This is how bad the IB Margin calculator and Support are

Yep, same experience with a variety FOP's : forex, oil, gold, NQ, YM, ES, etc.
Anything with a short futures option regardless of structure you will be docked a large Initial margin penalty.
Compare margin initial impact of any future, versus a far otm short option on same product. The Margin impact is always a high multiplier on the otm short option ??? I think there saying they don't want small accounts to have short FOP's.
 
R123 said:
Yep, same experience with a variety FOP's : forex, oil, gold, NQ, YM, ES, etc.
Anything with a short futures option regardless of structure you will be docked a large Initial margin penalty.
Compare margin initial impact of any future, versus a far otm short option on same product. The Margin impact is always a high multiplier on the otm short option ??? I think there saying they don't want small accounts to have short FOP's.
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It's a vertical debit spread!!!! You can't lose more than you paid for it, regardless of the date.
 
tommcginnis said:
I can't say for ToS, but I do love the "...there may be liquidity and settlement risks that you are not aware of" line. Sweet! Gimme somma dat love! (But surely, don't put CLIENT MONEY there. Or Grandma's. Or anybodyelseIcareabout....)

Anywho, regardless of platform/broker, SPY and SPX options are both SEC-governed, taking the evil SPAN out of the equation. AND your (Globex) commissions are less than half of ES-FOPs.
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I get what you are saying the American vs European exercise.
So I wanted to see if they are consistent with the June contracts. One is the EOM (European) and the other is the quarterly contract which should be American right?

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Sig said:
It's a vertical debit spread!!!! You can't lose more than you paid for it, regardless of the date.
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Sig, remember that IB is very much Peterffy's baby.
He came from circumstances where THE VERY INSTITUTIONS TO RELY UPON couldn't be relied upon.
He came here, and ended up servicing a growing fraction of Wall Street activity during a time of repeated governmental and institutional failures. (Let's book-end it with Nixon's resignation in '74, and 1987's Black Monday, when the world was largely pit-driven, yet these new-fangled "program traders"[??? whut-the-hell-IS-thattttt?"] brought things to a standstill. Ten years later, and we have SUCH stability, that we have the Dot.Com BUST. "What?!?!?"

Do you see what I'm saying? IB is Peterffy's beast. He *built* it to withstand the crush of Massive Numbers Of People Acting Stupidly.

And has seen his caution proven to be wise, again, and gain, and again, and again.

SO! What Ryan pointed out above, applies: if your short position can get exercised early, and you may or may not be in a position to accept...... they ain't interested in "It'll all get worked out *eventually* as the *event* has already happened.

We may not *like* it, but.......
 
tommcginnis said:
Sig, remember that IB is very much Peterffy's baby.
He came from circumstances where THE VERY INSTITUTIONS TO RELY UPON couldn't be relied upon.
He came here, and ended up servicing a growing fraction of Wall Street activity during a time of repeated governmental and institutional failures. (Let's book-end it with Nixon's resignation in '74, and 1987's Black Monday, when the world was largely pit-driven, yet these new-fangled "program traders"[??? whut-the-hell-IS-thattttt?"] brought things to a standstill. Ten years later, and we have SUCH stability, that we have the Dot.Com BUST. "What?!?!?"

Do you see what I'm saying? IB is Peterffy's beast. He *built* it to withstand the crush of Massive Numbers Of People Acting Stupidly.

And has seen his caution proven to be wise, again, and gain, and again, and again.

SO! What Ryan pointed out above, applies: if your short position can get exercised early, and you may or may not be in a position to accept...... they ain't interested in "It'll all get worked out *eventually* as the *event* has already happened.

We may not *like* it, but.......
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With all due respect you're almost as bad as the IB people. As I pointed out, if one leg of a vertical spread gets exercised, you have the option to exercise the other leg and you'll be flat. Petterfy won't lose a precious cent, hunt for red October launch or the moon crashing into the earth! Their behavior is irrational even if they are being stupidly risk averse.
 
Chubbly said:
I get what you are saying the American vs European exercise.
So I wanted to see if they are consistent with the 2 June contracts. One is the EOM and the other is the quarterly contract which should be American right?

View attachment 170911 View attachment 170912
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Beats the HELL outta me.
But one great big caution: they run SPAN through their accounts *roughly* once every 12 hours -- and they would have every (legal) right to bring a major headache to your door, if the (American styled) Jun16-er triggered a SPAN hissy fit.

I would love to listen in on *this* one........
 
Do you see what I'm saying? IB is Peterffy's beast. He *built* it to withstand the crush of Massive Numbers Of People Acting Stupidly.

And has seen his caution proven to be wise, again, and gain, and again, and again.


Thanks, this makes total sense to the way they are handling this.
 
Sig said:
With all due respect you're almost as bad as the IB people. As I pointed out, if one leg of a vertical spread gets exercised, you have the option to exercise the other leg and you'll be flat. Petterfy won't lose a precious cent, hunt for red October launch or the moon crashing into the earth! Their behavior is irrational even if they are being stupidly risk averse.
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As long as they can reach you. Otherwise, they're looking for cash.
 
tommcginnis said:
As long as they can reach you. Otherwise, they're looking for cash.
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Since when did IB need to reach you? They autoliquidate like nobody's business! Sounds like you never had the (dis) pleasure of working with them.
 
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