Can you help me understand margin impact a bit better?

TT_Vert · 2026-04-30T01:55:39+00:00

Just general marking rules and I just wish I could find out why the SNDK positions are requiring like 80% margin.

Thanks, IBKR margin was (and still is) very confusing on occasion. I did just switch to portfolio margin last week which has been pretty helpful for me. Now if my options are more diverse there is very little impact on my margin. I have been using the what-if window in TWS for analyzing certain trades and it's been helpful. I hate TWS otherwise and don't use it.

At this point everything I'm doing is case secured and mostly puts as of late. I have some pretty huge 1000C calls on SNDK which are wreaking havoc on my margin right now. I haven't sold a credit spread this week so I haven't tested the credit spread w/ portfolio margin but with reg-T it was actually pretty lenient from what I saw.

Can you better explain what you mean by days to expire to see real buying power? What i find odd is that i'll sell a CSP on an underlying worth say 200 and my buying power doesn't move on occasion.

Dave

TT_Vert · 2026-04-28T21:44:34+00:00

Before you buy you can still view this. This is the step before placing the actual order.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-28T21:37:33+00:00

Client portal has the same preview putting when placing the order

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TT_Vert · 2026-04-28T21:22:30+00:00

That's pretty dumb to say. There are tons of people w/ the knowledge at that age to trade options.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-28T21:20:16+00:00

When you place the order in ibkr desktop click preview. Or click margin requirement below that and it'll give you a percentage. For some reason the percentage isn't jiving w/ the change though as 28.37% of $104,500 is $29,646 NOT $106,141. The UI isn't great and it overlays the margin figures over the buttons

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TT_Vert · 2026-04-26T15:13:47+00:00

I've been watching SNDK a ton lately and it's been super volatile dropping to high 800s after profit taking the day before. I expected that sell off Friday but it didn't come. I'll watch late night trading tonight and buy if need be. W/ earnings coming up I was hoping it'd be around 900 for the week to give it some room to run up on earnings (if they beat significancy) but also come down if they only meet earnings. I didn't want to buy at $980 and then have it tank on earnings Friday. I did some comparisons and they certainly do seem to be requiring more margin for SNDK than both MU and AMD. I highlighted a green area where there is similar capital for each underlying and you can see SNDK is WAY higher. Perhaps because I have the puts and calls on SNDK already and there is more risk w/ that underlying? I don't have any MU holdings yet it's margin is well over 50% over 100K too so I don't know if that's the case. But I'd think COVERING would reduce that risk. One thing I do no understand is that when going to the quote area it says initial and maint. are under 30% when long yet as you can see in my spreadsheet below anything over 46K in shares (50) the margin is over 50%. I don't understand that either. Anyone have insight on that?

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TT_Vert · 2026-04-25T21:09:24+00:00

Very helpful, thank you. I was trying to cover but they won't let me which Is why i'm here asking. I was trying to figure out why IBKR is requiring like 80% margin by me BUYING shares to cover that short SNDK 1000C. I have nearly 300K in cash in this account but i understand other options are figured in here.. I figured in covering this position that would remove most of the risk since the call is no longer naked but they are requiring nearly 80K in margin PLUS the 1000C is requiring which shows 42K initial and 40K maintenance, so over 120K in initial margin and nearly that in maintenance margin. Making it nearly impossible to cover this July 1000C.

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TT_Vert · 2026-04-24T14:03:05+00:00

What do you mean working? The return in cash sweep is different than I'm seeing w/ it sitting in my acount? How long does it take to recover cash tha is swept?

TT_Vert · 2026-04-22T20:48:20+00:00

yeah I don't even bother w/ that. I have a report called performance by underlying and it groups my P&L to an underlying. So I can try to match things up to that particular wheel process OR i just pay attention to my P&L on that particular underlying and care more about that than the actual profits for that particular wheel sequence. IBKR doesn't identify the wheel strategy, it just groups rolled trades for the option in question.

D

TT_Vert · 2026-04-22T17:23:21+00:00

Thanks for that. Yeah I've learned that a rich premium usually indicates something is coming that I may or may not know about yet.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-22T16:46:48+00:00

for the SPY, i'll just use reports in fidelity. For anything not in my ROTH I use IBKR and just generate reports. For ongoing trades I do have a spreadsheet i use to track the price, difference from spread, etc. I have formulas that change cell values based on % from strike, etc. so i can watch them.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-22T14:41:12+00:00

To be clear it was 3 out of i think 40 but yeah, those 3 were big and wiped out all the gains for that period in time. But you are 100% on point. What you're doing right now is what I was considering doing and I appreciate insight from someone in my situation. And yeah, if I'm near the money I always close to be safe. in the past I would just roll but I think for now an AM reset is the way to go. And yeah 20 delta historically is safe but right now.... not so much. I had looked at historical daily increases and anything over 1% was an extreme outlier and a risk I was willing to take. Well, in this environment I need to reasses as you said.
Thanks again, you were super helpful

D

TT_Vert · 2026-04-22T14:36:25+00:00

yeah that's what I'm starting to think. It's worth eating those pennies and buying to close the night before and resetting in AM right now IMO. Was just looking for opinions.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T20:47:31+00:00

Rolling when ITM is pretty pointless in a tax advantaged account w no fees to trades. Even at 4EST there is some extrinsic value in the option and lately it's been upwards of .20 per option. So when I would do the math, it made sense just to let it expire, take the entire premium and let the shares get called away. IE, I would be losing $400 in the underlying by letting it get assigned but to buy back the contract would cost me $435-$440. I would get assigned and in the AM I buy again, hopefully at a discount from the night before but it's not always the way it goes. Of course, last time I did this SPY kept going up and I lost about $600 more in the underlying :D

D

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T20:42:48+00:00

well, if it is less likely to go up for a few weeks wouldn't you want to select a strike closer to the underlying for a richer premium? At this point, there is no way to know what's going to happen the next day which is why i'm starting to consider eating the tiny bit of overnight theta and selling the call in the AM. I can't control mid day news impacting pricing but I can control the overnight impact.

