Quote from surfer25:
Call them and ask.
NOT always a useful option.
IB will incorporate CBOE's SPAN into retail accounts' margin requirements WITHOUT WARNING ~12pm, and again at ~12am. This will SEVERELY SCREW your available dollars AND your ability to trade.
After the most recent FOMC announcement, I got severely tagged in ES options positions on the upside. By 4:15pm ET, I had moved, rolled, shucked and jived my way back towards the land of the living, with a 36% "cushion" remaining for further work in the morning when spreads re-tightened.
Relieved, I relaxed to patiently watch the Asia reaction at 8pm-9:30pm ET. Nothing there! Cool! Theta ticks away..... (these were weeklys)... All positions improve.... ("Tick-tock tick-tock, Clarice!")
If you don't allow a daily log-off of TWS (initially set for midnight), your accounting numbers for the following day can be pretty iffy, so around midnight, I logged off to allow TWS to re-set. When I logged back on at 00:12am ET, my "cushion" had gone from +0.36 to -0.17, the TWS banners were all flashing red, and I was in a severe liquidity shortage.
"Hold on," I thought -- just a little, typical, TWS glitch. No worries. Log off TWS; reboot entire computer[!]; log onto alternate accounts; etc etc, NOTHING is changing this "deficit", BUT NEITHER ARE MY POSITIONS BEING LIQUIDATED?????
Can I actually trade? {Attempted.} Nope. Truly frantic now.
Something's up, and yet -- no liquidations (of dozens of ES credit spreads on top of and below the market).....
I get on a chat with IB personnel, and every 30 minutes, "The Chat" is "reset" {auto-logged-out}, and I have to explain things all over again to the new respondent.
What I wanted was
1) An explanation of what happened between 11:55pm and 00:12am.
2) An evaluation of my then-existing resources/opportunities to trade (since the old deck had apparently been reshuffled!!)
3) An expectation of when/why/how this might EVER happen again.
I got none of those. I got
1) This is SPAN and SPAN happens. (Yes it does, but what triggers?? What happened to 9:30/4:15 margin rules?? (Which I was well inside!)
2) What are the rules on remaining (BUT NEGATIVE?!?!?) resources, such that I can execute continuing, revenue-replacing trades?? NO INFO.
3) NO explanation or ability to plan. "Just trade, and find out."
In a 36-hour period, I executed 10 days worth of trades. (If I could have that period's commissions as net revenue instead? I'd be pleased.) I NEARLY escaped flat after the market moved against me post-FOMC. BUT I WOULD'VE BEEN PROFITABLE by a grand percentage, had I had the resources at 9:30am Thursday that I had at 11:55pm the previous evening.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever been SPANNED.
But no notice as to why/how/when SPAN vetoes/supersedes normal, WRITTEN, LAUDED, TWS "real-time" margins??? What a crock of shit. (This comment comes from a 7 year IB trader/fan.)
The overnight IB personnel? They gave it a shot, but it was obvious to me that the question and SPAN were both more esoteric to them than to me. I don't find even that to be very troubling. ("Esoterica" happens!) But that there is no warning, no notice, AND THEREFORE NO EXPECTATION of SPAN incorporation -- That's just rotten.
So again, on something about which IB personnel and users remain ignorant:
IB will incorporate CBOE's SPAN into retail accounts' margin requirements WITHOUT WARNING ~12pm, and again at ~12am. (And) This will SEVERELY SCREW your available dollars AND your ability to trade.
