I am very new to ES trading... If I want to have a 1 point stop (4 ticks) on 1 ES contract, how much money would I need to deposit to avoid a margin call intraday? Thanks!
Brokers minimum margin, plus $50, plus commish, plus fees. More if you get filled in excess of 4 ticks. 12.50 each tick over 4. Well actually, you wouldn't need to cover commish and fees to avoid a margin call, but that's what it will cost you to get out.
Call the broker you wish to trade with and ask them that same question, and you win the knowledge cookie-prize!
It doesn't work like that. You need enough to cover the initial margin to open the trade... say 6500 USD. Then when you hit the stop, you are left with 6450, minus fees... so say 6445 USD... You will not get a margin call... you will only get a margin call when you dip below the maintenance margin... which is lower than the initial margin... say 5k. In both cases, you are not able to open a new trade, since you can't cover the initial margin... So re OP's question... you would only need 5k... you would only get a margin call when you sell at a 30 point (1500 USD) loss... But, again, even with a scratch, you still pay commissions and will be left with less than initial margin and can't reopen if you start with 6.5k, just enough to cover the initial trade.... I you would deposit 10k, you can have about 63 straight 1 point losses before you have to make another deposit... which would amount to about 3.5k loss including 5 bucks round trip fees...
Most (all?) brokers have a minimum deposit which would more than cover the trade you are asking about. The actual margin required would depend on the broker, from $400 to whatever overnight margin is at the time. If you are new at this I would recommend moving forward slowly. Don't rush in and blow your capital. Brokers used to offer free demos which would set you up with software and a live data feed for a limited time (for sim trading), I am not sure if this is still a thing but you could check. Ninjatrader has I think a $1000 minimum to open an account. That would set you up with live data and free to use software. There are many others. Read, learn, experiment on sim before you risk your trading capital. No need to take live trades until you know exactly what you are doing. Welcome to the hell that is ES trading!
Yeah you're right. I guess maintenance is the minimum... my bad... Late night last night so I'm half awake....
New to trading and a 1 point stop??? You will get quickly to that margin call as you will be stopped out many times. Unless you have a magical system to take perfect entries. Many brokers will not give you lower prices than 25% of initial margin until you can proof you are able to master the risk in a appropriate way. So you will need minimum around 1250-1300$ per contract. The $400 margin is only given by brokers that desperately need clients.
Or they have the systems in place to be able to manage the risk. I think AMP has $300 margins for ES but they're also an FCM so maybe that has something to do with it.