Question about maintenance margin trading ES confused.

Discussion in 'Risk Management' started by ER9, Feb 3, 2009.

  1. ER9

    ER9

    iv'e enver heard that before...what exactly does that mean? lock limit? does that mean should a position go against you that much that they liquidate part of position regardless of account ballance?
     
    #11     Feb 4, 2009
  2. Tums

    Tums

    you will need full margin for the first overnight.
    then maintenance margin afterwards.
     
    #12     Feb 4, 2009
  3. http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/equity/pricelimits.html

    Don't know why the PDF linked there wasn't updated on Jan 1, it's still the one from Oct 1. Oh well, I don't know where to look for a current one if it's not on the CME site.

    They are price limits. The actual futures aren't allowed to go down more than a certain amount during the night. They're supposed to be set to 5% of the underlying index each quarter at the beginning of the quarter, but I couldn't find limits dated Jan 1.

    After the contract goes down by the limit amount, it stops trading. Actually, that isn't true, I saw it when it was locked down. You could buy it and that transaction would go through (for one tic above the limit), but there was no way to sell it. So, if you were long, you were potentially very screwed (but not really because the gap filled during the day, go figure, you would have ended up a winner buying during the lock limit down!).
     
    #13     Feb 4, 2009
  4. ER9

    ER9

    why do i get a tingly feeling all over when i read this?

    thank you for the link.....and your help has been much appreciated. think iv'e got a very good understanding now of what i needed to know and how it will affect me....
     
    #14     Feb 4, 2009
  5. you need to know at exactly what price you'll get a margin call... as long that price is out of range in the current time frame.. let'er rip
     
    #15     Feb 7, 2009