Margin

JasonEngmar

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I feel like I'm getting ripped off when it comes to trading in my account with margin, but want to run it by those here.

I have about 200k in my broker's account. Of that, approximately 160k was used to purchase stocks (long). On a few of the stocks I sold calls (covered). TD Ameritrade is showing a maintenance requirement for every single equity I own at approximately 25-30% of the market value of the shares. Therefore I have I total maintenance requirement of approximately 50k while my cash balance is 40k. I was charged margin interest last month. How does this make sense?

I understand if I short a stock or sell puts I'd have a maintenance require... to protect TD Ameritrade if things go sour and I need to deposit more money into my account, but when holding long positions (or covered calls) the maximum loss is the cash I used to buy the equity. Am I missing something here?
 
You said you are trading with margin. That is taking a loan. There is no loan if you don't trade with margin.
 
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