Smallest amount to trade silver?

Yeah thats true, but its also true for silver too so its not a gold specific thing. Actually you need to be careful of changes in overnight maintenance margin requirements for all futures products to be honest. CME changes margin requirements on their products all the time, on a whim. Actually they recently decreased the margin requirement for gold & silver, so my expectation will be they will increase it again in the future perhaps.

Then again, this is true for ALL products, not just futures. Your broker can change margin requirements for anything on a whim overnight too. Your stock can go from 50% margin to 100%, and they tell you maybe a day or two ahead of time if they are nice. And then all of a sudden you have like a day to be margin compliant by the deadline, which means massive deleveraging if over leveraged and taking a loss perhaps on some positions.

All of these execution related and portfolio managing stuff comes with the territory though. My mentality is anytime you are betting on the market, you are on borrowed time, and skating on thin ice on someone's good terms. Terms can change, such as margin requirements, or borrowing rates, and then you are at risk of not being able to sustain a certain position you hold. This all goes back to risk management. You have to account for these things sometimes too. In other words, be careful when over-leveraging. Anything can happen. Play at your own peril and you accept the risks.
 
gainpower777 said:
you can't? since when? I have pepperstone on my I pad and silver is present
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Where do you live? The US has all kinds of stupid rules. The excuse is that they keep people from losing their money trading. Now try and say that with a straight face.
 
I sold some coins and other stuff through an auctioneer a few weeks ago. I didn't bother requesting a minimum price on my stuff because in the previous auction I got some fantastic prices. This time was different. My 20 war nickels went for $2 total (less auctioneer fee). Each war nickel has about $1.10 in silver. My 61 1965-1969 40% silver half dollars went for far FAR less than the silver value (each one has $2.89 in silver). To make matters worse, the half dollars were mostly mint state with a few that were XF. In the previous auction, I was selling well circulated 40% half dollars for about $8 each!

The point is you can sometimes score some cheap silver at auctions (I guess, I didn't see any crazy buys at the next auction). Also, the lowest entry point for silver speculation is coin silver. A 1964 dime has $1.41 in silver.

If I were a broke young dude wanting to get some silver (and unable to get a job because of age, school, etc.), I would borrow the Krause Publications foreign coin book from the library. Many people have foreign coins. Some of which have silver. The book will tell you how much silver is in each 1932 florin or 1967 Canadian quarter. Make an offer for a fraction of the silver value.
 
butterfacetrader said:
Yeah thats true, but its also true for silver too so its not a gold specific thing. Actually you need to be careful of changes in overnight maintenance margin requirements for all futures products to be honest. CME changes margin requirements on their products all the time, on a whim. Actually they recently decreased the margin requirement for gold & silver, so my expectation will be they will increase it again in the future perhaps.

Then again, this is true for ALL products, not just futures. Your broker can change margin requirements for anything on a whim overnight too. Your stock can go from 50% margin to 100%, and they tell you maybe a day or two ahead of time if they are nice. And then all of a sudden you have like a day to be margin compliant by the deadline, which means massive deleveraging if over leveraged and taking a loss perhaps on some positions.

All of these execution related and portfolio managing stuff comes with the territory though. My mentality is anytime you are betting on the market, you are on borrowed time, and skating on thin ice on someone's good terms. Terms can change, such as margin requirements, or borrowing rates, and then you are at risk of not being able to sustain a certain position you hold. This all goes back to risk management. You have to account for these things sometimes too. In other words, be careful when over-leveraging. Anything can happen. Play at your own peril and you accept the risks.
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They don't change margins on a whim. They do it based on an algo that takes into account market volatility and their exposure risk.
 
seriously... why are there so many incorrect answers...

1- open a futures account
2- deposit their minimum
3- Buy 1 NYSE Liffe Mini Silver contract- Margin requirement $1,815.

If there is no minimum to put into futures account then you only need to put $1,815 into margin.

There is no other mini silver futures account you can trade which provides any liquidity. The NYSE Liffe is the most liquid and currently you should only look at the July, September, or December 2014 contracts. Other contracts are liquid.

Notice if silver goes from say 21.009 to 20.844 then you will had to add to your margin $165.

If silver goes from 21.009 to 21.509 your account balance will be $2,315.

Note this does not include commission fees. Generally $20-75 Round turn.

So figure put 2k into account.
 
Andersi said:
seriously... why are there so many incorrect answers...

If there is no minimum to put into futures account then you only need to put $1,815 into margin.

So figure put 2k into account.
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Please tell me what FCM is going to let you take flat price directional risk, even with 1 NYSE Liffe Mini Silver contract, for the initial margin amount without any additional capital in an account. Seriously back to you.
 
bone said:
Please tell me what FCM is going to let you take flat price directional risk, even with 1 NYSE Liffe Mini Silver contract, for the initial margin amount without any additional capital in an account. Seriously back to you.
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Your right. If an FCM would let you open account with no minimum deposit then you can do it with $1815. Most FCM's require a 10K account.
 
I need to edit my statement. The silver mini's traded on the NYSE/LIffe will migrate to ICE Futures this weekend. Looks with the move the margin requirements are dropping 32%!

New minimum margin required to get a mini silver contract is $1375.
 
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