Available for Trading

The Available for Trading values show you the state of your account at a glance. Your Available Funds tells you if you can put on a trade. Your Excess Liquidity tells you whether you have sufficient cushion to maintain your current positions, your Buying Power tells you how much you have at your disposal including your equity and IB's margin.

To view all Available for Trading values, expand the section using the green plus (+) sign. To customize this view to show only the values you want to see, put a check next to these parameters and click the green minus (-) sign to contract the section.

If you have strategies or models, view them by expanding a line, or use the drop-down selector to view values only for a selected model/strategy.

The following table defines the fields available in the Available for Trading section.

Parameter	Securities Account	Commodities Account
Current Available Funds	Equity with Loan Value - Initial margin. This value tells what you have available for trading.	Net Liquidation Value - Initial Margin
Current Excess Liquidity	This value shows your margin cushion, before liquidation. Equity with Loan Value - Maintenance margin.	Net Liquidation value - Maintenance margin.
Post-Expiry Excess (predicted)	Provides a projected "at expiration" excess liquidity value based on the soon-to-expire contracts in your portfolio. Value displays at expiration and are highlighted in red. All other times the value is "0". The projected value in this field includes the anticipated account value including the expiring contract. To see just the projected margin and excess liquidity value for the expiring contract, double click the entry.	Provides a projected "at expiration" excess liquidity value based on the soon-to-expire contracts in your portfolio. Value displays at expiration and are highlighted in red. All other times the value is "0". The projected value in this field includes the anticipated account value including the expiring contract. To see just the projected margin and excess liquidity value for the expiring contract, double click the entry.
Special Memorandum Account	Line of credit created when the market value of securities in a Reg. T account increase in value. See the Knowledge Base for details.	N/A
Look Ahead Available Funds	This value reflects your available funds at the next margin change. The next change is displayed in the Look Ahead Next Change field. Equity with loan value - look ahead initial margin.	Net Liquidation value - Look ahead Initial margin.
Look Ahead Excess Liquidity	Equity with loan value - look ahead maintenance margin.	Net Liquidation value - look ahead maintenance margin.
Overnight Available Funds	Same as during regular trading hours.	Net Liquidation value - Overnight Maintenance margin
Overnight Excess Liquidity	Same as during regular trading hours.	Net Liquidation value - Overnight Maintenance margin.
Buying Power	Cash Account: Minimum (Equity with Loan Value, Previous Day Equity with Loan Value)-Initial Margin Standard Margin Account: Minimum (Equity with Loan Value, Previous Day Equity with Loan Value) - Initial Margin *4	Not applicable for futures.
Leverage	Gross Position Value/Net Liquidation.	Same.
Look Ahead Next Change	Shows you when the next margin period will begin.	Same.
Day Trades Left	Number of day trades still available for 4-day pattern day trader period.	Not applicable for futures.