Funds sitting in the Commodities segment of your account have to remain there until they are released from any statutory margin requirement. If you have your account's Excess Funds Sweep set to "Sweep cash back to securities segment" then the cash will be swept back to your securities segment after the funds are released from the statutory margin requirement, typically on the following morning. Please remember that accounts that have been designated as a Pattern Day Trader will have securities Buying Power limited to the Previous Day's Equity with Loan Value taken from a snap shot of the account at 16:15 EST, so funds swept to the securities segment after 16:15 EST will not be available as Buying Power for securities orders until the following business day.
When will I be able to use the proceeds from a closed Futures position to trade securities?
Below is a listing of some of the more commonly used margin terms:
Equity with Loan Value (ELV) …
Current Available Funds is what you have available to open a new position. In the Securities segment of your account, the Available Funds is the Equity with Loan Value less the total Initial Margin Requirements (ELV - Initial margin). For accounts that have been designated as a Pattern Day Trading account, the Available Funds in the Securities segment is the lesser of either today's Equity with Loan Value or the end of the previous day's Equity with Loan Value at 16:15 EST, less total Initial Margin Requirements. The Current Available Funds to open a future contract is the Net Liquidation Value in the Commodities segment less the total Initial Margin Requirements. Upon submission of an order, a check is made against real-time available funds for all open orders plus the order being submitted. If Available Funds after the order request would be greater than or equal to zero, the order is accepted. If Available Funds would be negative, the order is rejected…
Currency conversion orders can only be executed with the funds resting in the Securities segment of your Interactive Brokers Universal account. If you have an approved UK Regulated account segment and trade any CFDs, OTC Metals or Non-US Index options, then the cash in that UK Regulated account segment must be manually transferred by the account holder back to the Securities segment in order to convert that cash to a different currency. Please remember that the "Total" cash amounts for each currency displayed in your trading screen are the net amounts between all of your account segments: Securities account, Commodities account and UK Regulated account…
The Previous Day Equity with Loan Value (ELV) displayed in the Account Window is from a snapshot taken of the account's Securities segment's marginable Equity with Loan Value as of 16:15 EST the prior day. Only funds resting in the Securities segment are included in Available Funds which is used to calculate securities Buying Power. In a Margin account, the Available Funds number displayed in the Account Window is equal to Current ELV less the Current Total Initial Margin. However, if an account has been designated as a "Pattern Day Trader" then the Securities Available Funds formula will be the Lesser of either (Current Equity with Loan Value or the Previous end of Day Equity with Loan Value) minus the Current Initial Margin…