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IB’s algo could literally have a margin requirement of $100,000 one day and $150,000 the next in high volatility which could trigger the algo to blow the account to zero or negative and then have IB come after you for the negative balance. This is well known common practice from IB who continues to claim their algo has never been flawed.

The complaints are still very common with today’s version of the algo, to include a hedge fund complaining of these types of losses 2 months ago.

I've been pretty on top of this. They have changed their algos to comply with a whole host of adverse decisions between 2011 and 2015. Everyone can make their own decisions on how to use it -- once the trade is up, everyone can see how interest rate sensitive and PM sensitive it is. I also just re-ran my current portfolio, if the interest rate was 9% instead of 6%, I would not have traded 50% of the positions (as they become losers) and the yield on the rest drops from just over 100% to about 60%. That's still a pretty amazing return and if you decide not to use IB, use whatever platform you want. But be sure to always know what the interest rates are.