Insane margin on DAX
- Thread starter samovar
- Start date
It is worthwhile to notice that the red colour question mark next to the words "Margin Requirements" show a pop up window if you hover over it. The pop up window reads like a disclaimer, saying that the listed value can deviate from the actual value at the time you place an order. This can be verified by placing a "what-if order" instead of a real order. I tried it and found that in this case the values match.
The listed values (e.g. 15.736 for Intraday Initial Margin) are in the instrument's currency, in this case Euro.
Really? They are all more or less similar... you need to look at underlying value. Margin is related to that and sometimes increased on volatility.
It's no different to ES or ESTX50 or HSI...
mini dax isn't really interesting... flow goes to the main Dax future.
I compared the DAX and mini DAX futures. Mini DAX has a five times smaller multiplier. And the margin requirements at IB are also exactly five times smaller.
I didn't see much difference in daily trade volume between DAX and mini DAX.
What's the symbol for mini-DAX? I can't find it. Tried "FDXM" too. I can't find via TWS any of the products @patrickrooney mentioned.
That is terrible UI! I've been using TWS for years and never noticed that!
Also, once you add it, it's impossible to distinguish between this symbol and the one with the 25 multiplier - they both look identical in the Financial Instrument column:
Attachments
That's horrible, someone in their IT department deserves a spanking. A very similar "feature" led to Bear Stearns trading 4.5 yards worth of S&P futures into the cash close back in 2002 (I think).
I agree with you that this is not a good solution. It is prone to customers making errors. I've seen similar things at a few other instruments as well, where the only way to distinguish is by selecting the correct multiplier.
The only thing you can do to verify that you have selected the correct instrument is by hovering your mouse on the instrument name and double click. A pop-up window appears with some more instrument details. If I'm not mistaken are the multiplier, and margin requirements shown (among some other parameters).