thanks for your help craigross! does anyone know if its legal to get windows 7 for free somewhere? i was told i needed the 64 bit version
Hi Craig ,I understand from your Web-site you don't have separate "initial" and "maintenance" intraday margins. Is it correct?:
Hi Lee Not for daytrades, but for position trades every firm has initial/maintenance margins per the exchange rules. Craig
increasenow, i just got off the phone with globalfutures and they told me something that i didnt like. lets say i got $5000 in my account and i buy 10 dow mini contracts at the beginning of the day for $500 a contract. that means my margin is totally maxed out. the guy said if 1 minute later im in the negative by 1 dollar than they will automaticly sell my contracts to meet the call without allowing me to do so myself at the end of the day. is this true? apex futures told me that with them they had a daily loss limit and they wouldnt force me to sell contracts unless i lost over $3000 that day.
Ask Apex Futures again... Written contracts usually prevails over what a salesperson said on the phone. The way it usually works with futures is there is "initial" and "maintenance" margin. "Miantenance margin is usually significantly lower, maybe 66% of the "initial" margin. You need to have "initial" margin per future in order to open a position but you won't trigger a "margin call" (some brokers just force-close your position) till you have less than "maintenance" margin per contract. A representative of Apex Future confirmed higher in this thread that they don't have a lower "maintenance" margin for intraday trades: Their "overnight" margin (outside the period of "floor" trading: 9:30-16:00, or even shorter if Apex Futures deem it necessary) is "initial" $5,625 "maintenance" $4,500 http://www.cmegroup.com/wrappedpage...&type=OutrightRates&h=2&reporttype=marginrate
honestly John Palley, you need to go to serious futures trading school...seriously. If the other traders are reading this, they will 'eat you alive'...even with a $5,000 account you should only be trading like 1, perhaps maybe 2 mini-Dow contracts intraday...even 5,6,7,8 is too much for a $5,000 account...one unforeseen mini-Dow drop like happens, meaning 50-100 points in 5 minutes or so...your account is gone...really really really think about it and do demo trading first...
That's teh way it works with "unregulated" trading such as forex and spread-betting. If a trader know what he/she is doing, the margin is never fully utilised.
so since im worried about stuff like this than apex futures would be the better choice instead of globalfutures right? because gb gives no leeway in this department
Hi Lee Our $500 daytrade margins are good anytime the market is open, just make sure you are flat at the market close at 3:15p CST. You can get back in using daytrade margins when the market re-opens at 3:30p CST (5pm Sunday night). Craig
you worried about the wrong thing...it is not about being liquidated with your $5,000 margin maxed out intraday...the thing to be concerned with is that you are thinking of doing it...AGAIN...you put 5,6,7,8,9 mini dow contracts in a $5,000 account and a 'normal' sudden mini-dow move...your account is finished. I would not suggest you trade 1, maybe 2 mini-dow contracts after months of trading... I know many would agree with me...