Does anyone use interactive brokers to trade futures or just trade futures? Please help!

Hi All

I am starting to trade futures through interactive brokers and have some questions.

1) Looking at the copper futures contract (HG Dec'16), IB shows that the multiple = 25,000. Does that mean for every $1 move, the risk for reward is $25,000. For every 0.0001 move the risk for reward = $2.5?

2) looking at the mini-gold contract (QO Dec'16). IB shows the multiple = 50. So I'd presume every $1 move = risk for reward of $50.

3) looking at wheat futures contract (ZW Dec'16). IB shows the multiple = 5,000. I'd presume that for every $1 move, the risk for reward = $5,000. This is pretty fuckin leveraged!

I hope there is some genius out there to help me out. Cheers

26 Comments
 

futures newbie question (head in sand), how do you trade more contracts using less margin.

Is that even possible?

Reviewing that contract, current Margin Requirements Intraday Initial: 1500.00 Intraday Maintenance: 1200.00 Overnight Initial: 1500.00 Overnight Maintenance: 1200.00

I would have thought, if i wanted to buy two contracts, and hold overnight, it would cost me $3k through IB? (i.e. 1,500 times two).

 
Best Response

Margin is just the cash you need in your account to open the position, it's not actually an upfront cost.

Let's say you want to trade a single contract of wheat, you need at least $1500 in your account to initiate the trade. If your position moves more than $300/120 ticks against you, your account balance would fall under the maintenance margin and you get hit with a Margin Call so you need to top up your account to get back to at least $1200.

These requirements set the maximum leverage you can use. Obviously 120 ticks isn't a big margin for error so you wouldn't have just $1500 in your account in the first place.

Intraday vs overnight is just the different requirements (not additive) for intraday vs overnight trades; typically overnight would require more margin because prices can gap btwn sessions.

 

A $1 move would be almost a 50% move in copper... You aren't grasping this at all. These aren't stocks that move by a penny, they move by ticks.

 

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