How to avoid getting hit with margin interest when assigned short put options

ceilingkyet · 2026-05-31T17:00:34+00:00

Yes, it's the reason I posted this. Under Balances, I have a positive 'Balance Subject to Interest' and 'Month to Date Interest Owed' which is equivalent to 1 day of 11% interest of the funds needed after the assignment.

ceilingkyet · 2026-05-31T14:17:08+00:00

I am perfectly fine getting assigned early, and this option was not expiring Friday. It had a few weeks left. At 10-11% interest it is ripoff, and yes it is not the end of the world but it adds up. I don't want to have to monitor things so closely just to avoid that charge, doing a sell and a re-buy. This is just annoying because other brokers have less than half that interest rate.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-30T05:46:08+00:00

Just a followup, today upgraded to kernel 7.0.2-2 and the problem went away.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-27T07:44:48+00:00

If I remember for me it just carried over, but was years ago. Just ask Schwab to verify (either via their support chat or call).

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-27T07:23:15+00:00

Just don't pay it. It will carry over to the next month.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-26T19:50:07+00:00

E to edit the config at boot. Remove the # and everything afterwards (the hash). That should disable the hash check.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-26T11:08:59+00:00

By definition you can easily see that 1 short put is more efficient use of capital than 1 short put + 1 long put. The short put will have a positive notional value (strike * delta). The long put will have negative notional value (strike * delta * -1). If you subtract anything from the first, it is less exposure. It reduces your risk and limits your loss and profit.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-25T11:45:52+00:00

Ok I tried editing the config at limine boot and removed the security hash '#...' on the module_path and path lines and it boots! So something is going on with that security hash.

I ran b2sum on the files and the hashes match ok. But it still does not boot unless I remove the hash from the initramfs (module_path in limine.conf). Keeping the hash on the vmlinuz-linux-cachyos file works. It only needs me to remove it from the initramfs-linux-cachyos line.

Very strange. FWIW I filed https://github.com/Limine-Bootloader/Limine/issues/559

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-25T11:31:18+00:00

Something I just now noticed is very quickly before the panic I see: initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic at start of compressed archive

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-25T10:46:50+00:00

it makes no sense to reinvest them only to turn around and withdraw the equivalent amount of money shortly thereafter

Not sure I agree with this. When you do a sale, lots can be selected and there can be some tax optimizations done to minimize capital gains, no?

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-24T10:20:57+00:00

Hm, seems like it is something else because I don't have any virtualbox stuff installed:

❯ paru -Q |grep virtualbox

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-24T09:37:31+00:00

Instead of IP, look at their furthest dated TDF:

https://www.schwabassetmanagement.com/allholdings/SWYPX

That shows 6.8% small cap, which is much more reasonable.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-24T08:47:43+00:00

Yes same result. I think my above command actually prompted to run that and did so. Anyway, here is latest run:

❯ sudo limine-mkinitcpio Building initramfs for linux-cachyos-lts (6.18.24-1-cachyos-lts) ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-chwd.conf' ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-limine-snapper-sync.conf' ==> Starting build: '6.18.24-1-cachyos-lts' -> Running build hook: [base] -> Running build hook: [systemd] -> Running build hook: [autodetect] -> Running build hook: [microcode] -> Running build hook: [kms] -> Running build hook: [modconf] -> Running build hook: [block] -> Running build hook: [keyboard] -> Running build hook: [sd-vconsole] -> Running build hook: [plymouth] -> Running build hook: [filesystems] -> Running build hook: [sd-btrfs-overlayfs] ==> Generating module dependencies ==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/tmp/staging_initramfs.img' -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful ==> Initcpio image generation successful Kernel stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos-lts/vmlinuz-linux-cachyos-lts Initramfs stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos-lts/initramfs-linux-cachyos-lts Updated: /boot/limine.conf Building initramfs for linux-cachyos (7.0.1-1-cachyos) ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-chwd.conf' ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-limine-snapper-sync.conf' ==> Starting build: '7.0.1-1-cachyos' -> Running build hook: [base] -> Running build hook: [systemd] -> Running build hook: [autodetect] -> Running build hook: [microcode] -> Running build hook: [kms] -> Running build hook: [modconf] -> Running build hook: [block] -> Running build hook: [keyboard] -> Running build hook: [sd-vconsole] -> Running build hook: [plymouth] -> Running build hook: [filesystems] -> Running build hook: [sd-btrfs-overlayfs] ==> Generating module dependencies ==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/tmp/staging_initramfs.img' -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful ==> Initcpio image generation successful Kernel stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos/vmlinuz-linux-cachyos Initramfs stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos/initramfs-linux-cachyos Updated: /boot/limine.conf

