Interactive Brokers

[TheUnknown]

Does this margin problem IB is having only effecting aus customers or its a world wide problem?

 

[bellenuit]

Does this margin problem IB is having only effecting aus customers or its a world wide problem?

Just Australian.

 

[hhse]

Hi,

Anyone else have trouble selling call spreads and buying Iron condors on Interactive Brokers? It's identifying these as 'naked calls/short calls' and prevents me from executing trade.

Could this be to with all the margin fiasco?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ftw129]

Hi,

Anyone else have trouble selling call spreads and buying Iron condors on Interactive Brokers? It's identifying these as 'naked calls/short calls' and prevents me from executing trade.

Could this be to with all the margin fiasco?

Thanks in advance.

No hhse, I placed an Iron on the SPY at exactly 12.32am as per normal.

 

[hhse]

No hhse, I placed an Iron on the SPY at exactly 12.32am as per normal.

Thank you. I figured out what it was - I have a cash account. And I cannot sign up for a margin account until IB sorts our issue with ASICs. In cash account they do not let you short calls under any circumstance, unless you have the underlying stock to cover it... which is stupid, because I consider a credit spread lower risk strategy than a covered call strategy.

 

[kefa]

i seem to be getting daily problems around 2pm sydney time when the US farm servers get bounced. my TWS goes a bit nuts and keeps trying to reconnect. i can see the data icon flashing between green and yellow.

i'm also subscribing to the reuters news feed and that keeps reloading during this time as it seems to reload everytime the connection drops making the whole thing unuseable. i've got a ticket with support but so far nothing has helped. is anybody else seeing similar problems? maybe its something in my configuration.

 

[skc]

i seem to be getting daily problems around 2pm sydney time when the US farm servers get bounced. my TWS goes a bit nuts and keeps trying to reconnect. i can see the data icon flashing between green and yellow.

I get the same thing at 2pm as well. The screen refreshes every now and then, , but I have not experience any actual problems with trading on ASX stocks around the time. As far as I can tell the data icon flashes yellow because it's lost the US data connection, but the Asian ones are still in Green. You can click on the data icon to verify that if you haven't done so before.

Another thing to try is to choose the right "region" on your login screen. Expand to "show all fields" and I have mine set at "Asia". If your's is in US that might be the cause of the problem.

 

[kefa]

Another thing to try is to choose the right "region" on your login screen. Expand to "show all fields" and I have mine set at "Asia". If your's is in US that might be the cause of the problem.

I don't see an region choice. All I see is a timezone selection which is already set to Australia.

My main issue is the reuters news feed keeps reloading so I can't actually follow any news. I'll keep chasing these support guys who surprisingly have tried to be helpful.

 

[skc]

I don't see an region choice. All I see is a timezone selection which is already set to Australia.

My main issue is the reuters news feed keeps reloading so I can't actually follow any news. I'll keep chasing these support guys who surprisingly have tried to be helpful.

Are you using the desktop TWS? You get the screen below after you click on "Show all fields".



I don't use Reuters news so can't help you there.

 

[TheUnknown]

Anyone elses ib account messed up and not showing balance?

 

[CanOz]

Can't even log in at the moment...

 

[kefa]

I don't use Reuters news so can't help you there.

Spoke to somebody else from tech support and they said the reuters news feed is only available from the US servers so the feed won't work during the nightly bounce. What do they think we all do down in Aus, sleep during the day and trade at night? The news feed is actually not bad for $40/month but this nightly bounce thing is really annoying.

 

[freebird54]

Does anyone else's accountant have problems interpreting the IB accounts


Main area of difficulty is option trading profit when you have been exercised and you still have options in play on 30/6
I would appreciate some feedback on that - tried a ticket but they just use USA terms


The USA system is a bit different and some of the information below may help new clients.

I have a company and personal account with them

Some other areas of confusion they actually provide too much information which confuses-
mark to market,
short and long term losses
realised/unrealised p/l
T Price = Transaction price
C Price = Closing price of contract
Accruals = dividends/interest owed but not yet paid

 

[skc]

Spoke to somebody else from tech support and they said the reuters news feed is only available from the US servers so the feed won't work during the nightly bounce. What do they think we all do down in Aus, sleep during the day and trade at night? The news feed is actually not bad for $40/month but this nightly bounce thing is really annoying.

