Why can I not route my order to EBS?

You can request an upgrade from a Cash account to a Margin account while tagged as having been Free Riding in Client Portal, as described in Client Portal Users' Guide…

Only accounts with Margin capabilities are allowed to short stock. Cash and Retirement type accounts are restricted from borrowing and cannot hold a short stock.

Additional Information…

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…

TradeGate is only supported for pre-market trading in Europe via Direct routing of the orders to TradeGate (TGATE).

Additional Information…