forex_broker

Good point! I would recommend rolling over about a week prior to expiration if you want to keep the position, usually liquidity shifts to the next expiration several days before the contract expires or first notice anyway.

Good thread, something all Futures traders should be aware of. Holding an E-mini contract past expiration is bad enough but holding a physically delivered contract such as Crude or Gold can be disastrous. The CME has a product calendar for all contracts, this will tell you the last trading date and the settlement date. CL - Light Sweet Crude Oil GC - Gold ZB - U.S. Treasury Bond 6E - EUR/USD 6S-- CHF/USD Although the near month is usually the most liquid, this is not always the case. Take Gold for example, the near month is June, but the most liquid contract is the August 2010 expiration. Gold

This is a good thread that can benefit many traders. Although the question appears quite simple, the answer is a little more complicated. Currently the most liquid futures contract is the June 2010 E-Mini S&P 500, although the Eurodollar (interest rate product, not EUR/USD FX product) has more volume across all expirations, the June expiration of the ES contract traded about 2 mil contracts today compared to the most liquid expiration of the GE contract which traded about 350k contracts today according to the CME. Kospi 200 Futures are very liquid as well with the June 2010 contract trading over 400k contracts today according to the Korea Exchange's website. The most liquid US treasury contract is the June 2010 10 Yr note which traded 1.3 mil contracts today. All of this data can be found on the exchange's website. Chicago Mercantile Exchange: (CME Group - Home), Korea Exchange: (KRX(Korea Exchange))

Hi my name is Jesse and I am a Futures and Forex broker. I think I can shed some light here. The initial or overnight margin for the ES contract set by the exchange (CME) is $5,625 per contract. That means to hold a position overnight (between 4:15 and 4:30 EST) your equity must be at least $5,625 per contract or you will incur a margin call. Each broker is allowed to set a day trading margin which is usually significantly less than the overnight margin, usually around $500 per contract. So if you open and close trades before the overnight period, you will not need to worry about the overnight margin. The ES contract moves in $12.50 ticks with 4 ticks per point, so each point is $50 per contract. So if you have a $5,000 account and the broker's day trading margin for the ES is $500 and you opened one contract, your margin requirement would be $500. If the position moved against you by 90 points and 1 tick ($50 * 90.25 = $4,512.50) you would receive a margin call as your equity would now be less than the margin requirement. (Equity = Balance +/- unrealized gain or loss. Equity = $5,000(balance) - $4,512.50 (unrealized loss) = $487.50 Margin requirement is $500. TheDude: Regarding the structure of FCMs, you may be thinking of clearing vs non clearing FCMs. Open E Cry is a non clearing FCM, meaning they hold customer funds and have a clearing arrangement with one or several clearing firms on the various exchanges, RJO for example is a clearing FCM as they hold customer funds and clear their own trades.