has any one received or a notice from a firm other than IB that the cash in their account is no longer sipc protected or is receiving a new type of protection?
of course IB has sipc insurance for cash in their active stock trading accounts. active is being defined as in some transactions taking place in the recent past.
All securities accounts (Equity/Option etc.) have SIPC. All futures accounts or any accounts that are not "securities" accounts are not covered. So, if you keep cash in your IB futures account, without knowing it, that cash is NOT covered by SIPC. Even though many IB customers don't know they have both accounts. I've spoken to traders that are convinced they trade futures at IB in their margin account, because it's one platform. ALL futures accounts in the USA must be a segregated futures account. If you're concerned, and I would not be, make sure your cash balances are moved after you close futures transactions. Also, some brokerage firms are owned by banks. Some of those BDs give you the option to put some of your excess cash in an account at the bank, which would be covered by FDIC. So you can have your securities and cash up to the SIPC limited protected at the BD, and another $250K cash protected at the bank, then move money to the BD when you need it.
i was implying that sipc might have changed its policy towards cash in inactive securities accounts. if that is the case the situation shall be eventually clarified. not sure why you dragged IB into your response as the purpose of this thread was created to see if other firms were trying to comply with possibly new sipc rules.
Because you and others refered to IB. I said there is no change, except IBs ad says you can trade everything in one account. It only appears that way, and cash in the futures portion, at any firm is not covered by SIPC.