# Interactive Brokers funds sweep/margin issues



## jackrab (20 June 2017)

I've been having issues with the excess funds sweep and been getting margin notices for the past 2 months in my SPI futures trading with Interactive Brokers.

How I understand it.... stocks are held in the Securities Segment, while futures are traded in the Commodities Segment (for ES, SPI, etc (mainly USA and Australia) and other futures, like HK, Japan etc, are traded in the UK Regulated Segment. Usually you would have funds sitting in the Securities segment, letting IB sweep funds to the Commodities when needed for margin... 

I trade SPI futures, which are traded in the commodity segment of IB and their funds sweep has been screwed since a few months, meaning I get margin notices every time I do a trade through the commodity segment, because the excess funds sweep doesn't happen correctly at the cut-off time when they do a check, and the system thinks I have no funds... while in fact I have plenty.

They say that it has to do with the US exchange margin check rule (CFTC I guess) at 17:15 EST (US time). And that this gives problems for clients who trade non-US hours in the commodity segment. It's been going on since beginning of May. Even if I close out the position ... I get a margin notice. Basically I end up with no position every day... but still get notices, and then after 3 days I can only close or hedge... even if I have no position left! 

Has anyone else who trade SPI through IB been having issues regarding this???


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