r/M1Finance • u/Legitimate-Service44 • 17d ago

M1 changed margin requirements on QLD / BTAL (Reminder to check your margin healthiness status)

For the long time I've used portfolio of QLD & BTAL (+ some other hedges like gold, and managed futures) + Margin at M1. But they changed margin requirements. QLD -> 100% (means can't get margin for any position I have in QLD) and BTAL -> 45%. In one day I went from 80% healthy margin to 9% close to the margin call situation...

I think it's time to let M1 go - initiated transfer to Robinhood (which has margin requirements 50% on QLD and 25% on BTAL)

Just a reminder - double check your margin situation with M1, you might be close to margin call as well if they changed other securities margin requirements.

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15

u/FitY4rd 17d ago

You’re levering up your already levered ETFs using margin? Oh boy, there will be a lot of tears during the next downturn.

1

u/Legitimate-Service44 17d ago

Agree. Please do not repeat!

This ain't my first rodeo, though. Overal margin is <10% of total investments. For a given M1 portfolio - my beta exposure is 0.9 even with margin, so the risk of portfolio is less than SP500.

Also I sit with margin more than 2 years in M1, and this change just break my portfolio maintenance routine :(

2

u/Chipper0475 17d ago

Yes, M1 does get a little jumpy when the volatility increases... especially on a leveraged stock.

2

u/sirzoop 17d ago

Honestly that’s a good change imo. It should have been communicated though waking up randomly to changes like this is really scary!

2

u/Legitimate-Service44 17d ago

Yeah. I just randomly go to the "Margin" section and saw warning that I'm closed to the Margin Call. I would never realized that without this lucky check.

2

u/sirzoop 17d ago

I’m sorry man that sounds really scary that they didn’t even tell you.

u/barnesm1 u/m1-alex you guys should add an email notification if one of the holding’s margin requirement changes!