IB: To sweep or not to sweep?

[johnstac]

I opened a new account with Interactive Brokers last night. It's been about 3 years since I closed my last one. In the setup it asks if I want to sweep and it also gave me an option (but I forget what that option was at the moment). On the site in parenthesis, it says that if I plan on pattern day trading, they recommend I do sweep. Can someone tell me what they are talking about and is there a normal action here?

 

[johnstac]

No one knows about this part of the setup process at IB? I thought it was quite common.

 

[JamesL]

Some previous discussion on this topic:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=233565

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=236101

It's not a straight yes or no answer - this has changed from when you were previously a client where they swept everything and you never had to worry about it.

 

[comintel]

You have the choice of sweeping idle cash to your futures account or to your stock account.

If you only trading stocks and stock options, the obvious choice is the default, keep all cash in your stock account and sweep any idle cash to it. That way SIPC insurance applies.