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Strategies & Market Trends : Margin Calls - Share The Pain -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: HandsOn who wrote (13)11/30/2000 7:12:25 PM
From: ed pires  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 158
 
HandsOn,
Ameritrade did that to me about a month ago
(the bastards).They sold stock other than the stock I was margined out on first and left me still margined.Of course it was my own fault to margin (FOOL greed) Its a wacky market. Don,t Margin it will cost you your soul in a down market.We are not done yet!
Ed



To: HandsOn who wrote (13)11/30/2000 9:30:53 PM
From: daffodil  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 158
 
You mean 33,333 correct.

LOL, what a typo!!!! HandsOn, thanks for catching it! You're absolutely right! I hope it wasn't just a psychological projection of the pain to $333,333.

Please keep after me to make sure I don't make any more mistakes!!! Thanks, Hands!



To: HandsOn who wrote (13)11/30/2000 9:41:20 PM
From: daffodil  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 158
 
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.