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Yes, you are correct, but the broker will not treat it as a spread. It will be treated as two separate positions: a long put and a cash-secured short put. So you would have to maintain the cash requirement. Ties up huge amounts of capital when compared to a spread in a margin account.

Yes, that is exactly what it was. It looks like it's already fixed, as of today's close. But they were using a stock symbol that had WI immediately after it.

The formula you are describing is not used to calculate the "unsettled cash." That formula is the "margin requirement" for cash-secured puts. I put it in quotes because you have a cash account, so technically it's not margin. But the formula you are describing is the amount of money you need to...

My account is still a little fouled up for a completely different reason. GSK did some sort of spinoff. I was holding 100 shares of the ADR. Now I have 100 shares of a new company called Haleon, and 80 shares of... something else, which is not showing up accurately in my account yet. It looks...

I don't think any US broker allows option spreads in a cash account, and that's a deal breaker for most option traders. A cash account simply doesn't offer the range of strategies that most experienced option traders want to use.

Legal counsel?? WTF you talkin' bout, Dude? [LOL] Musk doesn't listen to his lawyers.

Monday morning I opened a short strangle in GME. Sold short the 185C and the 180P, expiring 07/22 (today). So I log in this morning before the market opens. I am now short four 46.25 calls and four 26.25 puts. And that looks just fine... Except in the hours before the opening, the closing...

The stock borrow fees are displayed in Schwab's platform when placing an order to sell short. And they did indeed send messages informing us that the rate had changed. I wasn't paying attention. I did not think the fees could be so high, even for something hard-to-borrow.

We shorted GME for a little over two weeks. Sold 200 shares short for 116.50 on 05/27 and bought to cover for 117.50 on 06/13. Yes, it was a losing trade. Schwab has charged our account a stock borrow fee of $880.63. Is this some sort of mistake? I'd like to hear others' thoughts before I...

For federal tax purposes, a single member LLC has the same treatment as an individual, unless you have made an election to be an S-corp, or some other type of election for a different classification. So the K-1 would have the name of the LLC and its federal tax ID number, but the income and...

A single member LLC is a disregarded entity, which means that for tax purposes it doesn't exist--unless you filed an election to have it treated differently. If you did not file an election, then your trading activity will be reported on your personal tax return, as part of your form 1040.

I did not mean to imply that anyone can be a trader for tax purposes just by filling out a few forms, and that the IRS will never challenge it. They can and they do challenge it. But they don't usually challenge or deny the Form 3115, or the initial MTM election. The IRS can audit any tax...

Form 3115 is used to request a change in accounting method. And this form does indeed need to be filed in many cases when making the mark-to-market election. However, the approval is automatic for this type of accounting change. Yes, the IRS does have the power to request additional information...

You make the MTM election by attaching a statement to your tax return. There are detailed instructions in IRS Publication 550 and in IRB 99-07, which I have attached. The IRS does not respond. You don't get a letter saying you are "approved" as a trader. Doesn't work that way. You make the...

Okay, well that was just one variable. Assume for this discussion that there is no prepayment penalty. You can pay off the entire loan in full at any time, and/or make extra payments of principal at any time.

Those are interesting thoughts... but you didn't really answer the question. Assume for this discussion that the loan is a legit unsecured loan from a bank--not a loan shark, not a credit card cash advance, structured like a mortgage, fixed rate, equal payments over 30 years. How low of an...

This is not a question about margin. I am not structuring this as a survey or quiz, but I just think it might be an interesting discussion, to hear different views... If you could get an unsecured loan from a bank or some other lender--not a mortgage loan, but rather an unsecured loan that is...

So you're going to get regular money from the IRS deposited into your account? And then buy crypto with it? That sounds very different from the first bullet point, which says that If taxpayers are going to "get their refunds in cryptocurrency," why would those taxpayers then have to "buy...

I think it's very unlikely that the bonds were used as collateral. As I said earlier, I don't think they are treated as marginable securities. And if the maturity dates have passed and they are no longer earning interest, it is very unlikely that any bank or lender would accept them as a...

The US Treasury stopped issuing paper EE bonds many years ago. But if they were issued many years ago, they may still exist in paper form. It is not unusual for paper bonds to get lost or misplaced. There is a process for replacing bonds that have been lost, stolen or destroyed. It is not...