I will give an example. Say, I am a CPO, running client money in a systematic manner. God knows for a very long time it would have been conservative to put on 1 contract for say 15k margin. I keep chugging on, and Feb. 2020 hits. If I was at any other broker, my algo would have continued in it's merry way, and I will make / lose money. But if I was IB's client, trading a decent chunk of money, I have to cut down my contracts by more than 50%, making performance suffer? What am I going to tell my clients? Sorry, I chose a shitty broker?
IB Initial Margin on ES is 22,000
- Thread starter RedDuke
- Start date
Robert Morse
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anyway if im new client and watching from the outside ( from the official website of IB ) https://www.interactivebrokers.eu/i...ex=us&rgt=0&rsk=1&pm=1&rst=101006100801080808
and i read TODAY
Intraday Initial 1 Intraday Maintenance 1 Overnight Initial Overnight Maintenance
GLOBEX ES E-mini S&P 500 ES 4228.625 3382.90 8457.25 6765.80
and when i open the account, send funds , login in, i find a margin 4 times more, i'm not surprised positively.
i understand the situation is extraordinary, over any expectation but it looks a joke maybe also something different ( if you show X and the end calcutate 4X) . anyway this keep out many clients to trade.
enjoy your policy
and i read TODAY
Intraday Initial 1 Intraday Maintenance 1 Overnight Initial Overnight Maintenance
GLOBEX ES E-mini S&P 500 ES 4228.625 3382.90 8457.25 6765.80
and when i open the account, send funds , login in, i find a margin 4 times more, i'm not surprised positively.
i understand the situation is extraordinary, over any expectation but it looks a joke maybe also something different ( if you show X and the end calcutate 4X) . anyway this keep out many clients to trade.
enjoy your policy
It actually keeps going up:
Meanwhile, at AMP:
A 24 point adverse move, and a/c is toast
Meanwhile, at AMP:
A 24 point adverse move, and a/c is toast
That's the idea.
If people knew how much IB spent on customer service for accounts that run themselves into futures trouble, versus how much might be potentially *made* from such accounts, this thread would not exist.
IB used to have opening account minimums of $25k. That went away. What do you suppose happened to customer service demands when that happened?
Imagine that you are an IB stockholder. Think like a business. What would your preferred path for IB be? How can you open a viable path for small trading, retirement funds, family/friends structures, without inviting regulatory/compliance/account disasters where every $1 earned costs you $100s? It's probably not in the CFTC crowd.
Bullshit.
If IB did not want the business of "small trading" then they...
1) Should not open the types of accounts that are known and/or prone to require hand-holding.
2) Regarding futures, they should not offer reduced intraday margins in the first place.
So yea, think like a business... Who IS our customer? Who do we WANT our customer to be?
ummm... if the total account value is 1200, one adverse TICK, will cause a margin call, plus AMP has a liquidation policy as well. I'm not even counting commish and fees.
Why do people continue to think the amount of margin is the cause of bad trading?
Going cowboy is a completely different topic.
IB is hi tech low cost broker, their clients know how to handle volatility. 12K per CME is enough margin for ESM0 to cover sudden volatility. If they (IB) wish to go 100% safe why not 100K margin for 1ct ES and cease ALL trading... Also by the way I noticed recently slow data feed( stocks mainly) on their end.
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