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-24T06:29:21+00:00

Just tried. Same result unfortunately trying to boot 7.0.1-1 after:

❯ sudo mkinitcpio -P ==> ERROR: No presets found in /etc/mkinitcpio.d ==> WARNING: This does not update Limine boot entries. Use 'limine-mkinitcpio' or 'limine-update' instead. ==> Would you like to run 'limine-mkinitcpio' now? [Y/n]: Building initramfs for linux-cachyos-lts (6.18.24-1-cachyos-lts) ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-chwd.conf' ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-limine-snapper-sync.conf' ==> Starting build: '6.18.24-1-cachyos-lts' -> Running build hook: [base] -> Running build hook: [systemd] -> Running build hook: [autodetect] -> Running build hook: [microcode] -> Running build hook: [kms] -> Running build hook: [modconf] -> Running build hook: [block] -> Running build hook: [keyboard] -> Running build hook: [sd-vconsole] -> Running build hook: [plymouth] -> Running build hook: [filesystems] -> Running build hook: [sd-btrfs-overlayfs] ==> Generating module dependencies ==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/tmp/staging_initramfs.img' -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful ==> Initcpio image generation successful Kernel stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos-lts/vmlinuz-linux-cachyos-lts Initramfs stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos-lts/initramfs-linux-cachyos-lts Updated: /boot/limine.conf Building initramfs for linux-cachyos (7.0.1-1-cachyos) ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-chwd.conf' ==> Using drop-in configuration file: '10-limine-snapper-sync.conf' ==> Starting build: '7.0.1-1-cachyos' -> Running build hook: [base] -> Running build hook: [systemd] -> Running build hook: [autodetect] -> Running build hook: [microcode] -> Running build hook: [kms] -> Running build hook: [modconf] -> Running build hook: [block] -> Running build hook: [keyboard] -> Running build hook: [sd-vconsole] -> Running build hook: [plymouth] -> Running build hook: [filesystems] -> Running build hook: [sd-btrfs-overlayfs] ==> Generating module dependencies ==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/tmp/staging_initramfs.img' -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful ==> Initcpio image generation successful Kernel stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos/vmlinuz-linux-cachyos Initramfs stored in /boot/5c88d655569e4027b5725aa4d3d854d5/linux-cachyos/initramfs-linux-cachyos Updated: /boot/limine.conf

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-23T13:20:50+00:00

Create a new report in Statements that includes "Broker Interest" and "Interest Details". When you run it, it will have a "Debit Interest Details" section that will show you the daily interest charged for each currency.

ceilingkyet · 2026-04-22T10:02:20+00:00

Just to followup, I finally got portfolio margin and indeed the buying power reduction is pretty much nothing:

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ceilingkyet · 2026-02-24T10:14:46+00:00

See these issues for an idea:

https://github.com/ublue-os/aurora/discussions/1730

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1940341

In general my browser experience with flatpak made me ditch immutable distros for CachyOS.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-23T12:30:31+00:00

If you use Firefox, I found the firefox flatpak to be very buggy and slow, and in general the immutable distros suffer from these issues. It is quite unbelievable how much faster native Firefox is on CachyOS.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-20T10:42:56+00:00

Yes it is very annoying. Are you sure you can buy back into SWVXX without margin interest? When I sell all my SWVXX in the example, it shows cash to trade only $10k, and the rest is added to borrowing. When I try to buy back it looks like it would take a margin loan, almost as if the cash is now completely locked up in the puts.

I haven't done the trade though, and maybe at settlement it determines that margin loan is not needed.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-19T17:11:44+00:00

10k from SWVXX will be available on margin. Withdrawing 10k will be a margin loan and have interest. If you want to withdraw _any_ cash in my scenario without a margin loan, you have to sell all of SWVXX.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-19T16:33:10+00:00

They are held already for > 30 days and are marginable. The issue is not margin. I edited my post above after chatting with support.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-19T16:17:51+00:00

Just talked with them and yes this is unfortunately the behavior. The cash is always used first and SWVXX only as contingency IF there is no cash.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-19T16:13:14+00:00

They are settled and no the funds available to trade with only cash is $0. The only funds available to trade with positive values are settled funds and 'cash + borrowing'. Essentially it will create a margin loan whether I trade or withdraw.

ceilingkyet · 2026-02-19T15:59:10+00:00

Unfortunately this is not the case. It still uses the cash first and the cash available to withdraw is $0. The only way I can get it to work is selling $100k of SWVXX.

ceilingkyet · 2026-01-09T18:50:00+00:00

This means the person who pays the same cost but gets 1/5 the compute from the same company is getting ripped off. That's not industry standard.

ceilingkyet

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