I have an account where 100% of my money is long in ETF. Fidelity gives me about 60% of my total account as "portfolio margin" to trade options. I use that to trade butterflies and calendars on indexes. Is that pretty much industry standard ? are there brokers with better portfolio margin ? The 5 places I would consider opening accounts would be Fidelity, Interactive brokers, Td ameritrade (soon to become merged with schwab in 2023), Tasty Trades. Any thoughts on the following questions; 1. Who gives the best portfolio margin ? 2. Lowest in commissions and trading costs ? 3. Best fills and executions on trades ? 4. Trading platform software ease of use Thanks
I thought for stocks and ETFs that are listed in the US one only has to put up 25% margin. Does that not leave you with 75% of your capital to use elsewhere during RTH? And if you must ask this does this not tell you that you are overleveraged? If you hold other positions overnight your broker can adjust portfolio margin at any time of their choosing and liquidate parts of your positions...
skalmadi, We also provide Portfolio Margin but our requirements are a little higher. My brief responses. #1. There is no best, there is who offers the best for your needs. #2. We are among the lowest but might not be THE lowest. #3. Anyone that claims this will have problems proving it. We pride ourselves on offering fast order entry and fast execution. On some of our platforms we offer both our SMART route and the ability to choose your option designation. IMO this combination is the best of both. #4. We offer platforms targeting the active trader. Like most, they take a little time and effort to learn, but are worth it. We offer Lightspeed Trader, Sterling Trader Pro, Realtick and CBOE Silexx.
I think it depends on your trading style. I think @guru used to use IBKR and went to TD for better margin treatment for his trading style. Personally, I have been with IBKR and have a really tough time using up anywhere near my full margin. Right now, I'm only at 40% of my max buying power and most of my positions expire this coming week. I constantly feel like I'm not taking on enough risk and leaving something on the table.
I heard a rumor this week that after the full integration of TD Ameritrade into Charles Schwab, CS wants to stop offering PM. Has anyone with a TDA PM account heard anything like that?
I don't see anything about the cost of borrowing. There's an ad that runs asking about margin cost that claims IB is at least 1/2 the cost of the other brokers.
1. unless each firm displays their methodology you won't know but you can simulate in a paper account at IBKR. You can get up to 6:1 but you have concentration risk and hence will not get to that level holding one position. 2. I'd say IBKR if you are including execution quality (and are doing decent sized and not $100 orders) and interest cost as well. You are using margin and interest cost should be a large factor. 3. see #2. Look under our investor relation page for execution cost stats. 4. some say Toemaytoe some say tamato
I downloaded the software and logged in to paper trading. No option to change margin to Portfolio Margin.