Has anyone been having problems with IB, getting margin deficit notices? I've been getting them almost daily in the last 2 weeks... due to the commodity segment of the account not having enough funds to cover the maintenance margin..., while in the total account there's plenty of funds... I'm not even leveraged, since the account covers the total margin needed (by that I mean, I'm not using any of IB's money as a margin loan). Usually, the sweep function would sweep funds from the other segments to wherever necessary, but that seems to be not working properly anymore.... It's driving me crazy... even got a liquidation notice while I don't have any open positions!
Cash can be liquidated at a moments notice. If all your money is in cash, IB considers it a concentrated position. Big no no.
What are they gonna liquidate it into? Other cash? .... I know it's a big no no... especially in a bull market!!!! But it's very annoying...
They will liquidate it into shares of AAPL and then take them from you. No one said trading was easy...
The way how the sweep function behaves can be set in account management. Have you verified that it is set to the way you want it? If it still doesn't work properly I would advise you to contact IB and ask them what's going on. And what you can change such that they stop bothering you.
Call IB and press option 1 for trading then option 4 for margin enquiries. I called on friday and spoke to a very knowledgeable representative. If your current excess liquidity is positive then you shouldn't get automatically liquidated even if initial margin exceeds net liquidating value.
Better yet can you do a chat session and post it here? I haven't had any entertainment from them since I stopped trading with them, I'm starting to miss it!
Yeah I did a chat with IB. It seems they are in the process of enhancing the sweep. Apparently the SPI trades (Future on ASX200 - Australia) filter through the commodity section and the other futures (Europe/HK etc) go through the regulated section... and currently the funds are in regulated and securities... not commodity... I'll leave it as is for the time being.. they said I can't sweep manually... and they won't liquidate since excess liquidity is fine.