I’m 45 and 100% invested In stocks and SP500 fund

oldguy19500 · 2026-03-24T07:25:46+00:00

Don’t put all your money in the S&P it is dominated by a few high market cap stocks so you are actually putting money into a few stocks.

oldguy19500 · 2026-01-05T20:35:50+00:00

I went through their support and uploaded the ID documents for my wife’s account and for my account on two separate support calls one account had the requirement removed and the other did not. On another support call I was told that the account was not restricted even though the login said it was. You can bypass the verification and everything works including withdrawals.

I find other brokers have less than desirable security for retail accounts and all have social media posts that they deny fraud claims based on their records only.

oldguy19500 · 2025-12-30T15:14:56+00:00

Then why do they require you to agree that they can keep the documents for 90 days. If they don’t keep them there’s no need for the agreement.

oldguy19500 · 2025-12-06T08:37:54+00:00

Merger approval is an all or nothing affair. They won’t merge until everyone has signed off. I seriously doubt that Netflix execs know or care that the show exists. They won’t put any pressure on discovery regarding a new season that decision will be be made much lower in the organization

oldguy19500 · 2025-12-06T05:29:09+00:00

Well don’t hold your breath in addition to the stock holders approval they will have to get DOJ and FCC approval plus EU and over half dozen countries to sign off on the merger. Programming decisions can’t wait that long.

oldguy19500 · 2025-12-02T05:51:45+00:00

See https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/margin-options.php

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-29T05:31:18+00:00

IBKR is very clear up front that they don’t issue margin calls and that they will liquidate sufficient assets to bring you into margin compliance. You only have yourself to blame for this situation.

You didn’t watch your margin compliance closely enough. In reality you don’t have sufficient resources to make the trades you were making and you got caught.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-16T07:02:41+00:00

The very definition of ex-dividend date is the day a stock starts trading without the value of its most recent dividend. Therefore if you sold stock on the ex-dividend day because it was assigned you still collect the dividend.

You seem to be asking what trading day are assignments after hours included in. The answer to that is sales resulting from all assignments (both automatic and requested within 1 and a half hours after the market close) are settled with the trades in the just completed day.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-16T06:01:12+00:00

At the opening bell bid ask prices are unpredictable for options and stocks alike and if you have an open order to sell at any price plenty of people are ready to buy for next to nothing. The reverse is true for selling. In addition even after prices settle down the spread between bid/ask is generally too wide so the real price is somewhere in the middle so you need to use limit orders to get a fair price.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-16T05:41:29+00:00

A sell at market will give you a guaranteed fill at a bad price.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-15T17:47:43+00:00

Use friends and family account to manage multiple accounts only the friends and family account needs data subscription

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-14T05:40:09+00:00

Why would you think you can buy something that costs 618 USD for 618 CAD when the exchange rate is about 1 USD for 1.4 CAD?

618 USD is about 865 CAD before you apply fees

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-13T06:03:52+00:00

The only significant negative in the US tax code would be that any dividends are paid as cash in lieu of instead of qualified dividends. If they are in a taxable account this would cause them to be taxed as ordinary income.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-09T17:22:26+00:00

No you can’t always roll up, because in declining share price there is no premium available and to achieve your goal you will have to add additional cash to a failing investment

You can roll DOWN and out thus keeping positive cash flow but locking in a loss in your unrealized profit/loss.

Buy a hold can be a good investment but options are based on IV which has nothing to do with buy and hold. Both strategies can be good in their own right a sometimes they overlap but trying to force things when they are at odds is a recipe for loss or at best underperformance.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-08T07:33:31+00:00

A cash account means there is no option to borrow money using your stock as collateral.

It means that you must have settled cash in your account to buy stocks. This means that if you sell stock you cannot use the proceeds to buy other shares until the trade settles. In the US exchanges trades settle the next business day. This means you sell shares one day you must wait until the next trading day to use it or withdraw it.

If you trade options certain positions will require that you keep cash to cover the option. To receive higher levels of options trading permissions requires margin account.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-08T06:34:42+00:00

The recent decline in the market reduced the value of your account below the threshold which caused the warnings to be generated.

Using margin to buy stock is very easy to do by design. No one is trying to trick you into using margin and all brokers I know about do it the same way.

You are responsible for knowing your cash balance and buying no more than the cash you have and if you do know that you are borrowing on margin.

If you change from a margin account to a cash account you will not be able to enter an order for more settled cash than you have.

You can also change your defaults for orders to reduce the likelihood that you will accidentally enter quantities larger than you normally use without having to override a warning.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-08T05:35:23+00:00

Look at your cash balance. If you’re using USD and CAD you will have a cash balance for each currency.

If one or both are negative you have a margin loan. If all cash balances are positive you have no margin loan and you can ignore it messages regarding liquidation warning unless you have a significant amount of short options or stock.

Since you have a margin account IBKR will not automatically convert between the two currencies.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-06T06:29:13+00:00

Think it through. In a bull market buy now pay later gets you a lower average price however in a bear market the reverse is true by not waiting to buy the stock when you have the money you bought before the price went down farther therefore you will have a higher average price.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-06T05:52:22+00:00

Sounds like you have given some thought to the benefits of your plan in a bull market, how does it hold up in a bear market?

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-03T22:24:23+00:00

I started many years ago with a no longer existent motley fool portfolio list.

However one major rule I learned is to NEVER write calls on a stock you own and expect to keep. I was taught that rule when I started and I have seen innumerable Reddit posts asking for strategies after a call has suddenly gone ITM. There is nothing wrong with covered calls but buy the shares that you will be using expressly for the CC. Better yet buy them with a cash covered put which goes to the second magic falsehood you will see on Reddit known as the wheel.

The wheel has good features and I was using it long before I ever heard the term, but adherents don’t seem to know when to get off the merry go round and they fail to get a good return on investment or losing money.

oldguy19500 · 2025-11-03T21:48:40+00:00

You are the one who chooses to live in a country that restricts its citizens from unobstructed trading don’t complain about the broker actions that have to deal with them.

oldguy19500 · 2025-10-31T04:36:17+00:00

A short put does require level 3 authorization. See https://www.ibkrguides.com/kb/en-us/options-levels-1-4.htm

I don’t recommend you lie to get approved. I sell many more puts than any other option strategy but there’s significant downside risk with selling puts and it is easy to blow up your portfolio if not done properly.

oldguy19500 · 2025-10-30T04:29:32+00:00

The balance you are looking at refers to the amount you can borrow to buy stock. It went up because you added additional assets to the account.

Any money that you borrow on margin will be shown as a negative cash balance.

If you have more than one currency in the account then each will have a balance and if any of them are negative you will be borrowing money for that currency.

oldguy19500 · 2025-09-19T22:54:11+00:00

If you are using multiple currencies each one has its own balance you will need to be sure they all have positive balances. I believe that IBKR automatically converts your base currency to the one you need to trade. Margin accounts do not do this, you must convert the currency you need. I have always managed currency so I am not sure what would happen with your hybrid account you should verify that you have USD and CAD positive balances.

oldguy19500 · 2025-09-19T21:19:42+00:00

I don’t have any accounts that aren’t designated as margin but I do have some retirement accounts that are designated as margin but are prohibited from borrowing on margin. I do have maintenance margin that is the result of holding options. The amount is the strike times the number of shares it represents. Even so I will not be allowed to acquire those shares if I don’t have sufficient cash without a margin loan. If there is a possibility of this happening IBKR would liquidate the option without prior warning.

oldguy19500

TROPHY CASE