What is the margin requirement for shorting stocks?

There is no minimum required deposit in order to open a futures account. However, you must deposit sufficient funds to cover the margin requirement of the contracts you are looking to trade. Please visit the Margin page on our website…

When you open a margin account you have the ability to borrow from IBKR. You can not set a limit or a set only a specific amount of margin to use in a margin account. If the account has sufficient Available Funds then a new order would be accepted. There is a calculated margin requirement for positions in a margin type account displayed as an Initial margin and Maintenance margin requirement. In addition to contracts traded in the account any borrowed cash from Forex trading or from trading outside the account’s Base Currency can have a calculated margin requirement. There are tools available so you can monitor your account’s margin requirements and cash balances in real time or as a daily snapshot…

The Initial Margin requirement is the minimum amount which is required to open a new position. Initial Margin may be a component used in various calculations, such as Available Funds.

More information on margin…

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…