Hi all, I'm a new trader and I started day trading Henry Hub Natural Gas futures. I was told that I violated the Intraday trading policy b/c I didn't flat the position 10 minutes before the market session ends. And I was set to the standard margin. My question is: As trading commodity futures, one cannot choose to do intraday trading AND hold the position over night like trading stocks? One must choose one of those or what? So if I choose intraday trading margin, I MUST close out all the position before the session ends. And if I choose the standard margin, I can only buy and sell one day after. Am I right? By the way, my broker is Generic Trade. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I have no idea who Generic Trade is or their policies. The Clearing exchanges require their margin requirement at the end of session. What your broker allows during the day is up to them. Your FCM or broker can add to exchange margin overnight to reduce risk and their capital requirements. They can even reject the use of overnight positions if they choose.
jovos I think you are wrong. I have traded futures and only requeriment (at least with my broker) was an overnight margin.
I meet the overnight margin and set stop orders for loss. Sometimes I do day trading and sometime I want to hold it overnight. Then I got a violation notice, is there any problem with that?
I meet the maintenance margin requirement. My account was set to use intraday margins. I'm holding a position and I got notice that I should be flat. Is that the rule in future trading that I have to be flat at the end of each day if I'm on intraday margins?
No, it must be a house rule that they only want DT. Iron beam only has $3.6mm in net cap. They have to meet your margin overnight with 8% of their capital. They can't do that for a lot of clients. We can offer up to 25% of SPAN margin if approved by risk and SPAN over-night for accounts of $25K or more. Wedbush has enough to offer overnight margin ($164mm).
It is all right here on this page. http://www.generictrade.com/commissions/margins/ CALL YOUR BROKER ON THE PHONE AND ASK THEM! Stop asking people here who do not know anything about your broker! You can also call the risk department of the exchange you are trading on! You will never get a clear answer here that affects your account! CALL THEM ON THE PHONE AND ASK! ARRRGGGHHHHH! Jeezus!!!!!!
...deep breaths. That calling his broker is the right answer doesn't mean this thread wasn't otherwise informative for those of us looking on in (now broken) silence.
So your saying if the SPAN margin was say $800 for a spread you can offer $200 intraday for that spread ?
The thread was not informative, because as Old Man Morse was trying to point out to jovos, there is no hard-fast rule that can be defined here. It is all up to jovos's broker to define the ultimate rules he/she must follow. OMM mentioned that, and jovos asked again. OMM responded again, and without extra information, jovos will keep spinning his/her wheels looking for an answer on this forum. The direct answer is right in front of him/her now, as I have posted. The answers lay with the broker being used for trading. OMM has provided a direct answer for what Lightspeed Trading may be able to do for jovos, and it may fit him/her. But if jovos wants to apply what OMM said about Lightspeed's rules to Generic Trading, that may not go well. Every broker is different. It is important for traders to know that, if they have not done due diligence and learned all they can about what they are or are not allowed to do with their broker, then they may get caught unawares in a bad situation. I did not mean to have this seem like a rant...It is just frustrating that so many people do not take some obvious steps in trying to learn to be better traders...Like, when in doubt, go to the source. If the source and the middle-man do not agree, then get to the bottom of it.