How to Properly Use Margin with Interactive Brokers

When we buy stocks with unsettled funds in margin account, do we have to pay interest of 6.83% to ibkr for borrowing?

Hi, thanks for this video, really helpful. You mentioned about traders should be careful on how does net liquidation impact with stock price drop or increase. Can you elaborate more on this or give some example on this? I am trying to understand this concept.

how i can active the margin for es future can you make a video for that because my languge is not good thank you .

Can I buy stocks outside of the USA? I am wondering if I could buy it from Warsaw Stock Exchange?

Is that 6% intrest per year?

Thank You. Do you have a video about options trading and margin loan ?

Hey bro! What about Options?

I don't get my head around why a broker would start liquidate your positions in a stock that has a high maintenance margin but if you have a positive net liquidity (hence you are not leveraged). The stock could drop to zero and the broker would still have the excess liquidity on hand and hence is not risking to lose any money. What am i missing? Why would he force liquidate only that i have the maintenance margin on hand?

IBKR

Hi, this is pretty eye-opening stuff. I'm currently using eToro and planning to move to IBKR, and find that IBKR is so much different. Can you make a simple video explaining let say I have a small account of USD 5000 in a margin account, and planning to buy $200 per week on MMM stock. So the first 25 weeks, am I not using any margin and they only used my money? On week 26, by then, my cash balance would be negative as my 5000 is all used up? Am I understand this correctly? Thanks in advance.

I think you need to have some prior knowledge before you watch this, otherwise you might not understand much 😢

Great video mate really appreciate all the insight

Hi Chris, after a long search I found your videos very useful to understand ow IBKR works specially on margin. I have a question, if I open and close a position within a day, will IBKR still charge me the interest ? thanks in advance for your response! Cheers

Portfolio Margin is available for countries outside US and non us citizens as well. I'm from UAE and it is working well.

For day trading you need to have minimum 25k
If we deposit $7k in margin account and ib give us 4x leverage it's 28k we would be able to day trade?

If I have a margin account, is the ONLY WAY to activate my margin if I buy stocks which cost more than my available cash on the IBKR account? For example, if I invested $1000 and I bought shares for $900, there is no way that my margin would be activated. In contrast, if I bought shares for $1200, my margin would be activated for -200$.

Thanks for the video simply awesome! I have a quick if i buy an ETF that pays monthly dividends will the margin rule be the same as if it was stock ?

very helpful! thank you man!

Hi. Thanks for such an informational video. Is margin trading available on ibkr lite as well?
Also, i am currently using ibkr pro, however looking into starting a dca strategy on most of my positions, what would be the best choice of pricing withing ibkr to minimize fees and all other costs related with pruchasing about 50 stocks and 10 etf weekly is small amounts. (European trader). Thanks a lot. All the best in the new year!

Great Video, thank you very much for the amazing clarification. I have 2 questions: 1) How is the BUYING POWER RELATED to the net liquidation, initial margin and maintenance margin?? 2) I don't know if you have knowledge in options: Todas I bought a Diagonal Spread of SBUX which is a covered operation (buy a long term ATM call and sell a short term OTM call) my maergin wasn´t supposed to get punished but after that I received an email stating my margin cushion is on 9% and my buying power was reduced by 16.000 usd .

Hey Chris, I see you have videos about IB and Ironbeam too for your futures trading. What have settled with finally? Do you trade with IB or Ironbeam? I am considering using your ref code for Ironbeam but want to ask you if you are still with Ironbeam or moved back to IBKR

Why I have a maintenance margin, when I used only my cash? I don't get it, if I use 100% of my cash, the maintenance margin should be 0 ? But thank you very much for this content anyway ! It is a lot of pertinent information that I needed

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I got liquided once before on Ibkr. I had no margin account ( all cash position) .. i had a positve cash balance and i still got liquidated.

wow thank you for the video ! your explanation is very clean and clear , and you have helped me a lot. i do have one question , how can i manually control leverage ratios ? is it even an option ?

