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Yah, I already decided I was going to move even if they backed away from this policy entirely. I can't risk that they implement something else in the future on a whim. It does seem like the either read this thread or listened to customer feedback, to a point.

They made some changes to the policy but not enough to help me. It's good they eliminated prefs, closed end funds, and etfs. Email below: As a follow-up to a communication issued last Friday, please note that we will be implementing a change to our margin policy whereby stocks which...

lol @ junk stocks. Every company in the world with a market cap less than $250 million is junk?

And even if you could "deal with it", it's simply impossible to do in 48 hours for some of us. I own a large portfolio that would take 2-3 weeks to liquidate at the earliest. There is no reason they could not have given us more time to implement this completely arbitrary change. In the...

This isn't a fucking game! It's the way I make my living! And yes, I will adapt. Can you not read? I am changing brokers. But it's amazing to me that some of you just say "deal with it". That's really not the point of this thread. Of course I and others will have to deal with it...

Who are you to tell me how to invest? I use margin in a very complicated way. Capital structure arbitrage, hedging, etc. I can assure you I have done very well. Just because I'm using leverage doesn't mean I'm an idiot.

All you have to do is listen to the last conference call and you will see TP is totally focused on the broker side of the business. He doesn't care about the market making side. He says they need the market making side for the technology to grow the broker side. I am also an IBKR...

http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/1788

Correct. It's a fantastic business. Sticky and very profitable. But if this rule goes into effect, my entire account will be transferred by the end of October. I've already started the process of looking at prime brokers. Sad, I really like IB too.

I guess if you short sub $250m market cap stocks you need 100% maintenance capital.

Yes, and it's declining rapidly and is not the case anymore. Further, Wall Street has completely wrote off this division and gives them no value for it beyond book value. Trust me on this one. The company is ALL about the broker these days.

I follow IBKR. Wall Street wants them to grow their broker business and doesn't care AT ALL about their market making business. In fact, Wall Street wants them to wind it down and return the capital to shareholders. The future (and present) of IB is brokerage. They would never sacrifice...

haha jayre, you're a bit misguided here. they are not auto liquidating to profit off of their customers - that's just insane. they would MUCH rather you remain a customer and continue trading and making commissions. now, that doesn't mean that they do some really stupid stuff to...

Yah, that's really what it comes down to. This is an absurd, baseless, rule they put in place. They advertised low margin rates in financial papers almost daily. They attracted clients based on their rates. And overnight, they cut them off to a vast majority of equities. It's just...

No other prime broker or e-broker for that matter has made this change. Further, they just borrow from the fed hence why their rates are against fed funds. There is absolutely no restrictions on the type of security they (or their client) can borrow against, however, if the client loses all...

Businesses don't make mistakes? Have you heard of New Coke? How about Netflix? They have $4+ Billion in shareholder equity. Your account was never and will never be at risk. You guys love to talk about how IB protects you with their auto liquidation, with their bullshit overnight...

Good question. They say "Please note that this list is subject to periodic update and accounts holders are advised to utilize the 'Check Margin' feature within the TWS to confirm the margin requirement on any particular security. " So yah, if your account has a few margin securities near...

Isn't everything someone posts their opinion? Man, the IB shills on here are hilarious. How anyone can step back and think this margin change is fair and/or good for their business is beyond me.

Yah, small etf's are a great example. A new ETF with less than $250 million in assets that is extremely low risk (think short term govmt bond fund) would be non-marginable. The entire rule change is pure lazy.

Actually not true. The diluted market cap, adjusted for all the shares that are private and part of the partnership, is >$5b. The CEO owns 85+% of the company. The market cap you see on yahoo is only the float available to non insiders. It's a very big and healthy company. Even more...