SIPP Product at Interactive Brokers

I got clarification of this from Gerald Perez. He said:

"SIPP accounts can only trade in a cash account.

Futures values can be very large in value, so they are not deemed to be purchased 100% of the value in cash. Thus we defer to asking the SIPP beneficiary to deposit a collateral which is 150% our standard margin requirements, in order to trade these products. Note: A respective SIPP Administrator still has to allow you to trade futures.

You cannot short futures, stocks or ETFs."

So it's not a margin account, but in order to go Long ES you only need to deposit "collateral" of 150% of what the margin would be.

If you want to Short the S&P you would have to go Long the inverse ETF (eg SH or SDS).


Cheers,

Chris

Thanks, Proshares also provide 3x leveraged long and short ETFs on US indices for short term traders. For the unitiated please be sure to understand (for the want of a better expression) the negative or inverse compounding effect when a trade goes against you. Direxion also do a selection and have a useful educational tool in their university

After watching the IB presentation I am reminded that there is the usual $10/month minimum brokerage fee but that still makes IB extremely good value. At £6 for UK trade it is still the cheapest UK broker I can find. Plus access to the US markets at normal IB prices. It looks like Ultra and Ultra short ETFs are the way to go.

By the way in my investigations for Sipp brokers I have discovered that Moneycorps Markets NO LONGER provide a Sipp offering if anyone was thinking of that route.

Brit

I think you'll find that the $10 per month account maintenace fee is waived in months where one incurrs $30 or more in dealing commissions. It was the last time I looked, albeit some time ago.

I believe Moneycorp Markets discontinued their retail brokerage arm in it's entirety. They were a white label of Saxo Banks retail brokerage offering. Moneycorp SIPP account holders were offered a seamless transfer to Saxo Bank.
BTW, If anyone's interested in trading spot fx inside their SIPPS FXCM have SIPP administrator partners.

Per your comments "I think you'll find that the $10 per month account maintenace fee is waived in months where one incurrs $30 or more in dealing commissions." To clarify we ask a minimum brokerage fee of $10 per month. If you execute over $10 of commissions in a respective month you only pay the higher of the two fees.

To view real-time market data in the US (which includes shares, ETFs, options, futures, bonds, and forex) you have to pay $10 per month. If you execute over $30 of brokerage fees in a respective month the $10 fee is waived.

Thanks for that, I have to say I've always admired IB for the comprehensive information offered on the website... I just wish I had better powers of accurate retention.

Some questions if I may:

1) a quote from your SIPP overview:

"Can I transfer physical shares (FREE of PAYMENT) in my sub account?
No we only accept dematerialized shares."

Does this mean shares which are held in a nominee type account i.e. not held with stock certificates?

2) Futures are not mentioned in the overview but I take it from the dialogue above that a) it is in order to trade them with permission of your adminstrator on a 150% of normal margin requirement basis?

b) Would I be correct in saying that the platform software is set up to monitor the margin positions and liquidate if necessary as per a Reg. T margin account?

3) The base currency of my existing broker account under SIPP administration is in sterling. Let's assume:

(i) I were to transfer to IB through one of your approved administrators or through your partnership with my existing administrator.
(ii) cash only transfer
(iii) I would like my base currency to be in USD's.

I presume because the SIPP account has to be a cash account I would need to convert to USD's before the transfer. Is this correct?

Hello all,

does anyone know (or maybe IB themselves can comment) if it's possible to trade options (on FDAX, ES, etc) in the IB SIPP account? If so, are there any restrictions to the types of options (only certain underlyings, only long positions, etc)?

Thank you.

Regards,
Thomas

It says here: http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/1030

"A cash account only allows a sub account to trade stocks, bonds, equity options, futures, futures options, single stock futures (SSFs), ETFs, forex and warrants. ... Cash accounts can only trade the following order types: long stock (no shorting), long calls or puts, covered calls, protective puts, short naked puts and call spread, put spread."

HTH

Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks very much, that answers my question relating the options.

Do you know why shorting futures is not allowed (mentioned on this tread before) given this definition of cash account?

Thanks,
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

I think it's in the HMRC rules for SIpps. I guess it's got something to do with the theory that a losing Long position can only be a finite amount (ie it can never go below zero), whereas the loss on a Short could potentially be infinite.

HMRC probably haven't heard of stoplosses, position sizing or money management.


Chris

For the record I have completed my IB SIPP transfer some months ago using Stadia trustees.
Futures trading is fully acceptable and requires 1.5 times the IB quoted margin, so for instance ES is $7500 margin instead of $5000 per contract to hold overnight. Or $3750 margin instead of $2500 intraday. Margins are subject to change at IB's or exchanges whim of course.
So far I am very pleased with the set up.

Brit

Hi all,

I see that there has been no discussion on this topic for a few years. IB has now a list of approved SIPP administrators (see below). Has anybody experience on using these administrators? Any thoughts about the costs and any limitations to instruments?

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...nistrators.php

I've been using Stadia Trustees for about 3 years. I've never had any problems with them, so haven't needed to try any other administrators.

I use my IB SIPP account mainly for trading futures. Margin for ES is currently GBP 5150 as opposed to GBP 3434 in my regular account. You can't trade forex, which is a bit of a pain.

IB isn't friendly if you want to SELL options on futures. The margin can be as much as 6x SPAN minimum, which makes it pretty difficult to get a decent ROI.

[QUOTE=ammentaja;2374112]Hi all,
Hi
i joined IB via C & PP administrators, last year. £420 a year one of the cheapest and
a small friendly family firm. I am pleased with C& PP and IB.

IB have not updated their 'Approved IB SIPP Administrators List' and info here is as well quite dated

So would very much appreciate any confirmation or recommendation of Good SIPP IB Admins

Many Thanks