Intraday Futures Spreads margin requirement

and yes, there is something called exchange implied spreads, and they trade under their own symbol. Most of them involve interest rates.

I've never traded them and don't know how liquid they are, but a poster named "bone" is quite knowledgable about them, and all the other things you are asking.

 

Exchanges generally dont ask for ANY margin for intraday positions - spreads or out right.

You only need to post margin if your holding overnight/past the close.

Any intraday margins required are set by your broker, so go ask him/her. Most professional brokers probably wont/may not put you on an intraday margin amount, but give you an intraday position limit - which they will be more generous with as their confidence in you increases.

 

I don't know what kind of blackhand exchange you are trading on, but if you ever go to Chicago for a hot dog, an overstuffed pizza or a cubs game, stop by the CME and they will politely require you to put up margin even for an intraday spread, they call it "initial."

But in the old days, there was no inital margin requirement for spreads unless it was old crop/new crop

 

Thanks for all the responses. What brokers would be ideal for intraday spreads?

 

You MUST tell your sales point of contact that you will be spread trading. The risk dept. will make some adjustments to your account default settings. Having said that, they will quickly take that back if you are simply letting naked legs run wild in the market. Spread trades mean offset or 'hedged' positions.

Any large, reputable Chicago FCM like RJ O'Brien, RCG, Advantage, Crossland, Kottke, etc. etc. will have a risk manager who will adjust your account default settings to accomodate intraday spreads. At Advantage, for example, they give my clients 4:1 intraday leverage before the overnight CME margins for spreads kick in.

An Introducing Broker will not know what the f*** to do typically. Deal directly with the FCM. Most IBs do not have risk systems robust enough to accomodate properly margined spread positions. From what I have seen, they typically tend to treat each leg as outright risk. Which is, of course, lazy and incorrect.