The minimum charged by the exchange for 1 Nasdaq 100 mini futures contract is $15,500. Interactive brokers charge nearly double that to hold 1 contract in the overnight session $27,993 to initiate the order and $25,448 to maintain it. I remember during the 2008 crisis they would bump this contract up to $7000.00 due to volatility, then back down to $4000.00 when things calmed down. IB has a lot of exposure offering so many products in various countries has to be the reason for such outlandish margin requirements.
Here is Ninja Trader's. I use to use Tradovate, and theirs's was much lower than IB's also. No idea why anyone uses IB for futures. https://ninjatrader.com/PDF/ninjatrader_futures_contract_details.pdf
2008 - NQ was 1000 points 2022- NQ is 12 000 points So NQ margin requirement should increase by 12 times !!!!!!!! that's why the Exchange has to create mini, micro, nano, super nano ..... things to bring down the margin requirement. Who knows, there might be mother-of-all Tulip Mania coming up soon due to war and famine and a massive exponential increase in the human population and a massive decrease in the wild animal population.
Human fertility rates have been on the decline. Also, we won't have nearly the same number of new workers in this century as the last. I can't remember where I saw the stats. Take it at face value.