I am currently with IB here is what I do and need to optimize somehow: Trading long / short stocks (including penny stocks) via IB API (python) Trading futures spreads manually (discretionary) What I do not like about that is IB margin policy especially They do not respect CME SPAN system and cook their margins according to own risk analysis (2 or 3 times SPAN) 100% margin for cheap (< $5) long stocks Short stocks margin can be as high as 1000 % etc. IB auto-liquidation makes not much sense to me especially if they start cutting spreads half Does anybody know a possible option for me to have more friendly system? Maybe Lightspeed? I am an EU-based citizen
We can't offer futures to EU based accounts. We can do equities and options. For Lightspeed, securities under $3 or all OTC are not marginable and held at 100%.
Looking around this seems like an impossible setup that only IB can do with cons mentioned Maybe splitting funds for futures and stocks trading will simplify things significantly