It appears that SPAN-like margining has been expanded to cover more products. As the article suggests, this should enable the little guy to significantly increase his buying power. Other unintended consequences (put skew) are subject to debate and it will be very interesting to see what effect this has on the market once fully implemented. http://www.insidefutures.com/article/3478/TRADING%20FLOOR%20SECRETS:%20New%20Margins.html
This will be great buying 100,000 worth of stock for 3,000 will bring alot more volume to the markets
Account minimums are going to be 100k to 500k per broker. Also, you can't pattern day trade in the account. There will be other restrictions as well. No, this will be of very little benefit for the "little" guy. However it will help the bigger trader substantially from what they have now.
Sorry to post here what had been posted there. I read that entire thread and Mav is still the only one saying there is a minimum acct size to be subject to portfolio margining. This may be broker discretion and maybe IB doesn't want to allow smaller fish to get in this game just yet, but I don't see this minimum being dictated by any regulatory body.
No, never stated it was regulatory. I have stated now on several threads that every broker I have talked has minimums anywhere from 100k to 500k as well as other restrictions. Just re-iterating that this is not for the little guy.