Quote from craigross:
Hi Lee
Your right, many firms raised their daytrade margins after the May 6th "Flash Crash" and during the '07-'08 madness, but not us. We have had those margins for years without every raising them. Personally, I think it is too dangerous to use that much leverage, but we do offer it should a trader want to use it.
Craig
increasenow, i just got off the phone with globalfutures and they told me something that i didnt like. lets say i got $5000 in my account and i buy 10 dow mini contracts at the beginning of the day for $500 a contract. that means my margin is totally maxed out. the guy said if 1 minute later im in the negative by 1 dollar than they will automaticly sell my contracts to meet the call without allowing me to do so myself at the end of the day. is this true? apex futures told me that with them they had a daily loss limit and they wouldnt force me to sell contracts unless i lost over $3000 that day.Quote from increasenow:
go to www.GlobalFutures.com in my opinion, they are simply the best and have many low daytrade margins...
Ask Apex Futures again... Written contracts usually prevails over what a salesperson said on the phone.Quote from johnpalley:
increasenow, i just got off the phone with globalfutures and they told me something that i didnt like. lets say i got $5000 in my account and i buy 10 dow mini contracts at the beginning of the day for $500 a contract. that means my margin is totally maxed out. the guy said if 1 minute later im in the negative by 1 dollar than they will automaticly sell my contracts to meet the call without allowing me to do so myself at the end of the day. is this true? apex futures told me that with them they had a daily loss limit and they wouldnt force me to sell contracts unless i lost over $3000 that day.
Quote from craigross:
Hi Lee
Not for daytrades, but for position trades every firm has initial/maintenance margins per the exchange rules.
Craig
honestly John Palley, you need to go to serious futures trading school...seriously. If the other traders are reading this, they will 'eat you alive'...even with a $5,000 account you should only be trading like 1, perhaps maybe 2 mini-Dow contracts intraday...even 5,6,7,8 is too much for a $5,000 account...one unforeseen mini-Dow drop like happens, meaning 50-100 points in 5 minutes or so...your account is gone...really really really think about it and do demo trading first...Quote from johnpalley:
increasenow, i just got off the phone with globalfutures and they told me something that i didnt like. lets say i got $5000 in my account and i buy 10 dow mini contracts at the beginning of the day for $500 a contract. that means my margin is totally maxed out. the guy said if 1 minute later im in the negative by 1 dollar than they will automaticly sell my contracts to meet the call without allowing me to do so myself at the end of the day. is this true? apex futures told me that with them they had a daily loss limit and they wouldnt force me to sell contracts unless i lost over $3000 that day.
That's teh way it works with "unregulated" trading such as forex and spread-betting. If a trader know what he/she is doing, the margin is never fully utilised.Quote from johnpalley:
ithat means my margin is totally maxed out. the guy said if 1 minute later im in the negative by 1 dollar than they will automaticly sell my contracts to meet the call without allowing me to do so myself at the end of the day. is this true?
you worried about the wrong thing...it is not about being liquidated with your $5,000 margin maxed out intraday...the thing to be concerned with is that you are thinking of doing it...AGAIN...you put 5,6,7,8,9 mini dow contracts in a $5,000 account and a 'normal' sudden mini-dow move...your account is finished. I would not suggest you trade 1, maybe 2 mini-dow contracts after months of trading...Quote from johnpalley:
so since im worried about stuff like this than apex futures would be the better choice instead of globalfutures right?