Quote from hajimow:
Phoneix Trading:
Fisrt I wish you luck and I also have a question on IB IRA. I have a margin IB account with IB and a 401K account with Fidelity. I was planning to trade in my 401K using their brokeragelink account which is a kind of IRA.But the restrictions imposed by Fidelity (they say it is cash account restrictions) which handcuffed me from trading. Here are some restrictions. I want to see whether IB has the same restrictions on IRA accounts:
Fidelity says if you have for example 10,000 in your account and buy a stock and sell it at 11000 with 1K profit the same day (so far it is OK). You sale money will be settled after 3 days. Now if you do another trade for 10000 (same day) , Fildelity will let you do that but actually Fidelity is borrowing you money because your money from the first trade is not settled. If you want to sell again the position that just opened, you cannot do that. The reason is that you cannot sell any position that you have not paid back the borrowed money. That locks you to one trade in 3 days or 2 trades without being able to close the second position. The opther restrictsion that I have are:
I can sell cash covered PUT, buy Call, sell covered call and thats it. I cannot do call spread (but a call and sell a call at higher strike price) to reduce the risk. I cannot sell PUT spread. I wish I could transfer my 401K account to IB IRA but unfortunately I cannot. So if IB, imposes, the same restrictions, your hands will be tied.