Incomestead · Margin
Margin Zone Checker
A margin number on its own is just anxiety. Put it in a zone and it becomes something you can govern. Enter two figures — nothing leaves this page.
Which numbers are these?
Your account value is the big number at the top of your broker's portfolio screen. It goes by different names, but they all mean the same thing, and every one of them has already subtracted what you borrowed:
- Interactive Brokers — Net Liquidation Value.
- thinkorswim — Net Liq.
- tastytrade — Net Liq.
- Schwab — Account Value.
- TradeStation — Account Value.
- Fidelity — Total Account Value.
- E*TRADE — Total Account Value.
- Webull — Net Account Value.
- Robinhood — just your portfolio value.
Not Equity with Loan Value or Margin Equity: those are buying-power figures.
Borrowed on margin is rarely labelled "margin loan". Enter it as a positive number:
- Interactive Brokers — a negative Cash / Settled Cash balance.
- Schwab — Balances → Margin Details → Balance Subject to Interest.
- thinkorswim — a negative Cash & Sweep Vehicle.
- Fidelity — Balances → Margin Details → Margin Debit.
- E*TRADE — Balances → Net Cash / Margin Balance, if negative.
- Robinhood — Investing → Buying power → margin used.
- tastytrade — a negative Cash Balance.
- Merrill Edge — Balances → Margin Details → Debit Balance (DR).
- TradeStation — a negative Cash Balance, or Margin Debit.
- Vanguard — not shown reliably online; check your latest monthly statement.
It is not your buying power (usually about double your account value), and not the interest you owe. A cash balance that went negative in the last day or two may just be an unsettled trade rather than a loan — use the settled figure.
Name your ceiling
A zone reading tells you where you are. A ceiling tells you where you have decided never to go. That second one is the governable thing — and it is the first line of an Investment Charter.
What your zone means, and the weekly check
The reading above is yours to keep. Here is what this zone actually asks of you, and the five-minute check that keeps you out of the one you do not want.
The weekly check · five minutes
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