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What you said makes a lot of sense, thank you very much for your time. It looks like I really need to figure out SPAN program which I thought difficult because I am not good at EXCEL or any IT related (those long names or codes make me dizzy:-)
edit: when I look at my acct now, it is something like this, and the future requirement $477.9 is more close to what was required for my 9 short put EWV41500p yesterday, but when I checked the trade calculator', the IM now is 0.00. so I have one last question, we should look at our accumulated "Total Requirement" to manage all our positions, but this number seems always be less than the 'Future Requirement' in acct summary, sometimes, we may still have fund available as excess, but the Buying Power in the acct summary could be negative because of the delay, then what going to happen? will OX issue a margin call? anybody had any experience? Thanks!
I could be wrong but I never saw OX update the SPAN IM requirements through the day. They only use the SPAN IM from the prior night. I have been checking an option today on the Trade Calculator and it has the same SPAN IM now as it had at 9 am.
When I was trading there I never saw their Buying Power or IM disagree with mine which was calculated using the prior night's numbers.
The CLF15 price at 9 am was 82.29. At 2 pm it was 80.68.
When I first opened my account in OX I got too aggressive with a small account and received a margin call when the markets reversed. At that time, the margin call was based on the closing risk. I was contacted the next day that I needed to add more funds or close positions.
If you are looking to use Ron's method for risk management it will be difficult if you don't have a method to track the margin for each position. I'm not sure why the trade calculator would be showing 0 for IM.
The 3X method has nothing to do with how OX calculates your Buying Power or determining if you are on margin call. So the answer to Q1 is no. They only use IM and the value of the option.
Ron, like Dudetooth said, there is delay between item "Future Requirements' of balance summary and 'Total Requirements' from trade calculator, there was a moment last week that my buying power was negative but actually I still had excess since I had other positions that had not hit the exit point yet. I called OX, they told me 'Future requirements' was from SPAN margin, but I did add up all my positions based on the current IM, then x3, my number was less than the 'Future requirements', that means if I manage my position based on IMx3 from trade calculator and trade aggressively, under extreme market situation, I could get a margin call even I still have excess. That's my understanding. Dudetooth said managing positions based on accumulated 'Total Requirements', I will try that.
Anyway, I will have to learn SPAN, otherwise, not too aggressive.
It would appear as though you are correct ... it looks like all they are updating throughout the day is the current market value of the option and the Total Requirements. Admittedly, I don't normally track IM or Buying Power on OX ... I watch the Futures Requirements which were changing throughout the day. I know that RJO uses intraday risk files, so when I saw the Futures Requirements change at OX I thought they were doing the same. My mistake.
Today for lunch, I was fortunate today to meet with the creator of this thread, and all around good guy, @ron99 .
He is as humble as they come, even though he is a terrific trader (maybe there is a correlation here?).
Anyhow, anyone reading this thread is lucky that he started it, and I'm sure I am not the only one who profited from Ron's unselfish sharing and advice.