I’m after help from some Australians for trading E-Mini S&P 500 Futures. I have an Interactive Brokers account and misread that I needed US$ 14k as margin, but it appears that I need around US$ 100k in balance for a margin account to trade one contract. I have searched but without success on how to best go about this in Australia. It appears that it is easy in the USA to trade E-Mini S&P 500 Futures without large accounts. Is it just not possible from Australia? Thanks for any help.
It is possible from Australia. You can start with $5000 min and use $1000 daytrading margins. You can try a free demo here. and feel free to PM me if you need any specific info etc.
Although it is true that you need 100K US for a US margin trading account , you don't need that much to trade futures with IB! However it is true that overnight margin for 1ES with IB is around 13-14 K USD One advantage IB offers is you can trade everything under one roof AUS equity/ Options , US EU etc However the platform is perhaps not that great for Futures only trading and they don't offer TT or CQG There many Introductory brokers ( the account is held with large US FCMs) in US who have low day trading margins as compared to Interactive Brokers .. likes of https://www.gffbrokers.com/and https://deepdiscounttrading.com/
Thanks for your reply. I've been freaked out by IB TWS in the paper trading account where I have AU$ 380 K. I purchased one 1ES and when I went to sell it, it gave me an 'insufficient cash' message. So it would appear a 'cash type account' is just that. I'm confused and now angry, which seems standard with IB and would like to see the process in my paper account before trying in my real account, as I really just don't trust the platform. I didn't realise there where so many types of brokers, I will check to see if they can help Australians. Thanks for the links.
I will restrain my frustration from any comments that may offend, and refer you to https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/australian-customers-futures-and-margins.345941/