diff --git a/IPython/nbformat/sign.py b/IPython/nbformat/sign.py
index f13d7cd8e9b..c65ad0e8d4c 100644
--- a/IPython/nbformat/sign.py
+++ b/IPython/nbformat/sign.py
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def _profile_dir_default(self):
         if app is None:
             # create an app, without the global instance
             app = BaseIPythonApplication()
-            app.initialize()
+            app.initialize(argv=[])
         return app.profile_dir
     
     algorithm = Enum(algorithms, default_value='sha256', config=True,