This is very informative. Thanks for this useful content!

don't forget with leverage from your marging. It's great when it's going up, but if you are sitting at 3 to1 leverage for example, that means your loss is moving at 3 times your normal as opposed to a regular cash account. marging account is great for settlement and folding new profits into your next trade immediately. But using the leverage aspect of it for me not worth the headaches. Spent more time trying to figure out what IB's requirements were for each stock than actually trading. And they would change on a dime. Take a trade on a 1st breakout setup that just came out on scanner, able to take my desired position. sometimes.. come back to that stock 10 minutes or 30 minutes later.. all of a sudden it's a higher risk and they require 130%, 0r 150 0r 170. where it becomes a pain is your trying to figure margin requirements quickly at your end, trying to get into the trade before the bus leaves the station. Compounded on short side. Want to short a $10 stock, multiply 130%,150%,170% by 1.3 ,1.5,1.7 x10.00/share. to find your actual cost/share, and actual position size. All that takes time. meanwhile the stock is moving away from your entry. For me, better to use my actual capital and avoid the leverage.

I used to rely heavily on margin with trading. Because of IB and their change on the fly rules for each individual stock, I got fed up and stopped using margin altogether. I simply use my actual equity. Nothing more. It's a habit that can be developed like any other habit we have in life. I don't even think about it. it just saves me a ton of unnecessary worry and strife over worrying if I'm too exposed if the stock pulls back too far. I don't have to worry about anything now. Now I can actually let the stock work, let my trade plan work, and be emotionally detached from the trade. Not sit there and worry about a possible margin call. That's one good thing about canadian brokerages. They'll send you an email, and if it happens in the morning, you have till 1 pm to settle. With IB, they'll close your position without warning. Screw that b/s. It's hard enough trying to make a consistent profit. Don't need these crooks adding to it.

Hey as a canadian trader. I struggle to switch over large sums due to currency fluctuations. I mostly trade futures but want to day trade us stocks. Whats the best way. Thanks. Also can i use my margin in futures it wont let me take out more contracts then whats in my cad funds

Can you do a video on which software you use to track futures transaction with IBRK for Canadians? I have Quicken but I really need something better. TradeLog looks interesting but only good for US taxes. Keep up the good work !

Leverage should not be used by retail traders. Imagine going to go to bank, take a loan and then with that money fund your trading account. As broker offer this is "standard" many people dont thnik about it, and how bad consequences that "easy lending on one click" can be.

you said something about iphone , i was planing to get one ,what is it?

Solid video bro tysm 💯

Can definitely relate to the "sack of potatoes" comment lol. Great video!

Thanks for taking the time on this subject. Your depth of knowledge is very evident.

Great Video, do the USA bonds,pay dividends at expiration,thanks

Portfolio margin is available in Singapore too

IB doesn't need more than 100% , its the currency conversion rate.. notional value is in USD, and the margin required in your case is in CAD.

Pattern Day trading rules do not apply to Canadians, right?

After months and months of searching, finally the margin video - and specifically the IBKR margin video - that I was looking for. Chris as always you're such a big Help to people outside the US who really have few viable Trading options outside of IBKR

This is really valuable. Thanks so much

Margin has got too expensive

very good video .. Thanks.

Excellent information which is not clearly communicated on the brokerages. Do you think it’s possible to get your wisdom on how roll over positions in the futures market work in practical terms? How does one deal with a futures swing position that nearing roll over? Thank you for your insights

Another question is that, is it possible to automate getting the margin report? Through api or email. I know it is possible for flex queries, but it seems not the case for margin report.

Thank you for the video, exactly what I want. I mainly sell options on futures on IBKR. I am quite confused that there are two accounts for me, one equity account and on future account, with F in the end of the account id. Each account is then subject to liquidation. Is it possible to reduce to one? Also some cash is in the equity account and some cash is in the future account, but i don't know how that moving works, how much is moved, and what determines that amount. I hope the question makes sense.

great. why didnt you talk about margin for options trading? especially credit options trades?

Thanks for such an important video!!