Apparently Reuters news feed is available to IG customers for free. Not sure if the contents would be exactly the same as your $40/month. But this might solve your problems AND save you $500 a year.

http://www.ig.com/au/research-tools

 

[Shaker]

Hi All

Anyone have an update when there T+3 and margin facility will be back up. I have halted my application pending a result of this.

Shaker

 

[DocK]

Hi All

Anyone have an update when there T+3 and margin facility will be back up. I have halted my application pending a result of this.

Shaker

Looks like it became all too hard for them to deal with ASIC - Flash bulletin this morning notifying margin clients that they have until 11th Nov to either deposit funds to clear any outstanding margin loan, close positions to clear margin loan, or arrange transfer to another broker. They say they hope to be able to offer margin to Aussie clients at some point in the future, hope to be able to do so in 4 - 6 months, but can't say with any certainty that this will happen......

The timing of CMC's new frequent trader discounted brokerage is no accident methinks Now that the flexibility of ordering that IB's margin allowed has been removed, the benefits of CHESS ownership outweigh the saving of a couple of $$s per trade for me, especially as CMC also has free conditional orders. The hassle is having to have funds sitting in the account prior to placing an order If only Commsuck were more affordable

Still can't beat IB for trading US stocks though.

 

[Shaker]

Hi New info from The Chartist

New email today - clearly I'm in the wrong circles! IB are saying 4 - 6 months which basically is saying they're in a pickle. Personally I will either (a) change my trustee from an individual to our trading company name, or (b) open new accounts in the our trading company name. Seems the only way to stay with IB is using a corporate entity.

Anyone else get the same info?

Shaker

 

[tech/a]

Hi New info from The Chartist

New email today - clearly I'm in the wrong circles! IB are saying 4 - 6 months which basically is saying they're in a pickle. Personally I will either (a) change my trustee from an individual to our trading company name, or (b) open new accounts in the our trading company name. Seems the only way to stay with IB is using a corporate entity.

Anyone else get the same info?

Shaker

Whats the email say?

 

[captain black]

Whats the email say?

Copy and pasted from the emails I received this morning:

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM Interactive Brokers

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM Interactive Brokers TO
AUSTRALIAN MARGIN TRADING CUSTOMERS

PAYMENT OR CLOSE OUT OR TRANSFER OF SECURITIES
HELD ON MARGIN AT IB REQUIRED BY 11 NOVEMBER, 2013

Effective 11 November, 2013, Interactive Brokers LLC (AFSL number 245574) will stop offering margin lending to Australian clients that are “natural persons” (ie. individuals). This applies to accounts in the name of an individual, joint accounts where one or more of the named account holders is an individual, and trust accounts where the trustee is an individual. This does not affect other accounts.

YOU SHOULD TAKE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS BY 11 NOVEMBER, 2013 if your account is for a “natural person” and you hold any securities positions on margin in your IB account (i.e., securities positions that are not fully paid and on which you have a margin loan):

1) You can deposit funds to repay your margin loan;

2) You can liquidate (sell) your securities positions that are held on margin (or sufficient securities to repay the margin loan); or

3) You can transfer your securities positions to another broker.

You should take one of the above actions on your margined securities positions by 11 November, 2013 or Interactive Brokers may be forced to liquidate (sell) your positions automatically on or after that date.

This Notice does not apply to securities positions for which you do not have a margin loan and this Notice does not apply to any other investment products in your Interactive Brokers account. This does not affect institutional clients. If you have since taken action to repay your margin loan, there is nothing more for you to do and you may disregard this communication.

We regret having to take this action but we hope that Interactive Brokers will be able to offer margin lending to 'natural person' clients at some point in the future.* We anticipate that this may be possible in a 4-6 month time frame but we are unable to predict this with an certainty.* Should you have any questions regarding this Notice, please contact your local Customer Service Center ( https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1560 ).

 

[kid hustlr]

Also received the same email.

Spanner in the works.