I have just opened an account with IB, I haven't traded futures before, only stocks. I am trying to understand the margin requirements.. could anyone please confirm what I understood so far: I look at the margin req. list from this url: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/cgi-pub/margin_amer.pl Taking 2 examples: GLOBEX NQ NQ 1125 900 2250 1800 I gather that to trade one NQ contract intraday, I would need initial margin of $1125, maint. margin of $900? That would mean leverage of about 1:20? For overnights, I would need init. $2250, maint. $1800, that would mean leverage of about 1:10? LSSF IBM IBM 433 346 865 692 Using the same logic, I gather that to trade one IBM contract (SSF@1C), I again get a leverage of about 1:20 intraday and 1:10 overnight? If I got this right, then can some explain what does the requirement of 20% (init./maint.) of SSF means? found under this url: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/marginRequirements/singleStockFutures.html Thanks a lot for patience and help dudeness
LSSF = LIFFE SSF (aka USF) www.liffe.com/products/equities/stock_futures/index.htm LIFFE is a different market with different rules. The 20% margin for SSF is for markets OneChicago and NQLX.
Thanks for this LSSF clarification. So I understand that the 1:20 intraday / 1:10 overnight leverage applies to the Globex NQ and to the Liffe SSF. Thanks dudeness