I'd be glad if I did.
What you're talking about refers precisely to IBUK.
IBIE is another story.
IB customer service confirmed this.
IBUK to IBIE - what's going on?
- Thread starter LondonHedger
- Start date
I'd be glad if I did.
What you're talking about refers precisely to IBUK.
IBIE is another story.
IB customer service confirmed this.
I have still not gone into depth on this point, since only I trade futures short-term.
Nope, only for bank accounts in € -- otherwise 20k
I´ve been looking into this, and found the following:
On IBUK there are 2 kind of margin accounts: Reg-T Margin (or simply "Margin") and Portfolio Margin.
All IBIE margin accounts will be Portfolio Margin type. Reg-T Margin type no longer applies to IB EU accounts. So now you don't need to have 110K € to have margin by risk rules, which is what the Portfolio Margin would be. In theory Reg-T assigns more generic margin percentages and the Portfolio Margin is based on risk rules. It is possible that some positions may have tougher/lesser margin requirements than before.
My point was that the protection afforded by IBIE that you alluded to in your post isn't that much worse than that given by IBUK, particularly for a $1M account or for any large account that trades in futures and options.
You said earlier that your margin requirement at IBIE might (based on projection) be much higher than at IBUK. Is that still the case? Do you know if that applies to US equity or something else?
IB UK margin requirements were governed by Reg-T. Migrated margin accounts to the new entities will no longer be subject to Reg-T and will be converted to some sort of risk-based portfolio margin, hence the variation in minimum requirement. I received 50% more buying power after the transition to IBCE. I guess this is a sign I don't have enough meme stocks in my portfolio.
Just o
Just out of curiosity, when was your account migrated to IBCE? I'm still waiting for mine to be moved to IBIE.
Also did they warn you that you were about to be migrated and did it happen transparently, for instance were there any login availability issues for a short period? Did your TWS interface change, for instance did the Remaining Day Trades line disappear from your Account window in TWS?
Just out of curiosity, when was your account migrated to IBCE? I'm still waiting for mine to be moved to IBIE.
Also did they warn you that you were about to be migrated and did it happen transparently, for instance were there any login availability issues for a short period? Did your TWS interface change, for instance did the Remaining Day Trades line disappear from your Account window in TWS?
They issue an email stating the expected day of the actual transition, mentioning it would take 15-20 minutes and it would be performed after market close. Your account is unreachable at all during that short window of time. They said it would be done on the 5th of January, but they actually did it on the 6th, no biggie.
After you get the email, if you login into your account, there's a warning about the transition being in process. You cannot take any trades, but you can make withdrawals and deposits. The warning was displayed for 2 days, in my case (5th and 6th of January).
Account number changed, but usernames and passwords remained the same. The "Remaining Day Trades" disappeared, and so did the SMA values. Buying power increased by 50%. I read about others getting the opposite - a margin warning before migration. I guess it depends on how concentrated and risky the portfolio is.
Also, some features missing from TWS, like news and fundamentals explorer. Apparently it's a bug in the current version and should be fixed with the next release this month, so not sure if it's migration-related. I switched to the beta and everything was back.
After you get the email, if you login into your account, there's a warning about the transition being in process. You cannot take any trades, but you can make withdrawals and deposits. The warning was displayed for 2 days, in my case (5th and 6th of January).
Account number changed, but usernames and passwords remained the same. The "Remaining Day Trades" disappeared, and so did the SMA values. Buying power increased by 50%. I read about others getting the opposite - a margin warning before migration. I guess it depends on how concentrated and risky the portfolio is.
Also, some features missing from TWS, like news and fundamentals explorer. Apparently it's a bug in the current version and should be fixed with the next release this month, so not sure if it's migration-related. I switched to the beta and everything was back.
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Well, as I said I'll be really happy to know that I'm wrong.
I wrote to IB customer service asking a direct question: is €20k the maximum compensation that can be expected in case of IBIE solvency problems?
At no point did they give "no" for an answer. Their reply was on the line that IB is a very strong company, that they can afford several means of compensation, provision of capital, etc.
So I asked to please enumerate what those means are.
"It's all in The Documents".
To me, this means that the transition from IBUK to IBIE cannot provide something comparable for example to what SIPC does, that is a more substantial compensation enforced by the local law, aside from those that the company can provide: if they go bust, by definition they cannot easily do that.
Furthermore, the first IB email warning about the impending transition clearly stated ("important consequences") that the compensation means would have been lower.
I would have stayed with IBUK if I could.