IB /Intraday Margin Gone!

jeb9999 · Jul 18, 2008

Quote from minioptions:

IB: "In light of the market volatility and the continuing turmoil in financial services stocks, IB will eliminate intraday margin reductions. Commencing at 12:00 EST today (18:00 CET), contracts which utilize value-at-risk margin models such as SPAN, Eurex, or TIMS in the commodity sub-account will be margined using the same parameters as for overnight margin. Please note that it may take up to 45 minutes for the new margin requirements to be expressed in the TWS but traders may consult the account window in the Trader Work Station to see what the overnight margin will be. We expect that intraday margin reductions will remain suspended for subsequent trading sessions and we will make further announcements as market conditions develop. Regardless of the likelihood of large, rapid changes in market conditions, we recommend that traders examine their portfolios to consider their exposure under extreme-move scenarios."

The S&P was down 20 point at midnight EST and opened down 1 point. If you trade futures with these people you never know what your magin requiremnets will be .

Here, let me help you out with IB's margin requirements. The overnight margin requirement is always the overnight margin requirement.

Please enlighten us with a list of futures brokers that do something different overnight.

minioptions · Jul 18, 2008

The point is that the day margins will be the same as the overnight margins.

BCE · Jul 18, 2008

Quote from Businessman:

This is the third time IB have done it at the market bottom.

Great contraian indicator..

Go long ES when IB announce they are raising intraday margin...

So far you'd be right.

Of course they seem to have done it with the ^VIX so high which of course is its own indicator. We'll see if this has any legs which I kind of doubt. Too much weighing on the market and economy and too much unresolved. IMHO.

Do you remember how long it took IB to lift the restrictions and return to having lower intraday margins again the last time they did this?

abxs · Aug 13, 2008

any idea when they will revert back to normal?

jeb9999 · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from abxs:

any idea when they will revert back to normal?

On most futures intraday margin reverted to normal last week. You would have to ask IB about contracts such as CL.

nassau · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from jeb9999:

On most futures intraday margin reverted to normal last week. You would have to ask IB about contracts such as CL.

we still get interuptions in the intramargins.
what we have found is the account window does not update accurately and as a result the margin is off and on.

today was the first day we did not have any issues.

w

Daal · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from jeb9999:

On most futures intraday margin reverted to normal last week. You would have to ask IB about contracts such as CL.

the top was pretty much last week. lets forget vix, IB will tell us when to cover in the next down move

jeb9999 · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from nassau:

we still get interuptions in the intramargins.
what we have found is the account window does not update accurately and as a result the margin is off and on.

today was the first day we did not have any issues.

w

Thanks for the real life margin info. I only sometimes use the reduced intraday margins. What the IB website says and what TWS does are 2 different things.

ids · Aug 13, 2008

No, Web site information is exactly correct. Keep in mind that options are still on the full margin and if you have options for the same underlying, then intraday is off.

jeb9999 · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from ids:

No, Web site information is exactly correct. Keep in mind that options are still on the full margin and if you have options for the same underlying, then intraday is off.

How can the IB web site information be EXACTLY correct when on the "Futures - Intraday Margin Requirements" page it still says in red letters "Due to the exceptional volatility of the financial markets we are temporarily suspending reduced intraday margin."