I’d be cautious of changing to a pro account. From my...

I’d be cautious of changing to a pro account.

From my understanding (don’t quote me on it and this is not advice) retail accounts are covered by IG’s ‘Negative Balance Protection’ so in the event that AVZ received a negative outcome, or the share price on reopening is manipulated to a low price, the most exposure you have is the margin and surplus funds in your account i.e. if the SP opened significantly lower and effectively put your account balance at -$50k, the balance protection ensures that you don’t have an ongoing debt (once surplus funds and margin funds are taken into account).

Perhaps the margin increase was a way for IG to attempt to get people to put more funds into their accounts, so that they don’t have to write-off so much through their balance protection should a negative result occur (which I am not suggesting is the case).