How are assets classified in PortfolioAnalyst?

For regulatory purposes, we are required to segregate the securities assets within your account from the commodities assets. Those commodities assets may include the market value of options on futures positions plus any cash required as margin as a result of commodities futures and options on futures positions. Periodically, the margin requirement on your commodities positions will be recomputed and should this requirement decline, cash in excess of that required as commodities margin will be transferred from the commodities side of your account to the securities side. Likewise, should the commodities margin requirement increase, we will transfer any available cash from the securities side to the commodities side. As SIPC insurance is provided to assets on the securities side of your account but not the commodities, this periodic transfer is performed to ensure that your cash balance is afford the greatest protection possible. It should be noted that these cash movements represent journal entries within your account which serve to fully offset each other and therefore have no impact upon the aggregate cash balance within your account (see the Total column within the Cash Report section of the Activity Statement)…

We do not support position transfers that imply a change of ownership of the assets.

More information on position transfers can be found on our website…

As the assets in an IRA account are not eligible to be pledged as loan collateral, and stock ordinarily serves as the collateral securing payment of a margin loan, account holders are not permitted to buy stock on margin in either a Cash or Margin type IRA account. All stock purchases must be paid for in full with cash.  In addition, other transactions which require a margin account such as shorting stock and selling uncovered options are not allowed in either a Cash or Margin type IRA account…

For the same asset, a short position (or if you sell) will have the inverse effect on your Portfolio Impact Score of a long position (or if you buy).

In other words:…