Quote from Free Thinker:
you are wrong about that. get a real broker.
No i am not, you cannot get margin for ira, so how do you write naked contracts genius? show me a broker that let you short in your ira and i will eat my words. And fidelity is just fine for those monthly trades, i actually like their option page, fast and shows all the greeks/iv in 1 shot.
Occasionally the question crops up as to exactly why people cannot go short (see the article elsewhere in the FAQ explaining short sales) in an IRA account. The restriction comes from the combination of the following three facts. First, the law governing IRAs says that if any part of an IRA is used as collateral, the entire IRA is considered distributed and thus subject to income tax and penalties. Second, the rules imposed by the Federal Reserve Board et al. say that short sales have to take place in a margin account. Third and finally, margin accounts require that you pledge the account as collateral. So if you try to turn an IRA into a margin account, you'll void the IRA; but without a margin account, you can't sell short.
Never knew it was there!