I opened an account with thinkorswim depositing 5,000 to get a taste of futures trading. I thought that I had read that their initial margin requirement for ES was 3,7?? with maintanance around 2,8??. Anyhow, orders for 1 contract with only 5,000 in an account gets rejected due to not meeting margin requirements. It would also appear from tos platform that the ES margin requirement is 5,625 inline with CME. Does the exchange or the brokers set index futures margin requirements? Thanks...
For overnight holds, the exchange sets it. For daytrading only, the broker has discretion to set it lower. There are many futures brokers that only require $500 margin for daytrading.
sandygray66, Good info. I was trying after the regular session so I guess that might fall under the overnight margin requirements. I will give it a try during the day and see what happens. Thanks!!!
overnight means holding from 4:15 EDT to 4:30 EDT (when the exchange shuts down for 15 minutes). If you don't hold over that period, then it's just a daytrade, even if the trade is initiated after hours.
sandygray66, That makes sense. I will double check with the broker on their margin requirements. Again, thanks!!!
That's not exactly accurate as some brokers view ANY trades outside of RTH as 'overnight'. There are a few threads around here on this subject somewhere, but I think it was mentioned that IB was an example of a firm doing this. Might have changed by now, so have to check w/ your broker.