Recent content by takestock

Another useful way to see your margin usage is to go to the Account Mgmt web site for IB, login, go to Reports->Supplemental->Margin Reports. It will show you how much margin you current positions are using. There are many other small cap stocks already at 100% margin rqmt. I assume they mean...

Yes the last one I received was on Nov 2nd last year. The link was for node/1988 if you want to look up the last set of symbols. I think you only receive the email if one or more of your open positions is in that list. I usually have dozens of open small cap positions so I probably receive...

I believe IB sends out this notice every quarter or so to alert traders of *new* low cap stocks they're adding to the no-margin list. The list from that link is not all the low cap stocks they don't provide margin for, just the ones that supposedly fell below the 250mil threshold recently. I...

Ah, so I'm not supposed to disagree with any policy changes IB decides to make because they always know better than me? I sure hope you don't work in customer service. I actually agree with the approach of reducing margin allowed during volatile markets and I've always felt that IB was too...

From IB: "This change is intended to recognize the well-known risks of micro and small cap stock which, relative to larger cap stocks, tend to be more volatile and less liquid, particularly in periods of elevated volatility." Two words that disprove that assumption: "Flash Crash". As we saw...

I was a little surprised they went as high as 250mil cap instead of say 100mil for this change because it makes probably 2/3rd's of listed US stocks non-marginable now at IB. And it's not like bigger caps are all that much safer lately :confused: I remember them making bank stocks...

Thank you for the clarification IBj. That matches what I assumed would be the case, although the wording on the email does indicate those with 20:1 ratios will be requested by IB to optimize. Reading that was what concerned me as that's a tough ratio I think for many automated traders to...

It's fairly clear that the formula IB used to decide who to send emails to was overly simplistic. I'm sure the point of this initial email was to get the higher bandwidth API traders to look at their systems and attempt to optimize them -- they even offer several suggestions on how to do so...

I received the same email today too, with a ratio of about 25:1 for the sample period they measured. I have no idea what timeframe they used because it doesn't match any of my logs, but oh well. My system is mostly automated, in a nutshell it sends out a bunch of orders in the morning, adjust...

Richard, Look under Configuration in TWSStart for Java Setting. I think you needed to add the new jar files into the classpath. Here's what I have: jts.jar;pluginsupport.jar;hsqldb.jar;jcommon-1.0.12.jar;jfreechart-1.0.9.jar;jhall.jar;other.jar;riskfeed.jar;rss.jar I'm on 889.4...

This MC posting came out a month ago, BTW. Such a tax would pretty much wipe out the hedge fund industry causing massive liquidation of hedge fund equity positions. Hmmm... I wonder what would happen to the stock market if hedge funds liquidate, Mark? (Hint: look at a current chart of the S&P)

Is there any research on the effect to mutual fund returns if paying a transaction tax? Maybe only a 1/2 to 2% loss against annual returns, depending on how much they churn the portfolio, but considering how poorly 401k's can keep up with inflation, that would be a killer for most folks. I...

Island is down. Is that what you're seeing?

Hmmm.... the bulletin is gone from my accounts this morning -- did IB change their mind? If so, please give us a little more advance warning of a drastic margin rule change that can create margin calls. I can just imagine hundreds of CEO's of smallcap stocks wondering why their stocks had...

Wow, every day it's a new trading challenge with IB. Although I have quite a few smallcaps, I'm far enough below the margin level for this not to affect me right now, but it may limit my ability to make some easy money with any sharp drops in small caps in the coming weeks. Is IB expecting a...