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I didn’t use the words “worst case” I was simply saying since we only have one example of anyone ever losing any of their deposit in a futures account that we can just use that. As a trader I don’t claim to “know” anything about anything, I merely assign logical probabilities. I...

In my opinion, it is highly unlikely that Penson will go under in a way that would cause customers to lose their deposits. But just in case I keep the majority of my account in the FDIC insured securities side of TDA/thinkorswim. Per MFG if you guess that a 30% haircut or so is about as bad as...

I have no idea what we need to do to qualify our excess funds in the securities side being included with SIPC, but I would assume if you do a few trades they would have a hard time denying it but until it happens we will never know. That is why I have my excess funds in an FDIC account with...

The assumption here is that a customer opens an account with a broker (IB, thinkorswim, or any other that allows both securities and futures trading) and sets up everything correctly so they have both securities and commodities trading permissions. Then that trader proceeds to just trade in the...

IB-AN, I understand what you are saying by giving the choice of where excess cash goes to the customer. Can you address what the lawyer at the SIPC told me, in that they would consider not covering cash in a securities account if it was seen to be just used as a holding place for a...

Did IB post anything more on this?

Interactive Brokers itself has said they have stopped the automatic sweeps from accounts and changed their website, and the other members on that thread confirm this. Are you stating that your account is somehow treated different than everyone else, and contrary to IB’s own employees? Also...

Not anymore. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=233565

As an FYI, thinkorswim/TDA has a choice that you can have your cash be in an FDIC covered account. I would recommend anyone with them choose that option because FDIC just covers you, they don’t try to find ways to not cover you like the SIPC.

Well, I just talked to an attorney at the SIPC, and while not able to give me any specifics, she did say that a trustee in charge of a brokerage liquidation could view a trader who only trades futures and just uses the securities account to hold excess cash could be considered a futures only...

Wow, nothing like be a fanboy who can’t think for himself. “If IB does anything ever, it has to be because they were forced to do it and everything they do is best for us – that is common sense.” My point is simply that you are stating as fact that a governmental body forced IB to...

I stated this once already, but here it is again. TD Ameritrade/TOS which uses Penson for futures has not stopped their auto sweeps out of the futures back to the securities account, and have stated that they are not planning any changes.

Why is everyone assuming that the SIPC suddenly told IB they could not do it but they have not told TD Ameritrade anything?

I just sent an email to thinkorswim, and they stated that they continue to auto sweep excess funds from your Penson futures account back to your TDA securities account. Since they have not made any changes you have to wonder why IB suddenly, and without notice, put their customers at more risk.

No offense but anyone using TOS and claiming to be a professional trader would have already set their quotes to real time and allocated more memory to the platform. TOS has never had tick for tick data and I don’t think ever plans to, which is the same as IB. They both provide snapshot data...

Couple points: PM margin per the OCC is not that hard to figure out or anticipate if you know what you are doing; figuring out IBs margin on top of the OCC is not that easy as even they have admitted; but you are right that if a firm with liquidate you based on erroneous trades then you have a...

The “process” is brokers at the firm throwing in orders as fast as they can because the firm is panicking. It will be neither efficient nor pretty, your only protection at TOS, IB or any other broker is to not let your account get close to their limits.

They will tell you that they normally don’t, which is true, and as opposed to IB which does it all the time. However, TOS will and does auto liquidate your account when they panic. Which means you will get a bunch of market orders without any notification, but if you read any broker’s...

Knowing what your margin requirement will be is important, so you have to bug your broker as much as possible to find out what exactly their rules are. But if you don’t over leverage you should never come close to those requirements except in extreme circumstances, so knowing “about” what...

Knowing what your TIMS requirement will be is no big deal if you understand options and are already modeling your risk based on the current vol surface – which should be a prerequisite to trading options. The problem comes in when dealing with all the specific rules and restrictions of your...