It appears that some of your friends at ECHO are not getting as good a deal as you. You must have put up "more deposit" and therefore got better commish rate and higher leverage deal than some of your friends.
This may sound "odd" (standing up for a "competitor" LOL)...but I'm sure my friends who run Echo allow much more than this for overnight positions, heck 5:1 is essentially retail. Unless things have really changed since the Merrill deal. Jeff? Rob??