I see these deep discount futures brokers like Advanced Futures, Mirus, or Amp, etc.. When they say a 500 day margin does that mean it only take 500 dollars to buy one ES contract? And if so what is the cost per point then? is it still 50 dollars per point? or 200? Say I bought a contract at 1170 and got stopped out at 1165 is that a 250 loss or more? Kind of confused. Only trade stocks so have never looked at this.
Yes, you need only $500 in your account for each contract you buy for a day trade... but exchange overnight margins still apply if you don't close the trade by end of day. Yes, $50 per point.... 5-point loss on 1 contract = -$250, - vig, of course.
The intra-day margin can be "low" but you still need to have a decent enough amount of money in the account to withstand fluctuations.
That's what the ES is, at any account size or margin rate. If you meant it's a hard hit as a percentage of your account, well, yes it is. But a single ES contract that goes against you 5 points is going to be a $250 loss whether you have $500, $5000, $50,000 or $500,000 in your account to begin with.
Probably wise but you can trade ES with as little as a 5K account if you use proper risk controls and do not hold positions overnight. Granted you are trading on a shoestring and will probably be adding money to the account after awhile. OP is better off though looking at YM to start trading equity index futures though. ES is not a very forgiving market to small accounts. $250 = 50 points on the YM
I hear you .. and thanks for the input. The /NQ isn't bad either, certainly tons of liquidity. My broker requires tons of margin but that is actually helping me in the long run .. keeping moe outta trouble. I like the /ZN. I've gotten good fills on the /QM crude mini and /YG mini gold when /GC is really humming. All three of these markets are great from 8am to 12 noon and then they go dead. This is also important for all traders ... working 4 hours and then getting the hell off the screen. Better to work 4 hours on your day job/working out/playing with the kids/doing chores for wifey.
Damn gnome, I just noticed you are already back to 3000 posts since your "retirement" at 10K? impressive to do that many posts in a single year... over 8 posts avg a day... I am in awe