No Futures Trading Margin on IB today

C

Chubbly

If you were planning on trading at IB today take note



Interactive Brokers Bulletin Board

To all traders:

Tue Feb 6 04:11:44 2018 EST

Due to the current market situation we have removed intraday margin for all futures for today.
 
After the '87, crash and until the markets settled down, Refco required $50,000 margin per contract.... for the same reason IB is taking their action.
 
They don't want retail traders coming in with weak hands if the market continues going crazy. I didn't look at what overnight maintenance margins are like.

This is one day I am glad to be flat.
 
Chubbly said:
They don't want retail traders coming in with weak hands if the market continues going crazy. I didn't look at what overnight maintenance margins are like.

This is one day I am glad to be flat.
More...

Correct. Weak hands on low margin make for a lot of "forced" plays and higher volatility.

IB's margins, both initial and maintenance are higher than exchange minimums... and therefore more conservative. By eliminating maintenance margins, they are being more conservative yet. That's all good in my book. Too easy for "things" to get out of hand in this kind of environment.

A friend asked me "how you playing this"? I told him, "not". Too crazy and wild for my constitution. No worries, will soon be back to relatively normal.
 
Last edited:
I never like IB. too many sudden changes, very unfriendly trading platform, very strange/complex/odd english , very poor leverage and there are some bugs!

in fact, its trading platform hardly changed (or rather improved) over the past few decades.
 
Ib is notorious for auto liquidation. They flushed millions of dollars at the close forcing people out of their positions . They raise margin requirement right when you need it the most and auto liquidate ... Just fyi they are a bucket shop...
 
Dunno what it is about, I didn't receive any notice and the margins look fine when i prepare an order, account maintenance margin hasn't moved either.
Did IB just removed Intraday margin and apply overnight margin in their place (I'd likely not notice it) ?
 
luisHK said:
Dunno what it is about, I didn't receive any notice and the margins look fine when i prepare an order, account maintenance margin hasn't moved either.
Did IB just removed Intraday margin and apply overnight margin in their place (I'd likely not notice it) ?
More...

I was searching high and low for announcement from IB but can't find it.
few hours ago, there was some margin restriction while using IB.
Just now, I found that it was back to normal.

They must be running some secret operation.
 
cdcaveman said:
Ib is notorious for auto liquidation. They flushed millions of dollars at the close forcing people out of their positions . They raise margin requirement right when you need it the most and auto liquidate ... Just fyi they are a bucket shop...
More...

Out of curiosity, who do you recommend as a broker?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top