Yesterday, I was somewhere over Chicago when Wi-Fi started working on my flight, and I had a dozen emails and several dozen DMs because Schwab had just emailed advisers letting them know that...
- $10 million "minimum" must be in the SMA to use long/short.
- Only Regulation T margin is allowed (generally that means max leverage of 150/50).
- Portfolio margin won't be available for new accounts or transfers.
- Existing accounts aren't affected (unless modified).
All of this takes effect Sept 16, 2026.
There's an interesting note about series LLCs that I will unpack this weekend.
This all began in December 2025 when Fidelity told its intermediary partners that it would pause opening new long/short accounts.