Ok, so I went long with one contract of /ZL on Monday night. Cost me $600 + comm. to get into the trade, blah blah. Things didn't go my way so much, and despite being ahead by a mere $90 when I decided to get out last night, when I sold I only got the $90 back, and not the original $600. Where'd my $600 go?? Thanks.
Not enough info. Appears you used max margin to enter the position. Were you short or long, what was entry price and what was exit price?
Sounds like your miss reading it, you don't make +$90 profit, your losing $510 + comms but haven't came to terms with the loss size yet.
What do you mean it cost you $600 + commissions to get into the trade? was it an option or are you referring to the margin?
Like everyone else said post your statement on the trade. When you post margin on futures you don't "lose" the margin. It's basically (put simply) a performance bond that the broker monitors as a signal to yank you out (realistically, issue a margin call and THEN pull you out). If you only got $90 (your alleged profit) and lost $600, you were down $510.