IB increases Over night Initial margin for ES

So of the people here that are severely affected... you have only 10k in account?

I don't understand the problem... they increase the margin and now you can only trade 1 future vs 2 before?

Maybe they are flushing out the low accounts that don't really generate trading fees... for me personally that's a good thing... less do-or-die gamblers that can all go bust and leave my broker with a non-recoverable loss.
 
the next flash crash is happening that is for sure, when is the great unknown. And a geopolitical event that will severely impact markets will also happen at some point. Any account that is busted, regardless of how small it is, is an additional cost to IB and subsequently its customers. Agree with you 100%.

By the way, IB's maintenance margin for ES is only 10% higher than CME's mandated one. Hence, totally aligned with the exchange. Initial margin is not about risk management but about customer preferences and hence a political and strategy decision.



JackRab said:
So of the people here that are severely affected... you have only 10k in account?

I don't understand the problem... they increase the margin and now you can only trade 1 future vs 2 before?

Maybe they are flushing out the low accounts that don't really generate trading fees... for me personally that's a good thing... less do-or-die gamblers that can all go bust and leave my broker with a non-recoverable loss.
More...
 
It's pretty clear that "they know something"...i.e. this market "transitions" from a low vol to high vol environment in a day (or maybe two), just as this market has reversed sharp sell-offs (Brexit, Trump, Italy referendum) in hours to days. August 19-24, 2015 saw the greatest percentage increase in VIX in history...again, a lot of rolling chop, go nowhere action that turned into a bloodbath (relatively speaking).

They are in the business of paranoid.
 
Yeah exactly @Zzzz1 ... I don't understand what the problem is... some people have no clue what can possibly happen. And some, even worse people, don't give a shit that they can blow-up the account and the broker is left hanging with residual losses... and by that, also you and me as their customers.

Do I really need to point out the FXCM losses due to loose margin requirements on fx trades by retail clients when the Swiss Franc went haywire a few years ago??
 
with a maintenance margin level that lies 10% above the exchange mandated one? Can you please not carry over your crazy rhetoric from the P&R threads to the regular forum. It really takes a lot of value away from threads like this.

W.J. Feathermaker III said:
...They are in the business of paranoid.
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Zzzz1 said:
with a maintenance margin level that lies 10% above the exchange mandated one? Can you please not carry over your crazy rhetoric from the P&R threads to the regular forum. It really takes a lot of value away from threads like this.
More...

Nah, I'll post where I please.
 
Zzzz1 said:
with a maintenance margin level that lies 10% above the exchange mandated one? Can you please not carry over your crazy rhetoric from the P&R threads to the regular forum. It really takes a lot of value away from threads like this.
More...

Give us the entire rundown of all of their maintenance margins across the entire spectrum of asset classes. Then tell me it's 10% above the exchange mandated one.

You seem like the perfect fade on every topic. What a tremendous commodity you are.
 
But does it even matter if it's 10% or 25% above minimums...? Are we all trading max leverage?

Why is this even a discussion...
 
JackRab said:
But does it even matter if it's 10% or 25% above minimums...? Are we all trading max leverage?

Why is this even a discussion...
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Personally, I never come close to using max leverage, however there are traders who might look up margin requirements on an intra-market spread, put in the order and find that it's some multiple of that margin. You can find numerous examples of their capricious margining, this isn't some sort of revelation.

I already posted above my rationale as to WHY they would pre-emptively raise their margin requirements (low vol begets high vol), but volpunter decided to "get offended" merely because I suggested that IB is in the "business of paranoid" (which they clearly are), and I've been a client with them for 19 years.
 
Okay, fair enough. I get the leverage with spreads is more important since the positions are larger. But wouldn't a portfolio margin account sort that out? I assume people that do large spreads have portfolio margin accounts....
 
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