PUT options liquidated at worst possible prices

Quote from Coolio:

ZD -

Even so, that spread was a profitable one. Why would IB wipe out their customer like that? If the spread was now worth $5.00 ($500 per contract .. why not just liquidate the whole spread and take that customer's profitable positon to pay for his unprofitable ones? Why make the situation worse?

And now, they're being slammed right here in public .... how many $ thousands will get sucked out of their firm due to their robo-liquidator software.

Friday AM the options markets were up and running perfectly smooth.

The most disturbing thing about this is the lack of human interaction and this robo-liquidator program (probably programmed by the retard nephew of the IB CEO).

whether the spread is profitable is irrelevant in a regular margin account. the vertical spreads are deemed to have zero value for margin purposes. . if op had stock positions which required auto liquidation then the stock positions had to be liquidated. if mispricing occurred on the option position eg the sp120 put is worth less than the 110put the system has to be set to ignore this kind of situation and not make a margin call.
the problem is in a mixed account stock and options. if liquidation in the stocks does not meet requirements does IB have the right to liquidate option positions. the answer is probably yes but it seems fairly obvious that it should not be done automatically or at all.
 
Quote from Cdntrader:Huh?? you've just described exactly why I love IB. That's their whole buisness model. I assume you are not a client
Me too. I am longtime client, and the auto-liquidation is good. With a ironclad guarantee that it works logically. That didn't happen, and people who fucked up (IB) should now make the customer whole. If they can't program one that doesn't do this, then they should not be using one. We the clients are not beta-testers of buggy software
 
Quote from One:

Unfortunately, that is precisely what the OP claims happened.

i reread op's original post. it does not say that he didn't have other positions.
if pricing of fully paid for vertical spread created a liquidation issue then it becomes IB's problem. if the stock position created an auto liquidation the answer is the same because even if ib has the legal right to close option position people will eventually not have mixed accounts. it is hard to believe that ib would liquidate options to meet problems resulting from stock issues.

the op needs to clarify .
 
Quote from Cdntrader:

Huh?? you've just described exactly why I love IB. That's their whole buisness model. I assume you are not a client.

No human has interacted with my account since I opened it 8 years ago .

it is a win win situation for both parties
 
Quote from piezoe:

Somedude, Opt789 is absolutely correct if the situation is exactly as you describe. IB must make you whole. The fine print will not protect them from a glitch in their software in this instance. This is not a case were the damages you suffered were beyond their control. You probably signed an arbitration agreement when you opened your account. You might have no choice but to get an attorney involved, but try to avoid that. Follow Opt789's advice. And please be persistent. Start with phone calls, but if that doesn't very promptly lead to a satisfactory resolution, put every subsequent action in writing and keep careful records. And please let us all know how this turns out. If IB gives you the run around we want to know that. The right thing for them to do is apologize and correct your account balance.

This brings up a related point. It seems when i opened my current account there was a footnote (small type!) connected to the arbitration agreement stating that I was not required to sign the agreement. I don't think I did as a matter of fact. Does anyone know if SEC regs do not permit brokers to force clients to agree to arbitration as a condition of opening an account? If so, I would think it is better not to sign these agreements, as one could always go to arbitration in any case.

IB liquidation bots had no understanding of option spreads some years ago. It is really bad that it still has not fixed it.

If those who suffer damage do not demand IB to make them whole, IB will never fix its over-zealous stupid robots.

I closed my margin account with IB since. Still use IB for cash trades and data feed.

I still wander if IB would ever program some option logic into their bots.
 
Quote from Cdntrader:

Huh?? you've just described exactly why I love IB. That's their whole buisness model. I assume you are not a client.

No human has interacted with my account since I opened it 8 years ago .

So you'll love a robot buying back a short option @ market and selling a long option @ .01 at huge loss in the middle of a market crash on a spread really worth 5.00 ?

What's to love about that? Again, this is more evidence that neither IB nor ther clients like Cdntrader know what a option spread is, never mind a bearish put vertical now ITM (a proiftable trade).
 
It proves nothing about cdn trader's knowledge. he is 100% right that no human interaction is the ideal situation.

with all the liquidations that likely occurred in the last few days no one else has mentioned a parallel situation. what does that tell you?

if there were are no other special factors involved the OP for the moment was just unlucky. the situation will be resolved
 
why is it so difficult for some of you to understand IB has NO LOGIC in their liquidation engine, once you are in the red, it will just randomly select your position and submit a market order to close them doesnt matter if it's hedged options or not. "HOPING" it will net increase your excess, if it doesnt, it will continue to do that until there is no position left, then if your net is still negative, they will notify you to wire the negative amount into the account to get 0 balance.

I seriously doubt IB will give a shit or change anything based on a few posts on ET. If the OP takes it to third party, they will probably settle with him since it was just 10k, and not change anything to their system.

So just know how the liquidation engine process works, yes it's crap but still have to deal with it, you can set the liquidate last flags as mentioned or i think switch to PM margin vs reg t will also help, although dont have personal experience how the liquidation engine reacts (if any different) when you are in the red.
 
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