Margin requirements affect how and when you can borrow, the type of deposits which may be required and the level of equity that you must maintain in your account. Failure to meet these requirements will result in becoming subject to liquidation of assets, either automated or manual, to bring the account back into margin compliance.  …

Establishing, and subsequently maintaining, a margin loan requires the following preconditions:

• The client must maintain a "Margin" type account (borrowing is not allowed in a "Cash" type account). Your account type can be found in the Account Information section of your statements. To access recent statements,…

Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are a subset of general ETFs and are intended to generate performance in multiples of that of the underlying index or benchmark (e.g. 200%, 300% or greater). In addition, some of these ETFs seek to generate performance which is not only a multiple of, but also the inverse of the underlying index or benchmark (e.g., a short ETF). To accomplish this, these leveraged funds typically include among their holdings derivative instruments such as options, futures or swaps which are intended to provide the desired leverage and/or inverse performance…

A client maintaining a “Cash” type account is allowed to write, or sell, put options if the option contract is cash secured.  A cash secured option contract is one where the seller has deposited sufficient funds with the broker, which the broker then sets aside, to pay for the stock in full in the event the contract is assigned. The amount of cash required is generally equal to the option strike price multiplied by the 100 shares to be delivered at assignment (or other amount necessary to pay for the deliverable in full if the contract has been adjusted due to a corporate action)…

If you have noticed that your account suddenly shows a negative margin, it may be due to a temporary issue with risk-based margin calculations. Here is what you need to know:

1. Cause of the Issue:
   • The negative margin is typically caused by data processing problems in our system…

The margin requirement for an option spread in a RegT Margin account is rule-based. The margin requirement for an option spread in a Portfolio Margin account is risk-based. More information on US options margin requirements…

To determine if your account allows margin trading and to verify margin requirements, follow these steps:

• Account Eligibility:
  1. Log in to Client Portal…

Margin in an Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account refers to the amount needed to maintain positions and potentially borrow against eligible securities. It is important to note that having a margin account does not necessarily mean you are borrowing money. If you hold only long positions and your cash balance remains positive, you are not borrowing on margin…

Futures options, as well as futures margins, are governed by the exchange through a calculation algorithm known as SPAN margining. The Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk system is a highly sophisticated methodology that calculates performance bond requirements by analyzing the "what-ifs" of virtually any market scenario. For information on SPAN and how it works, please visit the CME Group website. From there you…

Maintenance Margin is the amount of funds which must be maintained in order to continue holding a position. In the U.S., the rules of the listing exchanges specify the maintenance margin requirements on security transactions subject to SEC approval. The exchange minimum maintenance margin requirement for long stock positions is currently set at 25% although brokers can add any amount of a 'house margin' requirement in excess of that, particularly where the security is considered low-priced or subject to volatile price changes. The exchange minimum maintenance margin requirement for short stock positions is currently set at 30%. You can monitor your margin values in real time using your TWS/Mosaic Account Window. …

We will calculate and display a margin requirement on the entire portfolio of positions held in an account even if the account holder has paid for the positions in full and is not borrowing any funds to support them. This is necessary in order to compute the…

A Day Trade constitutes as any trade pair wherein a position in a security (Stocks, Stock and Index Options, Warrants, T-Bills, Bonds, or Single Stock Futures) is purchased and sold (or sold and purchased) within the same trading session.

• If the aggregate margin requirements on Day Trades exceeds the account’s prior end of day maintenance excess, then a Day Trade call will be incurred…

Margin details can be found on the Margin page of the Interactive Brokers website, which you can access by clicking the Products menu option followed by…

IBKR will calculate and display a margin requirement on the entire portfolio of positions held in an account even if the account holder has paid for the positions in full and is not borrowing any funds to support them. This is necessary in order to compute the Available Funds (Equity with Loan Value - Initial Margin Requirement) on hand to support any subsequent trade activity…

Overview

IBIE determines risk-based maintenance margins, which are either equivalent to or higher than the exchange requirements, depending on our risk view. A violation of maintenance margin necessitates a liquidation…