question about dividends payout on IBKR:
how do I understand my dividend reports?

i tried generating a HTML Activity statement YTD, and i see a lot of things that i don't und lol. First of all, I see two sections,
Dividends
This looked straightforward, it tells me the WHT and so I can correctly verify that
- US stock 30% WHT
- Swiss stock 35% WHT

Change in dividends accrual
now this table lost me...

I masked out the counters to reduce "advice distractions" so please bear with me    each horizontal line separates the counters, so we have 4 counters in question.
Counter 1 and 2 were in the above section. The taxed amount tallies with above, but how do I understand this table....? why is it adding and subtracting back?
Counters 3 and 4 are ADRs, in fact they do not show up in the section above on WHT - but I thought ADRs are still subject to WHT......?

P.S. I'm not hunting dividends, but knowing how dividend payouts typically lower the stock counters and the reinvestment isn't happening (recall another forumer mentioned before that it does not happen if the payout doesn't amount to at least one share(?)), I want to understand how much I'm actually getting/losing, and therefore assess my position better.

Do you know why the ADR entry shows -0.04 for fees? Refund or something else?

Have you guys ever thought about what if IB went bankrupt due to some derivatives products? What will happen to our stocks? Where can we go seek help? This have been the lingering questions I have all these years using IB for long term portfolio. What is your opinion?

You sure for Malaysian banks to Ibkr? For sg banks yes few hours.

The problem is knowing username and password is not enough. We have to tap our handphone to confirm the login. In my case, I use the Iphone and there's a need for Face ID recognition. If we are dead and gone, that might be a problem. Anyone has better ideas about this?

You don't need to use app. Use SMS. I have been using SMS all this while. Don't trust app. Lol. Works wonder even on old Nokia phones unless they force people to switch to app.

Don't use faceid. Faceid can change when you age. 2fa app and SMS won't change. So long you dont put fingerprint protection but pattern will be fine.

Always keep mine at home in the drawer. Sepate phone with separate number for banking/investing regular use.

Want to ask if anyone knows for Margin account (not PM).

If buying power is $100k, it means I can day trade $100k worth of stocks but can only hold $50k worth of stocks overnight correct?

There's 3 different type of margins, Initial Margin (IM), Maintenance Margin (MM) and RegT Margin (RegT).

Opening any position requires a certain amount of IM and MM. For most US stocks, it's 25% (buying 10k stocks will require 2.5k IM & MM)
100k worth of stock = 25k IM MM.  200k worth of stock = 50k IM MM.
Available funds is ELV - IM. Available funds can be thought of how much remaining IM you're allowed to use before not being allowed to open another position.
Buying Power (BP) is just a fancy number calculated by Available Funds * 4 (ie a quick and easy way to know how big of a position you're allowed to open)

Example, For someone with 25k ELV and no positions, your available funds is 25k, that's why your buying power will display 100k (25k*4).
The reason why you're not allowed to buy 200k worth of stock is because that requires 50k of IM, which is more than your current ELV of 25k. Pretty much why I ignore looking at BP because it's just a secondary calculation of your available funds, which itself is a secondary calculation of IM.

Overnight positions (for stocks, ignore futures) have the same IM MM requirements, 25%.
Only difference is that for normal margin accounts, you're regulated by RegT rules. RegT states that all stocks may only be margined by 50% instead. This is where your RegT margin comes in.
However, RegT margin requirements are only checked once a day at market close. Which means that for any overnight positions, they'll be checked for RegT margin requirements.
That's why normally people say that you can only have half the amount of stock for overnight positions. Not because different requirements, but because there's an extra layer of margin requirement for you to obey. Once you upgrade to PM, this RegT rule will be removed, and you can just maintain the same amount for both intraday and overnight positions.

As someone that majored in derivatives, I hate how people simplify wheeling into such rigid rules and thinking it's easy money because it's not, and there are massive tradeoffs for having so much of theta decay. Won't get into it unless you're interested, but basically very low theta decay is not a problem, it's a feature. The real problem is that rolling any ITM options becomes really costly for you simply because of the bid/ask spread.
For the situation you mentioned (rolling the ITM put), I would recommend you to instead take assignment and sell calls. Due to put call parity, this is exactly the same thing but OTM calls have much tighter spreads, especially if they are near the money.

Example, I've got XYZ $100 Put, getting assigned cuz XYZ is $95 now.
Plan A: You want to roll to XYZ $100 Put for next month instead.
Plan B: Take assignment on XYZ, and immediately sell XYZ $100 Call for next month.
Both Plan A and B is synthetically the same thing, and there's no difference in doing either theoretically, but irl Plan B will be my choice because of the tighter bid/ask

Edit: I can provide you a basic excel worksheet I used in the past to find out how leveraged you can get, and how big of a drawdown till you get to RegT > ELV

Thank you for your suggestion. 

For me, even after I change my portfolio to include speculation and state 2 years of trading options, I still need to trade stocks a few more times, in order to achieve 10 prior trades in stocks. It is tough for a buy-and-hold person like me, but I need to follow the rule set by IBKR.

I guess that no one of us will take Options Teaching Exam.

For prospective/current Switzerland shares investors:

Regarding the 35% WHT issue on Swiss stocks, I have contacted a "tax specialist" from FTA (Federal Tax Administration of Switzerland) and received the following reply.



In other words, 35% is deduced automatically and you need to request for refund yourself. And Takudan IB is wrong in that tax treaty consideration is based on Malaysia (country of residence) not US/UK where the broker is based.

Postage fee to Switzerland might be expensive though. Transaction cost should be taken into account.

Thanks a lot to Hansel for his encouragement and support. (He suggested the "back-end" route and it worked!)

I am not sure how it works. If I cannot achieve certain passing rate in the exam, IBKR may block me for trading options for unspecified duration.

I think that it is best for me to read more about options, and make a small amount of trade in options. Do not be greedy.

Oh what are your favourites then?

Yes I have JNJ.

I guess I need to request an industry insider to review your post before publishing, given your temptation to promote such derivative products and unusually high risk tolerance.

Maybe ask Cubalagi (in the industry) or wongmunkeong (staff) or HolyAssasin4444 (major in derivatives)

It's not 1200%p.a. it's 1200% of my annual dividends. Big difference you know. If 1200% I don't need to work already. I can make one year return via dividends in one month since starting options.

dwRK

Thank you for sharing your opinion on options.

Do you also trade options?

Anyone here knows how to move from IBKR UK to IBKR US/SG?

I don't have Portfolio Margin yet. Heard that IBKR SG offers Portfolio Margin regardless of portfolio amount. The drawback is that margin rate is around 1% higher than IBKR US.