Good question. I'm not sure Realtick or CQG, two platforms that we can offer this on, are capable of calculating margin on spreads. CQG would have a better chance of it. I'd have to ask.
That would be insanely good if the platform can calculate the spread margin for manually entered spreads and then apply daytrading margin to it. Doing it with exchange supported spreads is no big deal though.
Well, you did just enumerate all the informative points brought up in the thread...just sayin' Also, if it's for herself, it's just being diligent (or not). Due diligence is due only to a third party. And I don't mean to call you out...it's just a question I've never considered and I did in fact learn from this thread. I suspect even the financially literate might learn something from the specific ins and outs of each broker's handling of margin (or any other concept for that matter).
Fair enough. Let us hope that jovos is/has read all of this, speaks with the broker, and replies here with what the specific rules are, verified by the Generic broker, for the account being traded. There is no such thing as too much information...There is only too much uninformative crap-ass...? (Just thought of that as a quotable line. However, I don't think that would have made it into a book by Bartlett...)
It is definitely just a policy that the brokerage employs to avoid risk. Reading their margin page, this sentence sticks out to me, "Strict adherence to the Intraday Margin Policy (provided upon funding account) is necessary to maintain day trading margin privileges." This also means that OP should already be aware of the policy.