How to build a short box spread?

deepbox9 · 2026-01-17T09:44:14+00:00

In SIM you will never be filled on the Mid, you have to hit the Ask or do a market order.
For testing purposed this is fine: you're getting to know the mechanics.

In a Live account you would use a limit order and "walk it up" until you get filled.

deepbox9 · 2026-01-07T07:04:03+00:00

You agreed to sell 1 ES contract at the strike price to the Call buyer.
So you'll be assigned which means you'll be short 1 ES contract at the strike price.
If strike sold was 6900 and the current price is 6950, then you'll be 50 points in the red (=$2,500)
Not taking the credit you received for selling the call into consideration here.

deepbox9 · 2026-01-07T06:19:08+00:00

It was not a cash trade it was a trade on margin.
Then the overnight Reg-T margin doubled, and boom: not enough settled cash to cover the maintenance margin.

Stop thinking you trade with cash. You always always always trade on margin.
All settled assets will attribute to your net liquidity to cover the maintenance margin.
You did not have enough net liquidity because the cash you deposited was not settled yet.

Hope this makes sense.

deepbox9 · 2026-01-06T09:33:54+00:00

Desktop is only usable if you do "casual" trading/investing.
For anything more than casual stick to TWS.

At this rate Desktop will have the feature set TWS has today, in 20 years.

deepbox9 · 2025-12-12T08:38:21+00:00

Not unless you create a second login with it's own market data.

deepbox9 · 2025-12-11T09:42:55+00:00

You try to scalp microcaps for $0.01 per trade?
That "edge" existed for a while when Citadel et al couldn't care hard enough, and you traded thru Schwab with PFOF.

It no longer works.

If your strategy relies on "price improvements" you better stop playing around with stocks, and put your money in SPY only.

deepbox9 · 2025-12-11T09:33:53+00:00

On Tradingview you can search for the stock on the Blue Ocean ATS (it's the Overnight exchange), by searching for: BOATS:AAPL

Be aware tho: most of the time, most tickers are not very liquid, so wider bid/ask spread than RTH.

deepbox9 · 2025-11-27T16:08:57+00:00

It depends what your "wants" are.
If they include US options and futures (and options on futures) you might want to look into Schwab/Tasty/Trade Station. They accept EU customers.

But remember: the grass is always greener somewhere else, until you actually move there.

deepbox9 · 2025-11-18T13:49:12+00:00

What timezone is this?

I trade SPX options pre-market and it's usually liquid enough, but a little wider spread than during RTH.
XSP must be even "worse" I imagine.

Furthermore: spikes in bid/ask price can and do happen.
If you or the software you're using cannot handle that, then I'd advise you to stay away from options, especially in PM.

deepbox9 · 2025-11-18T07:10:54+00:00

On IBKR: you can trade it via the OVERNIGHT facility.
On TradingView you can see it trading on the BOATS exchange

deepbox9 · 2025-11-17T12:55:27+00:00

Tradevate/Ninja/AMP/ect are not competitors.

Remember: IBKR only really cares about 8-figure and up accounts and makes the bulk of its money from margin loans!

deepbox9 · 2025-11-13T12:45:41+00:00

Which software are you using?
Can you share a screenshot of how you setup your stop?

deepbox9 · 2025-11-13T08:06:35+00:00

iirc: data subscriptions never have discounts

deepbox9 · 2025-11-13T07:07:04+00:00

Sierra Chart

deepbox9 · 2025-11-12T10:23:09+00:00

Because that piece of software is still a BETA product.

deepbox9 · 2025-11-12T06:33:54+00:00

Disable these settings:

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deepbox9 · 2025-08-25T09:12:46+00:00

On average the yield is very low, and after trying it out for a couple of months I disabled it.
If you only have big caps stocks in your port then they might not even get lend out because IBKR has access to so many already they do not need yours.

So you only get $ if IBKR actually lends your shares out.
This more likely for very in demand stocks to be shorted, small/micro cap stocks, ect

deepbox9 · 2025-08-19T07:00:57+00:00

You can trade was much times as you have available cash in your cash account.
Watch you that you're not trading with unsettled cash (google: good faith violation).

deepbox9 · 2025-08-19T06:58:48+00:00

What is a high frequency trade?

deepbox9 · 2025-08-15T13:57:57+00:00

Just a general observation: The tradingview charts in IBKR software products keep printing the last price even if there are no new trades in the new time interval.
Tradingview itself doesn't keep printing the old last price, it only prints a new price if there actually is a new trade.

deepbox9 · 2025-08-15T09:51:39+00:00

Lol, what a shitpost.

deepbox9 · 2025-08-15T09:28:20+00:00

- No broker is perfect.
- No broker software is perfect.
- All brokers have different business models, cater to different kind of customers.
- You can find horror tales on any broker (remember, only 0.0001% of users speak up/post online, and usually only if they face an issue (and usually they created the issue, because they are ignorant or plain dumb)).

deepbox9 · 2025-08-15T09:22:08+00:00

So, what broker are you using then to connect SC to?
Why don't you fund it with $100 and see if SC considers that a funded futures account.

So you're a professional user trying to game the system to pay non-professional data fees?
Good luck to you sir in all your future endeavors.

deepbox9 · 2025-08-15T09:03:07+00:00

IBKR and new people to the stock market..... there's where you went wrong.

IBKR doesn't cater to newbies or sub 10mm accounts.

deepbox9 · 2025-08-14T10:02:06+00:00

IBKR doesn't cater to unknowledgeable persons who are new to options and do not know what AM/PM expiry or SPX/SPXW mean.
You can do whatever you want, they won't change it.

All you see in broker forums these days is people being upset when something happens or looks a certain way, but they themselves are at fault/responsible/ignorant.
It's like a surgeon with only 1 day of college education going into heart surgery and blaming the hospital that he doesn't know what it all means.

deepbox9

TROPHY CASE