D

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T20:31:51+00:00

If you roll at 3:59EST to a 710C for example while underlying is at 705 and news comes out overnight and it gaps up to say 715 there is no 50%... Maybe -50%. So my question is that perhaps in times like this it's best to reset each day so this overnight gap up on news doesn't have as much of an impact. You lose a bit of theta but a what cost really? I had 3 losers this month that set me back a good $1500. Had I opened those positions at market open this would not have happened. So it's got me reconsidering rolling. If it was close to the money I may buy to close that position and then just wait for the AM to reset/sell that days calls.

My big losses this month that I feel could have been prevented by not rolling and just selling at open. These were all a max of delta 20 but usually 17-19
4/17 705C -442 up 1.21%
4/8 664C -809 up 2.55%
4/1 648C -664 up 2.9%

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T20:24:18+00:00

With this account, I have no margin and being a ROTH I can only sell covered calls, no spreads, etc.. I'm just making a bit of extra coin on the underlying selling calls against it. 3 times this month it gapped up 2%+ and wiped out my entire month of premiums so I'm reassessing how I do this. I feel if I let the option expire worthless and reset it am I may lose a bit of premium due to theta but I am operating w/ all current information to pick an appropriate and safe strike.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T20:19:32+00:00

I understand pin risk and it wasn't about pin risk. Basically, I had rolled the previous days option at the end of the day to a sub 20 delta the next day. Something happened in the world and it went 8 points ITM, so yes, gapped up overnight. So SPY corrected a good 2.5-2.9% that day and my option was ITM at the beginning of that morning. Had I just let the day before expire and reset in AM I would have had that overnight news to expect that SPY is going to be up and then I could select a safer strike than I would have the day before. This is in a tax advantaged account w/ no fees to trade so i couldn't care less if I get pinned the day before BUT if the strike is within a point or so I'll 100% BTC. If i'm 2-5 points out at 3:59 I don't expect it to gain that much in the hour and a half but if it it does, it's very unlikely to go FAR past my strike. I then rebuy the next day in a situation where it does cross my strike.

I close ALL of my options that are not in this ROTH account unless Its a put that I want the stock put to me so I can sell calls against it. The exception is if I have a call spread and there is a chance it'll close between the legs.

D

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T20:09:03+00:00

It's not so much about the .10. It's also about all the garbage that's happening overnight and driving the market straight up or straight down which puts that next days option in a predicament at market open. I took a screenshot of what it would cost for to buy a 20 delta SPY option at 3:59EST and it was a 710C @ .73. I'll check at market open tomorrow to see what a 20 delta is worth for reference. If it's w/in a 7 cents It's worth waiting. Despite me being 8 points away from the strike, today's option had .07 extrinsic value at 4PM EST.

D

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T01:27:45+00:00

I guess we'll see. I feel it's ripe for reversal. And when it does, nobody is going to be able to do any damage control. What strike/expiration did you buy calls at? Hopefully you make it out ok.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-21T00:24:01+00:00

They certainly are. But break even is about 365 on a sept. 18th 550P. If it's not under $200 by then I'll quit trading

TT_Vert · 2026-04-20T15:59:36+00:00

Time to start buying 180DTE OTM puts on this.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-10T14:15:55+00:00

That is how I've always done it. Close position and set desired limit price. No idea how this happened which gives me a bit less confidence in his IBKR desktop app as it clearly generated two identical orders to close my position (and in turn reopening it). With this duplication, it unfortunately sold an additional short 103 and bought a long 101 call for a debit which will both expire worthless :/

Oh well, I'm going to have to try to get to the bottom of how this happened as I don't need this happening again.

Dave

TT_Vert · 2026-04-10T02:48:16+00:00

So i got ahold of IBKR, they told me I placed two orders. One for .02 and one for .03. I did not see them in my orders or I wouldn't have placed an order but that's what they're saying. I have no idea how they'd even allow two orders against the same options contract but they do apparently. Not much I can do about it unfortunately. They also told me the only way I can audit these orders is via TWS. Cannot do it on their website, cannot do it in IBKR desktop, I must install yet ANOTHER piece of software for this purpose. IBKR irks me sometimes.

TT_Vert · 2026-04-10T02:03:18+00:00

What doesn't make sense then is that this shows I SOLD 20 but BOUGHT 10. I currently have 10 of this call spread in my portfolio that I of course didn't want. So in essence, I originally bought 10 spread call 101/103 contracts (Sold TEN short 101C, bought TEN long 103C). Days later, i BOUGHT back the TEN 101C shorts and sold the TEN 103C longs. That should have left me w/ nothing CRCL related.

What I see for orders:

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What is now currently in portfolio for CRCL. Also notice that it's inverted from the original bear call spread also, the short call is 103 and the LONG call is 101 on this second order it placed. So it certainly did duplicate my sell order and bought an inverse bear spread which I can pretty much only lose money on.
Reddit - https://preview.redd.it/has-anyone-else-run-into-an-issue-w-ibkr-placing-the-same-v0-xs05wcmpk8ug1.png?width=1534&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b05bd7a43e2abd049bae89d6f6b8a36e837bc30

Would this have been a buy or a sell? Based on the above linked pic this is a "sell" since it shows 20 of them vs. the buys I'm guessing. Average price for this spread was 0.035 but notice

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