Multiple accounts in IB, Will one margin impact the others?

Thanks for all the replies, I am not trying to shield liabilities, I just want to try different strategies in different accounts, while some are conservative like covered calls, others are risky like naked puts, yet don't want the risky one impact the conservative ones. I am sure most of you have that mentality? if so, what's the best way to implement it?

 

Good question. I'm not sure if a margin call not met by the personal account would affect BP in the LLC.

 

Master Account with three sub accounts.

 

Just chatted with IB support, two different accounts are be treated independently. please take this info as my Thank you token for replying and reading the thread.

 

Assuming you can trust what they tell you. Somehow I don't have much trust in their support ... you call three times and get four different answers Don't mean to start another IB war, just saying.

 

This is a true story. I was contacted more than a year ago by an IB customer. He told me he had one PMA and one Reg-T account. The PMA was first. He was told by support that some option positions had better margining in Reg-T so he opened the second account. He was a option seller in VIX symbols. When the market dropped over a few days, risk noticed that he was selling in both accounts. The Reg-T account had a margin call so he continued to trade in the PMA. One day without warning, they froze his accounts telling him he was gaming their risk system. They asked him to close his positions ASAP and close his account.

I would be careful with that set up.

Bob

 

So I would guess that they do the margin calculations based on account-by-account, so if there is a margin call in one account they will not let your equity in another account save you.

BUT if one account goes negative so that there is negative equity, they can strip your other accounts.

Seems to me that is how most brokerages would operate - the most conservative possible to protect themselves - but I'm watching this thread to understand!

 

If that's the case, one should have accounts in different brokerage to protect themselves?

 

Then comes another questions, which brokerage do you prefer besides IB? Thanks

 

If you're worried about a margin call blowing up your account, you are either undercapitalized or over-leveraged or both. Time to reassess your trading strategy.