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I don't trade futures intraday, but it appears that exchange minimums only apply to positions held overnight. If a position is closed the same day it is opened, the margin requirement, if any, is set by the broker. This is for retail trading. Proprietary trading has its own rules.

Almost ... It's $5k per contract. But that can change with little notice. Also, your broker will get alarmed if you put a large portion of your account value at risk. I would not recommend going much over 20-25%. If you get an adverse move, you will have to come up with more cash FAST, or...

As FroggerMan states, gearing is $50/point, and the e-mini S&P500 trades in quarter points (i.e. ticks). The minimum margin (i.e. performance bond) requirement is set by the exchange, but brokers can require more. It looks like the margin is currently $5k...

I have done deposits by wire in the past with no problem. Wire transfers are apparently an anachronism requiring significant human interaction. Now that ACH transfers are available in both directions, there doesn't seem to be any reason to use wire transfers anymore. I don't see how you...

The IB paper trader is amazing in that it works as well as it does. But the fills bear no relationship in price or time to real world trading. It is good for testing order entry, but misleading for simulating strategies. Making money with the paper trader means nothing.

IRS instructions for Form 8949 are included in the instructions for Schedule D. It says this on page D-8: "Instead of reporting each of your transactions on a separate line of Form 8949, you can report them on an attached statement containing all the same information as Form 8949 and in a...

Your summary sounds pretty comprehensive. I'm waiting for my Form 8949 because I think I will need it to complete my return. There is no point in starting until I have everything I need. In my case, I usually do a few thousand trades. But I recently switched to trading futures. I...

What IB could do that would be a big help to me, and probably many others, would be to make available the raw data (particularly matched purchases and sales) that are used to prepare the 1099s and 8949s. That data may be available via FLEX reports which I haven't looked at in a long time. What...

In previous years, *all* transactions were uncovered, but we still had to identify wash sale adjustments and dig out the cost basis for each affected trade. I don't see that this year will be much more work. It's just different, and understanding the requirements will take some time, patience...

One-percent risk on a $30k account means risking 1% of $30,000 (i.e. $300). The number of shares you buy will depend on the price of the stock and the distance you are willing to let it run against you before you bail. You should factor in slippage so you don't exceed your risk tolerance in a...

Most of the time FF9 works well on my Win7 (64-bit) system, but last night it froze while trying to print a large website. FF printing has always been crappy, but FF is still my preferred browser because of the add-ons. For the OP, I recommend trying to identify what is running (add-ons...

Interesting. . . The statement by the NFA clearly indicates that sweeping cash from commodities to securities strips away "segregated account" status. But the funds missing in the MF Global failure had segregated account status, and that protection is very much in question. The statement...

Is that a recent change? I never saw that page before. It looks like sweeps are back.

I think you are mistaken about this. The distinction is between "securities" and "commodities" (i.e. futures), not between cash and margin. A universal account at IB gives you both securities and futures sub-accounts, but you don't have to use both. The securities sub-account has SIPC and...

I think Telechart (http://www.worden.com/) does what you want for stocks, though the fundamental data is not readily accessible through the SDK. I have used Telechart for several years. There other service you might look into, which I have not used but may in the futures, is EODData...

As we are all now painfully aware, sovereign debt is not always low-risk. Will we be able to specify which assets classes are to be avoided (e.g. Greek bonds)? I see that SIPC says that accounts are not insured against fraud or mismanagement (http://www.stanford-antigua-sec-lawsuit.com/)...

I asked about that and was told that funds will be swept to cover a deficit on the securities side, they just won't be automatically swept nightly. What I don't know is whether my buy order (i.e. triggering a deficit) will be accepted and the sweep done in realtime. They seem to indicate it...

Thanks, this is good to know. I just talked with IB customer service, and the rep confirmed that the policy has changed and that the reps don't know any more than what has been posted here. He "guessed" that the change had something to do with the situation regarding MF Global. Out of...

The biggest catch is that the commissions are quite a bit higher for customer-routed orders. My experience has been that Smart routing does a pretty good job of speed and price.

Your cash well be reduced by the amount of your loss, plus a commission for settling the trade, and the position will disappear. All this happens overnight tonight.