I'm a newbie to trading futures coming from the stocks world With stocks as the price goes higher it becomes more expensive to buy something and vice versa. It doesn't seem to be the same with futures? ie. does purchasing a Russell 2000 E-Mini contract (ERT) *always* cost $500? If the Russell index rises a number of points later in the day wouldn't it cost more per contract, or am I missing something? Thanks for any clarification or pointers to where I can find information about how this works!
I know it's semantics but index futures are held through a performance bond, not a margin, although many brokers call it margin. And margin varies from $300 with global futures to approx. $1000 with IB. Most are $500 though.
Ah ok thxs I get it now. I was sort of under the impression that we were buying something, but we're not buying anything it's just a "performance bond" that allows us to control a larger amount of money.