I have this situation where I don't fully understand why I'm NOT being charged margin interest.
Last month I opened a long position on margin that brought my cash balance below zero. I was charged daily interest as fully expected. No surprises here.
However, last week I opened a short position that brought the cash positive again. To my surprise I'm not being charged margin interest any more, even though I basically did increase my risk. I can see maintenance margin did indeed go up.
As a follow up, and if this is correct, what's stopping me (aside of risk hah) of doing this instead of paying margin interest? As a theoretical exercise, Let's say I short some bonds with an expected annual return less than my margin interest? Would that be better than setting up an SPX box spread for example?
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