After the BaFin Futures Rules went into affect, IBKR managed its risk by increasing the Initial and Maintenance margin requirements for all new Futures positions after 1 January 2023 that are entered into by Retail Clients domiciled in Germany. The margin changes are:
(1) Intraday Margin no longer applies, only overnight requirements will be used for the calculation
(2) Margin requirement above the threshold EUR 50'000 will be doubled
Example #1: Normal margin requirement is EUR 75'000, we will require EUR 100'000 in margin (50'000 + (2 x 25'000))
Simply double the amount of margin that is above 50k
(3) Futures with the same underlying (e.g S&P 500, DAX etc) will be margined together as one 'class'. The increase and calculation would apply to this grouped position (class).
Under the BaFin Futures Rule, only cash allocated for futures trading is at risk. Cash allocated for futures trading equals the initial margin requirement for the future, meaning that only the Initial Margin will be used to cover losses from futures trading. If a loss exceeds the cash allocated to meet the initial margin, IB will not require the client to cover excess losses.
Initial margin requirements for futures must be met with Free Cash. Free cash is your positive cash balances less initial margin for other open positions, and does not include equity in other instruments. If your account does not have sufficient Free Cash to cover the initial Margin requirement the order will be rejected. Note in particular, that if your account has a margin loan (negative cash) you will not be able to trade futures as IBKR is not allowed to increase a margin loan to generate cash for the futures margin requirement.
Futures positions that no longer meet the maintenance margin requirement will be liquidated. Note however, that only futures can be liquidated to cover a margin deficit in futures. By contrast, futures can be liquidated to cover deficits in other instruments.
Additional Information