. Naturally, took a hit on the smaller account (where I could least afford it). The broker was Ben & Jerrys. Their reputation has been good. My etrade options are still ok and underwater, but improving. Actually I doubled up on more at lower strike prices. As you, I had never had an assignment prior to expiration until this one. I have been attempting to confirm that this event is just strictly random or does the broker play some part. The concensus is that it is strictly random. The Ben and Jerry's account was an IRA account (where the rates are highest), but that's life. Happy Holidays.
BigEd, Assignments are definately random. Be careful with deep in the money puts as those are the ones that may make sense to exercise (and thus get assigned. The most likely day would be the day after a stock goes ex-div but it could make sense to to it earlier depending on interest earned from the short stock.
hi all JWS question: I did the pages in the JWS, from a-z. now that I forgot to put in the letter "M", is there a way to put in the M in the right place, without deleting everything?? I could not find a way to put it in between the letter L&N. thanx and happy new year eli
I'm with m_c_a98 concerning the need to see "buying power". This makes for an easy reference point to have in mind when strictly daytrading. Any tool that provides more clarity for trading and which would be easily implemented could be very useful. BSAM
I'm not so sure why you need "buying power" when you have a real time net liq balance on your screen. For options/futures with SPAN type margining, your buying power will vary from product to product/type to type and with your position (options). Wouldn't the same be for stocks depending if you are shorting or buying a stock? Maybe I've got this wrong so please clarify what you desire and I'll be sure to pass your comments along.
def I stay somewhat confused about the margin rules, as I suspect most people are. Otherwise, we would not hear all the complaints about margin calls. Or maybe they're just not paying attention. Again though, "buying power" makes for an easy reference point for me to keep in mind. I've never gotten into trouble by knowing exactly how much I have on any given day to trade with by using this figure. Since my practice is to be flat at the end of each day, my "buying power" (as interpreted from the IB account information screen) should simply be "cash balance" x 2. Please correct me if I am wrong. There is another issue I wanted to address with you or other members of this forum concerning the TWS. On the TWS 4.0 demo system the bid/ask occasionally just disappears from the screen. Is this happening to actual account holders? If so, are you still able to execute trades even if this does occur (since you are probably using a separate quote provider anyway)? Thanks. BSAM
BSAM, Thanks. Given that we offer other products such as options and futures buying power as you would like to see would be inaccurate for other accounts. I'll bring it up but that's why I don't think it will be changed. I haven't had any problems with disappearing prices (if you change pages you will have to wait until the stock ticks again to get an update if you are off that page for a few minutes) however, I am not logged on often for US trading. I can state that this has not been a problem for HK or Australian trading.
BSAM, I was useing the TWS 4.0 demo yesterday and about two hours before the close my prices disappeared and never returned. Today the prices were there all day. I can't get every feature to work in the demo mode but that might be just the way they have it set up. I don't know if actual account holders are having this problem.
I suspect... on the old demo, there were a limited number of demos available to conserve bandwidth among other reasons. My guess is that there are similar restrictions in place. I checked with the guys on the help desk out here and they have not heard of any complaints regarding quotes. As you can open an account for a limited time w/o funding, I suggest that you open the account, observe the system and if you are happy, fund it for trading.