For some mysterious reason IB has increased margin req on CL futures by about 5x. This happened a month ago and when I inquired they gave no explanation why nor if/when margin req would revert back to normal. CME has not changed margin req on CL so this is a purely IB thing. Anyone know what's going on there? Pat
It's just IB's way. They seem to always way overmargin their contracts...Maybe because they get so many pikers there who overlever their little account and try to trade 20 contracts with a puny account, talking advantage of IB's girth. Current CL initial is $4,400 per contract. How much they banging you for?
It used to be 2.2k / contract just a month ago (before the Aramco explosion where CL gaped up) then it went up to 8k now its back down to 6.5k https://misc.interactivebrokers.com...te=IB&sess=1575418874&mid=001&conid=174230593 The scarier one is NG where each contract is still just 2.2k but with winter coming... From who do u get 4.4k/contract?
https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/en...CL§or=CRUDE+OIL&exchange=NYM&pageNumber=1 Front month crude is at $4000. They are currently at $4360 overnight with $6540 intraday and overnight initial. Seems reasonable to me considering recent volatility (I only paid $600 in margin on my latest CL spread - consider spreading?) https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=26662 IB can set their margins to whatever they want iirc, as long as they dont go below CME mandate. Crude has been very volatile since the Saudi oil field attack and so margins were likely pushed up (by CME) to compensate for the increased risk. https://www.ampfutures.com/trading-info/margins/ Margins at AMP are around $4457. https://www.cannontrading.com/services/futures-trading-margins Overnight crude at cannon is $4400. I don't know where you're getting "5x" from. Day trade margins are still relatively low across the board at futures-specific brokers.
Amp's overnight hold is exactly equal to the CME. $4,400 per contract. Dunno' where you get that funny number of $4457 from. Their website is not always accurate, because someone has to manually update the page each time the CME margin changes. And sometimes they are a bit slow. But yeah, see? $6,540 at IB. That is kinda' high. Of course, that is from their website. So you'd have to call them up and ask.
at some point i would put up only ~2k or so for a CL contract, then it went up to like 8k a few weeks ago + im in canada so exchange rates.. thats how i got 5x
I discussed this topic with an IB rep a few years ago and he advised me that they calculate margin in a very dynamic manner and not to rely on any static list of rates. This is especially true if you're trading bespoke spreads where there is no posted margin for your creative combo. For a single symbol like CL, I just display a Trade Ticket, then click on Preview to see the margin impact. Currently, the front month Jan20 margin is 6540/4360 (initial/maint) and the Dec20 margin is lower at 5,477/3,652. You could check this tomorrow and it might change based on market conditions and IB's black box margin rules.
First i didn't think much of this. But it's not hard to see! Just look at the oil chart! Volatility is coming for oil! Big expansion to either side! Margin increase is for a reason, they want to be safe.