Ib serving notice to all you gamblers and risk takers

[eastern_warrior]

Im on RegT and i cant say how much disappointed I am with IB letssay you have 20% cash. Now everything falls 20% instead of sitting it out you are FORCED to sell when everything dropps 20% (their buffer). It sucks big time. They even refuse the change to a cash account in this moment. Had I been at TD Ameritrade everything would have went smooth but no, the best retail broker among all just makes you eat your losses.

What you are saying makes no sense. No one forces you to use margin. If you don't borrow, you wouldn't be forced to close and it would act like a cash account.

 

[ET180]

Use Portfolio margin!

Portfolio margin is not affected?

From the e-mail that they sent out:

We will be deploying re-assessments of margin requirements more frequently and in some cases, on an intraday basis. Clients with positions having exposure to large moves in most asset classes (equity, energies, capital markets, forex, bonds) may expect higher capital requirements on short notice and should consider managing their risk and capital positions in their accounts to anticipate such changes.

Did they actually increase margin requirements for portfolio margin accounts? I can't tell and no where near using up all my margin, but just curious.

 

[Ryan81]

Portfolio margin is not affected?

Did they actually increase margin requirements for portfolio margin accounts? I can't tell and no where near using up all my margin, but just curious.

I'm not sure either, as I have PM, but rarely if ever use any more leverage than would be available to me if I wasn't on PM. I did get the following notice... But it doesn't really affect me.

Dear Client,

In response to extreme market volatility and substantially increased risk sentiment in global markets, we are taking the following steps with immediate effect:

1. Intraday margin discounts remain suspended until further notice.
2. Liquidation deferrals: the buffer for activation of liquidations is currently 5%, but may be reduced further as market conditions warrant [Background: under normal market conditions IBKR usually delays liquidations for a period of time during the active trading session when an account is only slightly (less than 10%) under its financial requirements to allow clients to individually manage their risk reduction activities].
3. We will be deploying re-assessments of margin requirements more frequently and in some cases, on an intraday basis. Clients with positions having exposure to large moves in most asset classes (equity, energies, capital markets, forex, bonds) may expect higher capital requirements on short notice and should consider managing their risk and capital positions in their accounts to anticipate such changes.

Interactive Brokers Client Services

 

[qaz]

Not for me. When my exposure expands dramatically, it's always diversified, so their risk control measures are highly dysfunctional for me. I mean if I'm long index and short a equities (with positive beta) for example, and all are treated as risk increasing trades, where is the logic in that?
I understand that many are heavily gambling, especially nowadays and those traders need to be controlled by the brokers as they cannot or will not do it themselves. But to throw everyone in the same boat is "unfair".

IB should track every trader's portfolio drawdown during volatile periods and segregate them accordingly. IB reps please take note of this feedback.

 

[risknav]

I received the bulletin, both in TWS and by email.

I will share one observation that has occurred over the past few days – and for context my positions are only futures and FOPs, so margined under SPAN rules, though IB’s house margin in volatile times will always be significantly higher than the exchange minimums.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been in negative excess liquidity “on-and-off” but mostly “on” for the last few trading days, and for those who don’t know what that means – I’ve received a margin call from IB, though perhaps not the actual exchange (due to the margin spread between IB and the exchange) and they “have not” liquidated any positions as per normal rules.

I’ll track back a bit, one position was liquidated Thursday at like 6:01PM EST and rightfully so, my excess liquidity was down “way more” than during the other times – most likely due to house/exchange margin adjustments.

Back to my point – though IB has been changing risk and margin parameters on the fly (and I don’t blame them – protecting themselves is essentially protecting everyone, clients included) I’ve noticed some flexibility within the risk and margin system that is not normally present.

For example, if my account was negative excess liquidity and they issued the “red” notice, I may be given until 4PM EST to shore up the account, but generally I won’t get much time, and if the amount is large (large is defined by a calculation only IB knows) liquidation orders happen almost instantly after the notice.

Anyway, I’d love to hear if anyone else has seen/been in this scenario also?



Trade wisely folks – I think this is going to get far worse before it gets better. Unfortunately.

 

[ValeryN]

My algo account with IB didn't use much margin 1-13th of March. Up to ~50% of NetLiquidation. No warnings or liquidations at that level.

Those changes will impact folks who are heavy margin users. Considering volatility, it's understandable why IB is doing this.

 

[d08]

IB should track every trader's portfolio drawdown during volatile periods and segregate them accordingly. IB reps please take note of this feedback.

Sure, be sarcastic. But the model isn't nearly as good as it should be. Obviously I didn't advocate for individual monitoring of every trader.

 

[tonyf]

I received the bulletin, both in TWS and by email.

I will share one observation that has occurred over the past few days – and for context my positions are only futures and FOPs, so margined under SPAN rules, though IB’s house margin in volatile times will always be significantly higher than the exchange minimums.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been in negative excess liquidity “on-and-off” but mostly “on” for the last few trading days, and for those who don’t know what that means – I’ve received a margin call from IB, though perhaps not the actual exchange (due to the margin spread between IB and the exchange) and they “have not” liquidated any positions as per normal rules.

I’ll track back a bit, one position was liquidated Thursday at like 6:01PM EST and rightfully so, my excess liquidity was down “way more” than during the other times – most likely due to house/exchange margin adjustments.

Back to my point – though IB has been changing risk and margin parameters on the fly (and I don’t blame them – protecting themselves is essentially protecting everyone, clients included) I’ve noticed some flexibility within the risk and margin system that is not normally present.

For example, if my account was negative excess liquidity and they issued the “red” notice, I may be given until 4PM EST to shore up the account, but generally I won’t get much time, and if the amount is large (large is defined by a calculation only IB knows) liquidation orders happen almost instantly after the notice.

Anyway, I’d love to hear if anyone else has seen/been in this scenario also?



Trade wisely folks – I think this is going to get far worse before it gets better. Unfortunately.

Did the position IB liquidated appear in the daily transaction statement?

 

[qaz]

Sure, be sarcastic. But the model isn't nearly as good as it should be. Obviously I didn't advocate for individual monitoring of every trader.

IB is already tracking individual's account programmatically. I am on the fence on this issue.

 

[risknav]

Did the position IB liquidated appear in the daily transaction statement?

Yes, it did appear in the daily statement, and furthermore I was logged into TWS about to make the same trade (liquidation) myself but the risk system beat me too it.