Wow, seriously IB? I'm in the middle of migrating to a different broker over the previous fiasco but I don't think I can get it done in time. Looks like you got me again.
Can someone give me an idea how auto liquidation works? How do they decide what to close? Do they close just enough to have positive excess liquidity or do they overshoot? I assume they will send an email if not pre, but at least post liquidation?
Don't assume anything. either ask in an email so you have it in writing or manage your trades so you don't have a margin call. Read all the small print in your margin agreement you had to agree to in order to open an account. You have no rights.
How ... : I' not sure. Do they ... : they close positions until the account has reached positive excess liquidity. I assume ... : No, IB will not send you any notification. Neither in advance, nor afterwards.
Guys relax - You have sufficient time to manage your exposure. And the increase will be gradual over 25 days (35%/25 = 1.4% per day). If your ship is that tight, you have more serious issues to worry about and thank IB for doing the risk management for you.
All other IB's customers will be able to sleep better when IB reduces the risks at this group of customers.
I posted recently in the Options group asking for risk management resources. People rush for strategies/tutorial/mentoring on how to make money leaving risk provisioning on the side. A case in point is IB's xls DDE API pulling all kind of metrics but not the real time margin requirement. I guess risk is not that sexy. You rarely see a risk manager driving a yellow lambo.
Well, I am surprised to hear this from you. I don’t think it’s common practice in equities to reduce leverage on existing positions. How are you going to model that into your portfolio? This is one of the reasons I don’t like trading futures - they allow you to leverage up and then pull the rug under you at the worst moment.