Ameritrade says They can sell Your stock at anytime with or without notification if Your Liquidation balance falls below Your Total maintenance? I spoke To someone Today and asked for a margin manager and was told They cannot be reached by phone as They are too busy? Please tell me what my rights are if I should fall below maintenance, tia.
Actually, if you read your margin agreement carefully, it says that they can sell you out at any time for any reason whatsoever, with or without notice. However, it is most firms' practice not to sell out without a maintenance call of some sort. Of course, they can cause a maintenance call by suddenly raising the requirements on long stock from 30% to 100% or on naked options from 20% to 50%, etc.
Seriously, the only hope I can offer you if you're unable to get someone knowledgeable on the phone to explain to you your margin status is that you really need to learn to be able to do the calculations yourself. You're the only one you can rely on.
If you like, post a hypothetical portfolio on this board and I'll try to give you the answer. Arrange it like this:
Total marginable long stocks
Total short stocks and short credit balance
Total covered short calls: here I need the closing stock price and strike price of each individual position.
Total long puts and calls: if they're LEAPS with expiration more than 9 months away, I need to know that.
Naked calls: here I need the closing stock price, the closing option premium, and the strike price.
Spreads, straddles, whatever, with all the details, including the closing price of the underlying stock.
Other securities (debt, warrants) total $ amount by security type.
Closing debit balance
Anything worth anything hiding in your cash account.
SMA or buying power when they last gave it to you, if you have it.
I hope your example doesn't have a lot of diverse types of securities, but if it's fairly straightforward, I'll give it a shot. |
