I have a margin account with Interactive Brokers. Is there any number in the platform or website that indicates how much I'm borrowing from them? How can I check myself? Is there a simple balance number I'm missing somewhere? Let's keep things simple and say I have an USD based account, and am just long and short stocks. As I understand it, I can't simply check whether I have a positive cash balance (but I'm not understanding much right now) because cash from my short stock sales is used as collateral. Does a leverage under 1 mean I am not borrowing? Does a Equity with Loan Value = Net Liquidation Value mean I am not borrowing?
If the net value of your long stock, long calls and short calls is greater than your Net Liquidation Value, you are borrowing. Not sure what IB calls that balance.
If you borrow money from IB to buy stocks it will show up as a negative cash position. For example: if your account is in USD and you decide to buy stock in Europe you’ll get a negative EUR cash position. The amount you borrow will thus be visible in the currency you’re borrowing. Borrowing for futures does not show as a negative cash position. However, IB does charge interest on these margin requirements. It is a loan, but it does not affect your cash position.
Here's an example not touching options or futures then: I could have $1000 cash, sell $2000 worth of stock short, buy $3000 worth of stock long, and end up with a $0 cash balance, and I would not be borrowing anything? I'm not suggesting that I would actually like to do that.
The short stock doesn't count for borrowing money. That incurs a borrow fee. The long stock of $3000 is $2000 more than your equity so you would be borrowing $2000.