I looked up the margin requirements for NQ and it said $3,200 per contract. I thought this was set by the exchange and your broker could add to the requirement if they wanted to. However on other websites, i've found smaller margin requirements for the nq. Example, OEC says the margin requirement is $2,500 with a day of $500. What do that mean? $2,500 margin and $500 maintenance? On mirus futures they say it is typically $500 per contract? wtf? The impression I was under is that it costs $3,200 for one contract, of which every point=$20. What am i missing?
There is overnight that is set by the exchange which is the 3200 but brokers can set the day trading margin which is the 500 you see from mirus.
I see, i don't plan on holding overnight, but i do plan on trading at night. so the margin intraday is only $500 and that still equals $20 per point?
1 NQ pt = 20 bucks no matter what the margin is. If you are trading between 9:30 - 4:00 ET its intraday margin rates. Outside those hours its 3200.
I see, i wasnt sure if the $500 was some kind of smaller contract or something. Awesome this is what I wanted to know, thanks for your help.