E-Mini S&P500 margin requirements at Interactive Brokers

TOS freezes every now and then when volatility is high. I'm in Europe and it happen less often for me. My theory, I'm connected to different servers. Not everyone is affected at the same degree.

Off-topic: Last week there was a internet blackout in my region. No web surfing, web radio... all dead. I us DNS from my ISP and Google. So it wasn't an DNS issue. The only thing what was running was TOS. I have no clue how this is possible.

However, TOS is great for charting. I have some custom indicators which I can't miss. So Iwould keep TOS for charts but another broker for trade execution.
 
Data09 said:
Off-topic: Last week there was a internet blackout in my region. No web surfing, web radio... all dead. I us DNS from my ISP and Google. So it wasn't an DNS issue. The only thing what was running was TOS. I have no clue how this is possible.
More...

I had the same with Esignal or with Tradestation. Don't remember which one. Internet out but that one connection was still running. But if you close that connection too, you cannot reopen it until internet works again. So apparently you need internet to make a first connection.
 
Data09 said:
Hello

I'm located in Europe, trading with Thinkorswim but I'm tired with the bad fills and freezing platform. I just checked initial and maintenance margin requirements for the E-Mini S&P500 for overnight and intraday. Is it possible that the requirements are quite different between USA and Europe? Or do I miss something? It seems the requirements for US traders are quite higher as demanded by the CME, while European traders are much lower.

Here an example for Europe:

Intraday Initial:4228.625
Intraday Maintenance: 3382.90
Total: 7611.525 USD

Overnight Initial: 8457.25
Overnight Maintenance: 6765.8
Total: 15223.05

USA: 19511.58

Does this makes sense?

Thanks.
More...

This is exactly what even I was wondering.

After some research I have found that IB is using a Reg-T risk methodology for US traders and Portfolio Margin methodology (Based on T.I.M.S) for UK / EU traders. There is $100k balance requirement for portfolio margin accounts. Source: https://www1.interactivebrokers.com...tes/WN-UnderstandingIBMargin.php?ib_entity=in

I have however emailed IB regarding this margin discrepancy and Im waiting for their response.
 
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