Not sure I’ve understood your question, but if you withdraw from your account, the value goes down, whether you’ve sold a box spread or just have a margin loan.
Hm. “Value” might not have been quite what I meant there. The thing I was pointing at was that if you start with $100k worth of google stock in your account, you’d (if I’m understanding this correctly) still have $100k worth of google stock, even if the brokerage also marks you as having a $10-50k liability. You might have to liquidate some of it in future if there’s a margin call, but your goal is presumably to avoid that.
In light of this, to clarify the first point—“When you do, the value of your account will be $100k lower than it was before”—I meant $100k lower than it was before withdrawing, because previously your account had $100k cash and now it has $0k cash. I was thinking it would be the same value as it was before you sold the box spreads. But if selling the box spreads doesn’t change the account value much—if the brokerage marks you as having $100k cash but also a ~$100k liability—then after withdrawing, the value is lower than before you sold the spreads.
But if selling the box spreads doesn’t change the account value much—if the brokerage marks you as having $100k cash but also a ~$100k liability—then after withdrawing, the value is lower than before you sold the spreads.
This is correct. The brokerage shows cash + a liability.
Not sure I’ve understood your question, but if you withdraw from your account, the value goes down, whether you’ve sold a box spread or just have a margin loan.
Hm. “Value” might not have been quite what I meant there. The thing I was pointing at was that if you start with $100k worth of google stock in your account, you’d (if I’m understanding this correctly) still have $100k worth of google stock, even if the brokerage also marks you as having a $10-50k liability. You might have to liquidate some of it in future if there’s a margin call, but your goal is presumably to avoid that.
In light of this, to clarify the first point—“When you do, the value of your account will be $100k lower than it was before”—I meant $100k lower than it was before withdrawing, because previously your account had $100k cash and now it has $0k cash. I was thinking it would be the same value as it was before you sold the box spreads. But if selling the box spreads doesn’t change the account value much—if the brokerage marks you as having $100k cash but also a ~$100k liability—then after withdrawing, the value is lower than before you sold the spreads.
This is correct. The brokerage shows cash + a liability.