Just a heads up that TradeStation is now charging a $75 liquidation fee no matter the number of contracts. They've always had this fee but I'd never been charged it before despite having a margin call notification. I was told it's now policy to always charge the $75 fee for margin calls. Their day trading rates are only valid until 4:15p ET not until the one hour pause at 5p ET so I've now been caught off guard twice by their margin calls at 4:15p ET.
How do you close after 4:15 pm ET and not be part of the next day? Your positions at 4:15 pm are what the exchange calculates your margin on.
I was under the impression the day doesn't end until the one hour pause starts at 5pm ET. Then the new day begins at 6pm ET. I assumed so since the first trading day starts at 6pm ET on Sunday. Do all brokers end their intraday margin rates at 4:15pm ET? If you're negative at 4:15pm ET, do all brokerages charge a margin call fee? Thanks for the information.
If you are getting margin calls, you are over leveraged. Reduce your size. @Robert Morse With my broker, trades between 4:30PM and 5PM are considered for that calendar day's trade date, aside from the weird holiday rules. From what I recall, 4:15 is a HALT, and 5PM is the CLOSE?
ES Futures trade from Sunday at 6pm ET to Monday 4:15 ET. That is Monday's Trading day. The CME expects the margin to be available based on the maintenance level at that time. If you do not have that, they expect you to add money or liquidate to be above the Initial requirement the following trading session. The exchange requirement is the minimum and your broker/FCM can require more. If you have the privilege of excess margin for day trading, you should respect that and not exceed that at end of day. If you exceed your margin that day, we do not charge a margin fee that day, we start to charge on day 2. Keep in mind that this equity needs to be meet so your FCM must use their capital to meet it if you do not. If you continue to get margin calls we would remove your day trading excess and set you to 100% or higher.
4:30-5 is for TAS (Trading at Settlement ) orders and I do not think ES has that. And, those trades are part of the next day. You can't use a TAS to reduce the EOD margin.
I can see that for other days except Friday... the ES... So... you place a trade between 4:30 and 5:00, and you don't have to meet exchange minimum margins for holding overnight/weekend... and those trades are part of next Monday's business? I saw on a CME web page that settlement in the ESM was at 4:15.