While non-cash assets like stocks, bonds, or other securities in your account cannot be directly posted as collateral for futures positions at Interactive Brokers (IBKR), they can be used indirectly to support your futures trading activities. Here's how it works:
- Direct Collateral: IBKR posts cash collateral with futures exchanges. This means that the actual collateral required by the exchanges must be in cash form.
- Indirect Use of Non-Cash Assets: Although non-cash assets can not be used directly, their cash value can be utilized to meet collateral requirements. This process involves:
- Extracting cash value from eligible non-cash assets in your account by creating a cash loan in the Securities segment of your IBKR Universal account and transferring the cash into the Commodities segment to meet a Futures contract margin requirement.
- Using this extracted cash value to meet the collateral requirements for futures positions.
- Eligible Assets: While the article does not specify which non-cash assets are eligible, typically these may include stocks, bonds, or other securities in your account that have sufficient liquidity and value.
- Benefit to Traders: This system allows you to leverage your existing non-cash holdings to support your futures trading activities without having to liquidate these assets or deposit additional cash.
Note
- This method allows you to utilize the value of your non-cash assets, the actual collateral posted with the futures exchanges remains in cash form, as required by the exchanges.
Additional Information
- IBKR's detailed documentation on futures trading and collateral requirements.