Note: Your account may be subject to additional house requirements and/or an exposure fee. See the information below regarding the exposure fee.
Interactive Brokers may deposit cash to cover margin and liquidity buffer requirements for positions held at exchanges globally with clearing houses or clearing brokers. The interest earned on that cash may be less than what is earned on other investments. To account for this difference, Interactive Brokers may apply a Margin Financing Charge. This is a monthly charge in the currency of the traded contract that accrues on overnight margin balances for those contracts.
If you have sufficient cash to cover the margin balance:
Rate = Currency’s credit interest rate minus the effective rate Interactive Brokers earns on margin and liquidity buffer deposits
For any remaining margin balance:
Rate = Standard currency benchmark rate minus the effective rate Interactive Brokers earns on margin and liquidity buffer deposits
Interactive Brokers calculates and charges a daily "Exposure Fee" to customer accounts that are deemed to have significant risk exposure. The charge for such accounts is based on the results of stress tests performed to determine exposure to a series of prices changes and to identify accounts that, while margin compliant, have potential exposure that exceeds the account's equity were these hypothetical scenarios to occur.
Exposure Fees apply only to a small percentage of accounts with unusually risky positions. Most accounts are not subject to the fee, based upon recent studies. The Exposure Fee differs from a margin requirement as the amount of the exposure fee is deducted from the account's cash balance on a daily basis. Please note that the exposure fee is not insurance against losses in an account, and a client remains liable to Interactive Brokers for any debt or deficit in an account, regardless of whether an exposure fee has been paid at any point.
Each day, as part of its risk management policy, IBKR simulates thousands of profit and loss scenarios for client portfolios based upon a comprehensive set of sector-based market scenarios for all pre-defined primary risk factors. Following that simulation, all other product(s) in the portfolio are adjusted based upon their respective correlation. These market scenarios simulate events such as price changes in the underlying, both up and down, along with implied volatility shifts in portfolios, including options positions. IBKR calculates an Exposure Fee for the account based on the potential exposure in the event that these projected scenarios occur.
The Exposure Fee is calculated on all calendar days and is charged to the account at the end of the following trading day. The exposure fee charge on Monday's activity statement reflects the charges for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Exposure Fee calculation periods which include a holiday are determined in the same manner as that of a weekend. The fee is calculated on the holiday and charged at the end of the next trading day. The results of the Exposure Analysis and resulting Exposure Fee are made available for each account in the IBKR Client Portal
Please note the following:
The Exposure Fee is calculated for all assets in the entire portfolio.
If you wish to avoid being charged an Exposure Fee, please consider the following:
Additional Tools Available to Accounts