That's the overnight margin. Intraday margins can be (and almost always are) considerably less. IMHO, $5k is a prudent way to start. Clearly, you have no business offering advice on anonymous message boards.
I use AMP Global Clearing, excellent broker, especially with CQG data feed. ( I use CQG data with Ninja 7) and as their name implies.... they clear their own trades my second choice would be Global
i dont care if you have 5k or 500k, i wouldnt put a dime in the market unless you can make some serious coin on a sim - because as soon as youre live, its a different ball game, and for the first few weeks at least your results will be 0.5 of what they were on sim. in all my years in this business, ive never ever heard of a newbie in any prop firm being given any more than a 1 lot to start off. its where everyone starts off. simple. the rest is up to you.
AMP Global Clearing is not a clearing firm for CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. http://www.cmegroup.com/tools-information/clearing-firms.html
X 2. Very sound reasoning all around. You had better have your shit wired very tight before you risk dollar one in the live markets. Your capitalization is such that you really can't afford much in the way of drawdowns - especially if you rapidly put into a position where you are forcing trades.
what best price? they offer 50c/side i see no volume tier offers.... when you go checking advantage futures, that is the best price you can get. (but min. 10.000 i think)
Um... so what if the maint is much lower? If he took any kind (reasonable) loss, he won't be able to trade again. There's nothing prudent about a $5k account except in the sense that he will give away the $5k without even being able to test out any meaningful strategy.
CME EQUITY INDEX E-MINI S&P 500 FUTURES ES 09/2011 09/2012 Initial Performance Bond: 5,000 USD 4,000 USD 0.09 0.07 http://www.cmegroup.com/clearing/margins/#e=CME&a=EQUITY+INDEX&p=ES
Dude if there is anything idiotic, it's your assumptions...and we all know what happens when we assume. First of all, who said I planned to "trade" with only 5k?? I specifically said "open an account." And if you had done any research from more established traders and authors who have written on the subject, you would know that they suggest starting with a relatively small account from 5k to 10k. I plan to read several books (Disciplined Trader, Trading for a Living, Candlesticks Explained) on this subject and then do some simulated trading, while all the while adding to the $5k account that I "opened." I plan to research and become familiar with the markets over the next 6 to 8 months before placing an actual "trade." By this time, I will have put aside approximately $20-25k that I can risk. For some odd reason you "assumed" that $5k is "all" I have to trade; quite the contrary. That's all I'm willing to put into an account at this moment. Moral of this story: become more informed and a bit more constructive in your approach before ass-uming and making worthless posts.