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September 21, 2018, 03:13:09 PM
Last edit: September 27, 2018, 07:30:26 AM by lk7 |
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Although I have plenty of trading experience the IBKR interface is quite intimidating - as is the margin requirements.
A few notes for those interested. Bear in mind this could be completely wrong! I'm posting here to make sure I"m not making a silly mistake!:
1) I believe the margin requirement is very high at 50%.
2) If you transfer funds in it will have to be fiat. You then open a short position via the java-like interface. Market orders are possible.
3) I think funds have to be in USD. I believe if the funds are not in USD they will be automatically converted
4) You may need to wait a matter of days or weeks for the trade to settle.
5) Since this is a futures market you need to think about maturation date
6) Funds can't be quickly transferred in and then out again. I believe there is a holding delay.
7) You have access to the NYXBT, GXBT, BRTI and BRR through the interface. You also have access to stocks with 'bitcoin' in their name as it's a unified interface
Personally I just want to hedge a physical position into a neutrally speculated position so that if prices rise or fall I simply remain neutral. The big risk is that the tight margin means a short spike in price would mean a margin call.
As an aside, the owner of IB commented that BTC is very volatile - so volatile this could create contagion to trigger the derivatives time bomb.
edit because can't use reply. Forum bug says I've already replied:
The product code on IB is GXBT.
The margin requirements are massive. Perhaps I misunderstood what 70% means. The minimum quantity to short is 1BTC, which is currently ~$6300USD. But you need >$50,000USD free initial margin to cover the initial trade. So that's around 790%.
Personally I'm expect a slow, protracted grind down for BTC but clearly IB are still expecting price swings of 790%.
Interesting.
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