Why isn't IB up here defending themselves?

[ZBZB]

High margin agree, 25k $ for dax equal to 1000 point (a bit less) for few hours of market closing is unreasonable. Your comment is clueless .

Hardly, IB is primarily a securities broker that lets you trade futures. The securities clients have a lot more money in their IB accounts than the futures clients looking for low margins. Why should the futures clients put at risk the long term savings of the securities clients? Why is it do hard for you to find a broker offering low margins?

 

[GrowleyMonster]

Since you are retired, I would argue you have every reason to travel overseas.

"The Interactive Brokers Debit Mastercard can be used anywhere Debit Mastercard is accepted, both to make purchases and to withdraw cash from ATMs.

ATM withdrawals: Some ATMs require that you choose Checking, Savings or Credit Card. If you are presented with this choice, select Checking to withdraw cash using your Debit Mastercard. Note that Debit Mastercard balance inquiries will not work on ATMs. To check your current available balance, log into mobile TWS and look at the Account/Balances screen."

ROTFL on traveling overseas! I HAD to do it for decades and decades. I hate flying, particularly. I absolutely would never travel just for the fun (!) of it. Plus I like it fine right where I am.

 

[Collagen]

Hardly, IB is primarily a securities broker that lets you trade futures. The securities clients have a lot more money in their IB accounts than the futures clients looking for low margins. Why should the futures clients put at risk the long term savings of the securities clients? Why is it do hard for you to find a broker offering low margins?

It seems to me that You do not know what futures are. And You totally ignore what low margins are. I do now know if IB is primarily a securities broker but since They are offering futures and option trading (including naked selling) as well this is my wish. Probably Schwab is what I can think of a broker for investing and retirement.

 

[ZBZB]

It seems to me that You do not know what futures are. And You totally ignore what low margins are. I do now know if IB is primarily a securities broker but since They are offering futures and option trading (including naked selling) as well this is my wish. Probably Schwab is what I can think of a broker for investing and retirement.

As a member of the CBOT I am fully aware of what futures are. Over $153 billion is deposited by customers at IB. The majority of this is in securities. The investors holding these securities eg the majority of IB customers, are very happy that the minority futures customers have high margins. One feature of the IB account is you can be 100% long securities and use this as margin to trade futures or options on futures.

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

That is definitely not true. You cannot use all the deposited cash to hold long stock positions (all meaning exhausting margin) and use the stocks as collateral for additional futures positions. Even if you bought tbills you cannot use 100% of the tbills or us treasury notes or Bons as collateral but only a percentage of it. If you meant something else then you should be much more precise and specific in your wording.

Also assets with IB are not 153 billion but a bit more than 61 billion (61 as of 2017)

As a member of the CBOT I am fully aware of what futures are. Over $153 billion is deposited by customers at IB. The majority of this is in securities. The investors holding these securities eg the majority of IB customers, are very happy that the minority futures customers have high margins. One feature of the IB account is you can be 100% long securities and use this as margin to trade futures or options on futures.

 

[ZBZB]

That is definitely not true. You cannot use all the deposited cash to hold long stock positions (all meaning exhausting margin) and use the stocks as collateral for additional futures positions. Even if you bought tbills you cannot use 100% of the tbills or us treasury notes or Bons as collateral but only a percentage of it. If you meant something else then you should be much more precise and specific in your wording.

Try it. It works for me. I am 100% long stocks selling credit spreads on CBOT. I bought a membership so I do not have to pay exchange fees.

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

I don't need to try it I know your statement is wrong. I have been with IB for over 15 years. You probably mean you are long equity notional in the amount of 100% of your invested capital. With 50% variation margins you then have 1/2 of your capital left to trade other assets.

Try it. It works for me. I am 100% long stocks selling credit spreads on CBOT. I bought a membership so I do not have to pay exchange fees.

 

[ZBZB]

I don't need to try it I know your statement is wrong. I have been with IB for over 15 years. You probably mean you are long equity notional in the amount of 100% of your invested capital. With 25% variation margins you then have 3/4 of your capital left to trade other assets.

I must be living a dream.

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

You probably do or don't understand the point.

I must be living a dream.

 

[Maverick2608]

1) IB (like all brokers) segregates your longs from your shorts. So if you're an active trader with many hedged positions - you likely won't receive much credit interest. For example a $1 million account with $1 million in shorts and $1 million in longs still has $1 million in settled positions yet you will receive virtually zero credit interest from them

Interest rates have just been cut after the Fed reduction. However, as you can see you earn a fair interest on short proceeds at IB:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1595&p=secfinancing