Quote from somedudetrader:
IBj has finally given some answers which I have been asking. It seems like liquidation was somehow triggered by my cash kept in Canadian dollars. This was never confirmed by anyone else before, and I'm glad IBj has stepped in to clarify. I'm surprised that my cash kept in Canadian has actually triggered liquidation and not at all because of the wide spread of the option positions, so I will be waiting for IB to come up with the exact math on that. I'm sure international traders would be interested.
As I mentioned before, I am Canadian and keep my cash in Canadian dollars. On the day of liquidation these were my positions, also as mentioned:
- x amount of June 119 SPY puts
- x amount of June 114 SPY short puts
- y amount of May 40 USO puts
- y amount of May 37 USO short puts
- small amount of short FX position in CAD/USD
- cash (Canadian)
Whoever is knowledgeable on the IB platform could tell that the FX position would be hidden by default, thus I mentioned that only after some digging. My Canadian cash is not a position thus does not show up in the Portfolio page nor the FX Portfolio.
Now that IBj has came out and basically confirmed that IB did liquidate at the ridiculous prices as mentioned, there should be no question in the validaty of the liquidation prices. What if the spread at the time was 0.01 and 9999? I personally would like the answer to that as the prices executed were ridiculous any way you see it. I will let you guys know what type of resolution will be taken by IB as soon as I get it. As of yet, the only concrete response from IB I got so far was the one we all see from IBj.
CAD (as your un-leveraged long base currency) didn't move enough to cause a USD-based product liquidation, and your leveraged-long USDCAD would've have covered any CAD base-currency exposure.
What is "small amount" of long USDCAD? 100k units, perhaps?
Edit: I don't think you're comprehending the impact of your leverage. Thanks for posting the liq notice, unfortunately, it doesn't tell us much. There are TWS bulletins that precede the liq-notice that would mention the trade that caused the liquidation.
You blotted-out the account number, so I can't understand why you're concerned with account safety. Perhaps a public thread isn't best-practice if you're that paranoid.
Absolutely my last request... did you go long USDCAD last Thursday, and if so, was it between 2:30 and 2:50 pm EDT?