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If you have $2000, you are trading a $2000 account from a risk perspective, not a $40,000 account, regardless of what a prop shop will provide you. And previous posters are right, the far more important question is: "What can I lose on this trade?" One thing that is often forgotten or seemingly...

The futures price will be the spot price, plus or minus the cost of carry, interest, silo storage, etc. (whatever is appropriate to the specific market) plus or minus the market's expectation for the future as of the contract expiration date. If the price of gold (or any) futures was just...

One thing to keep in mind when trading in a margin account, whether futures, stocks, indices or options, is that you are liable for all losses, not just what you have in your account. If you were short a ten-lot in beans today, you would be down $25,000, and unable to close the position as it...

That's true with equities, but with futures you are generally paid interest on your margin balances. Jessie

In essence yes, (with equities) but it's not risk free, and that is in part what you are really paying for. There have been large houses taken down by sudden gap moves that their customers couldn't cover. I don't (won't) trade the over-the-counter forex market, so I really don't know whether...

It's not an interest free loan. In the case of securities, you DO pay interest on your margin balance to the brokerage firm that carries your account. With futures, nothing actually changes hands prior to delivery, so there is no money borrowed, the margin is simply a performance bond. You have...

The answer is that YOU have actually agreed to put up the difference, and pledged your assets to do so, you just don't necessarily deposit it in your account at the time of the trade. Your required margin is just a small performance bond, but you are liable for the full amount at all times. If...

There are also designated market makers for the CBOT gold eminis, so the volume figures are deceptive. You can get free real-time quotes with bid & ask for these contracts, and if you watch them, the spread is usually as tight as the Comex large contracts, at least for volumes up to about 50X50...

LLC is really cheap & easy to do, and you can basically divert as much or as little income as "salary" as you wish. It gives you a lot of flexibility in a lot of different tax areas. My wife is an "employee", providing "support and administrative services" and this allows her to put away IRA...

I don't know about the equities side of things, but the NFA website will tell you exactly who is exempt and who requires registration when trading managed futures. I would assume that the NASD website has something similar. Jessie www.nfa.futures.org

You might get executed at a slightly higher price, but it is unusual. When the market trades through your price, your stop order becomes a market order. If the next trade is higher (I have had this happen on occasion), then your fill might be somewhat (typically very slightly) higher as well...

It's also not uncommon for people to have accounts traded by a number of different CTA's, and want to use the same cash "pool" for margin. Most CTA's use only a fraction of available margin at any given time, so if they are uncorrelated, you can have a number of different managers trading the...

You may also want to look into creating an entity for your trading. The regs are generally somewhat different for small business policys, for instance, where I live, it is illegal for a business/group policy to not provide maternity coverage, whereas that is a common exclusion for individual...

An option that is out of the money has no liquidation value at expiration. It simply expires worthless. Jessie

The NFA also has info on the regs and disclosure documents, and they are really helpful in getting you started if you let them know you are new. As far as how to compensate brokers that bring you funds, it is common practice for them to "handle" the account and then be compensated from the...

When you worry about things like default on exchange traded options or futures, it is important to remember that you don't really trade with another individual or company. Technically the exchange clearing house is always a middleman, and acts as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every...

I don't know about cattle, but in beans and corn, you can often do 1,000+ with no more than a tick or two slippage, and hundreds are no problems at all, generally the same fill as a ten-lot, assuming you have a good pit broker (which is WORLDS more important in the ags than anything else). Jessie

Beans have rallied largely on the basis of soymeal, which will be fed as a replacement for the bone meal and animal protein which is a large component of animal feed. Cattle will likely be fed longer than is typical, held on feedlots until the BSE mess hopefully blows over, and that will further...

It's pretty easy to work your way out of a position that size (or even much larger), you don't have to do it all at once. You can lay off the risk in the big pit, or by using options, or even (now MUCH easier because of the CCL cross margining) in the Dow, until you can work your way out at...

I know of at least several prop firms in Chicago that trade that sort of size on those contracts. One prop trader I know who does that sort of size on the Dax had also previously spent 10 years in the financial pits, so he had a pretty good feel for things going in. As to your question about...