Capital Requirement Per Position (Cap Req)

Are you trying to determine what position(s) are tying your portfolio's buying power? You can look no further than the Capital Requirement Report window that details all your open positions' capital requirements (Cap Req). Please click here to learn more about Portfolio Risk Analysis tools built into the Cap Req window.


Desktop Platform

You can view the capital requirements of your open positions in two different ways. You can view the capital requirements of your open positions as a column in the Positions tab or within the standalone Cap Req report, where you can view expanded details of each position.

Capital Requirement column in the Positions tab

You can view the capital requirement of each open position in the Positions tab by adding the Capital Requirement column. To learn how to add columns to your positions tab, please click here.

Example of the Cap Req column displayed in the Positions tab on the desktop trading platform.

Cap Req report location in the Positions tab

To access your portfolio’s Capital Requirement report, click the CAP REQ icon at the top right-hand corner of the Positions tab window within the desktop platform. Your portfolio’s Capital Requirement report will appear in a separate window.

Location of the Cap Req report in the Positions tab.

Expanding Positions

The Cap Req Report is organized by Symbol → Strategy → Position. Clicking the blue triangle next to each symbol will expand and display each symbol’s strategy and position. You can view other accounts through the drop-down menu at the top left-hand corner of the Capital Requirement Report window if you have multiple accounts.

Example of the Capital Requirement Report on the desktop platform.


Web Browser Platform

The Cap Req Report can be found in the right-hand sidebar of the web browser platform. Once the sidebar is displayed, click the Cap Req icon to view the capital requirements of all open positions.

Location of the Cap Req Report in the web browser platform.


Mobile Platform

The Cap Req Report in the mobile platform is displayed as a column in the Positions tab, as illustrated below. To add the Capital Requirement column to your Positions tab, tap the column to add additional columns.

Example of the Cap Req column displayed in the Positions tab.


Cap Req Column Definitions

The Capital Requirement Report lists Requirement (Buying Power Effect), Buying Power (BP) Usage %, Initial (Margin) Requirement, and Maintenance Requirements for all your portfolio’s open positions.


Requirement (Buying Power Effect)

Buying power returned after closing the position or strategy at the current mark.


Buying Power (BP) Usage %

Displays the percentage of your portfolio's buying power in a particular position (Buying Power Effect/Net Liq).


Initial Requirement

Margin requirement used in the buying power calculation.


Maintenance (Requirement)

The buying power required to maintain the position without generating a maintenance margin call.


Alternative Minimum Requirement for Naked Options

In portfolio margin accounts, an alternative minimum requirement will be calculated for each underlying by multiplying the number of uncovered short options by a variable percentage of the underlying deliverable value. While this variable percentage can change at any time and may differ depending on the underlying, the default percentage is 0.5%.
For example, if you sell-to-open 1 ABC call while ABC is trading at $500 and the variable percentage for ABC is 0.5%, the alternative minimum requirement for this ABC position would be $250 ($500 x 100 multiplier x 0.5%). Moreover, naked equity index options will have a default variable percentage of 0.25%.


Alternative Minimum Requirement Vega Test

An alternative minimum requirement will be calculated for each underlying in a portfolio margin account by finding the worst-case net vega scenario and multiplying it by a variable factor. This variable factor can change at any time and may differ depending on the underlying; the default factor is 10.

Alternative Minimum and Alternative Vega-minimum values will only populate in portfolio 
margin enabled accounts. Regulation-T margin accounts will list a blank value of “--".


Expected Price Range (EPR) and Point of No Return Percentages

The Expected Price Range (EPR) represents the firm's current best estimate of the price change of a given security over a one-day period. It is expressed in percentage terms of the current security price and comprises a lower and upper bound. (e.g., percentage up and percentage down).


Point of No Return (PNR) is the percentage move in a security's price where an account would theoretically lose 100% of its net liquidation value or when the account's net liquidation value would be zero. If the PNR exceeds the EPR, the risk array will default to tastytrade in-house percentages. The general base minimum for in-house is ±20 % for equities and equity-based indices -20% +15%. If a PNR is less than the EPR, the higher concentration logic (EPR) is used for a portfolio margin account's requirement. Anytime a security's EPR exceeds PNR (EPR > PNR), a risk concentration exists, and the price scenario move will expand to incorporate the increased margin requirement.