For serious approach, a trader should focus on the risk that he will take. And the risk should not pass max.% 2 ( % 1 is better ) of the account size. If he takes 2 pts risk of any trade which is $ 100 ,then required account size would be $ 5000. For % 1 its $ 10K. Its all about risk / reward. IMO
Forget account size. The question is how much can you afford to lose without it doing serious damage to your liquid net worth and/or your psyche? If you can afford to lose $5,000 no sweat, then that's all you need to fund your account. I'm sure it varies, but I would say that most of the futures brokers are going to require around $5,000 to open an account, even if they offer $500 margins on the e-minis. There is no reason to have 25-50K or more in a futures account that is uninsured when $5,000 will do. Worst case scenario, you incur some losses and you have to wire more funds into the futures the account. I would much rather have my money in my bank than in some uninsured futures broker's sub-account.
About as insightful as any other idea presented. "5k sounds good" why the hell does that sound good? oh cuz thats what you have available. adr70 is the only one who you should be listening to anyways. not me.....
I disagree. The 2% should be of liquid net worth, not account size. If I have $1,000,000 of liquid net worth but I chose to open a $5,000 futures account, I should only risk $100? Come on. Again, account size is irrelevant.
Now that was insightful! I have up to 30k that I would be willing to put in a trading account. Although, I like to use the least amout of capital possible and create maximum results.
you should have at least $7000.. thats higher then $6500, and because brokers are making higher intraday margins at this moment. no more $500 a contract in current volatility. keep in mind CME ES margin is now at $6500.. thats almost a 50% rise since some months ago If you start with 5000, lose only 2000 you could already be unable to trade to try to make back that money because margins have already been raised if the intraday ranges keep increasing.
Is that an IB? If thats so the FCM that clears for them can change margins overnight.. website arent always up to date
Two things. First. You can still get $500 e-mini intra-day margins. Check out Velocity Futures for example. Secondly, the initial ES margin is $6,188, not $6,500. http://www.cme.com/clearing/rmspan/pbadv/files/Chadv08-299.pdf