Sorry if this is an incorrect forum to post this. I opened up an IB Margin account thinking they would provide 4 times buying power for me. But apparently this only applies to US stocks, is this correct? Or can buy more futures aswell? Thanks everyone
Futures margin requirements are here http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/marginRequirements/margin_amer.php?ib_entity=llc
Yes, I have been to that page many times. But say I had 5000 in my account, I thought IB would leverage me 4 times so I would have 20000 buying power. So whatever futures margin requirements would then apply to this 20,000... Do you get me??????
From IB's web site: "Long Marginable Positions: Maximum (25%*stock value..." I'm thinking the 4 times leverage you are referring to only applies to equities.
For Stocks IB gives you 4 times buying power inside-RTH (regular trading hours), and 2 times buying-power outside-RTH (overnight). Futures are 1/2 Margin during inside-RTH (see the link in the post above and then the column Intraday-Initial), and about full-margin outside-RTH (see the column overnight-Maintenance) For example: ES: 1969 1575 3938 3150 Then for your 5000 you can have 2 ES contracts (5000/1969) inside-RTH, but only one overnight. Hope it helps Hoi
No. You're confusing equity buying power with futures performance bonds. If you have $3940 in your account, you can trade 1 ES contract overnight or 2 contracts during the day or buy $7880 of stock (ignoring commissions). Note that you need at least $25K to get 4x buying power for stocks - otherwise it's only 2x.
It is illegal to allow customers to violate futures performance bonds after RTH. Futures are leveraged enough already.