Submitting new buy stop orders where my cash cannot cover all orders

Discussion in 'Interactive Brokers' started by Anoobis, Jul 9, 2019.

  1. Anoobis

    Anoobis

    Hello All:):):)

    I'm still new to Interactive Brokers; I only have a cash account with them (no margin allowed). Question is: say I have 30k cash in my IB account and I submit 5 pending orders (could be going long or short) that total say 50k, is there any possible problem?

    Obviously it's good to set up a few orders because usually not all stocks will hit my target stop price to enter the position. But if they did all hit my buy target price I presume IB system would just know to ignore my extra orders due to insufficient funds?

    IB lets me put in orders that exceed available funds but I'm not sure if there's some possibility of things getting messy - like maybe they accidentally buy the whole 50k worth then ring me up saying I need to urgently deposit extra 20k!
     
  2. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    You can't short in a CASH account.
    You can't exceed your available excess with any order either filled or open.
     
    murray t turtle likes this.
  3. Anoobis

    Anoobis

    Oh? It definitely lets me enter pending orders greater than my available cash.

    Thing is it's an Australian account - they took margin off non-business traders for Aussie accounts. I'm not sure it's strictly a cash account in US sense. Aussie non-business accounts might get their margin choice restored in the future.
     
  4. You already mention: you have a cash account so no margin will be allowed. What this means is that if several of your orders have filled and used 29k of the available 30k then the next order which would require more than 1k will be refused by IB's system.
     
    Anoobis likes this.
  5. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    We can offer a margin accounts for Australian's (If you qualify) starting at $25,000 USD with access to US-listed equities and options. We offer Futures too.
     
  6. Anoobis

    Anoobis

    Ok thanks HobbyTrading that's what I assumed and just wanted more experienced brain to confirm. Normally my pattern entries are such that I enter a given order around a third of the time on a particular day. Where possible I want to be fully entered, not sitting in sidelines in cash. My stop loss risk per trade is always 1 to 2%.

    Just paranoia about being entered into extra trades after my cash is used up like I said:wtf: Would you or anyone know if they charge any little fee in that scenario, having an order you no longer have cash to enter?
     
  7. Robert, you seem like a good guy but every thread where someone asks a questions doesn't have to turn into a sales pitch to move a discussion off-topic.

    OP, without seeing your orders which I assume are not all in the same stock, I can only assume the likelihood of being filled all at once is extremely slim. If by chance there was a massive gap and all were filled, they would presumably have to liquidate or close out the overfill before day end.
     
    Anoobis likes this.
  8. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    Guilty, when it makes sense. His broker does not offer margin accounts to some foreign persons and we can, so I brought that up.
     
    Utah and dealmaker like this.
  9. IB only charges if an order gets filled (or partially filled). So any order that sits idle and is not filled will not cost you any commission.

    Additionally: if IB refuses an order due to lack of funds it will be classified as "inactive" and will stay inactive forever. In other words: it will not become active once you have received sufficient cash. You would have to re-enter that order for it to become active again.
     
    murray t turtle and Anoobis like this.
  10. d08

    d08

    You can have many stop entries open at once, exceeding your leverage. IB will fill the orders that it can, cancel the rest. If more are filled (margin violation), then 10 minutes after some positions will be auto-liquidated to bring you within limits.
     
    #10     Jul 9, 2019
    murray t turtle and Anoobis like this.