Maintenance margin refers to the minimum amount of money or collateral that an investor must keep in their account to avoid their positions being liquidated. It acts as a safety net to protect against losses and ensures that the investor has enough funds to cover potential losses in their trades.
Full definition
I have also seen in one place the words «initial margin call» and «
maintenance margin call» making me think that either type of requirement might appear in the same context.
Initial margin requirements are not the same
as maintenance margin requirements, which also may be increased or decreased based on market volatility.
A margin call is a broker's demand on an investor using margin to deposit additional money or securities so that the margin account is brought up to the
minimum maintenance margin.
Maintenance margin A set minimum margin per outstanding futures contract that a customer must maintain in their margin account.
This calculation can become very complex with different asset classes with
differing maintenance margins because the margin debt is applied to all securities collectively.
Derbit, the Lithuanian based bitcoin futures and options exchange today announced they changed Initial Margin back to 10 % and
Maintenance Margin back to 5 %.
Footnotes: [1] Keyword: quote stuffing [2] Keyword: overnight margin (aka positional margin, as opposed to intraday margin), this is highly broker dependent, exchanges don't usually distinguish between intraday and overnight margins, instead they use the collective term maintenance margin
If the investor does not deposit $ 5,000 in a timely manner, his broker can liquidate securities for the value sufficient to bring his account in compliance with
maintenance margin rules.
Coinfloor's Bitcoin Futures contracts have initial margin requirements of 20 % and
maintenance margin requirements of 15 % while CME has initial margin requirements of 43 % along with variation margins.
In case if the value starts depreciating, you will have to transfer the funds to remain above
minimum maintenance margin, else, Kotak Securities Ltd. can liquidate the position, held by you (to cover the required shortfall %).
Maintenance Margin A set minimum margin (per outstanding futures contract) that a customer must maintain in his margin account.
Brokers initiate a margin call when futures drop below a threshold known as
a maintenance margin.
There are two types of margin: initial margin and
maintenance margin.
Contracts have an initial margin and
a maintenance margin.
Maintenance margin is the amount you have to keep in your account at all times.
If you lose money on a trade, you will have to put in an equal amount of money into your account to maintain
your maintenance margin, similar to having a margin account with stocks.
The firm can increase
its maintenance margin requirements at any time and / or not grant an extension of time on a margin call.
Xtrade always displays
the Maintenance Margin level for each individual instrument.
The Maintenance Margin level is the minimum amount of equity needed to maintain an Open Position.
You can view
your Maintenance Margin under the My Account Bar on the left side of the Main Page.
For ICE, initial margin is $ 4,290 per contract;
maintenance margin is $ 3,900.
The Maintenance Margin that is needed to maintain 200 Google Shares is 1 %: $ 1,080.
Should your equity fall below the minimum amount, Xtrade will automatically execute a Margin Call trade and close any open positions until your account equity exceeds
the Maintenance Margin level requirement.
Please remember that
your Maintenance Margin is continuously monitored in real - time.
The Maintenance Margin Level requirements are specific to each financial instrument.
The maintenance margin is the minimum amount a trader is required to have in their account and is usually slightly below the initial margin.
If the balance in the account falls below
the maintenance margin level, they will receive a margin call to replenish the account balance to meet the initial margin requirement.
Once a trader meets the initial margin requirement, they are required to maintain
the maintenance margin level until the position is closed.
When stock hits 10 $ (your strike),
the maintenance margin is 5 $.
As soon as stock goes past 10,
your maintenance margin is violated.
When margin is calculated as the equity percentage of an account, the point at which a broker will forcibly liquidate is typically called «
maintenance margin».
To calculate the price at which this will occur, the initial and
maintenance margin must be known.
At an initial margin of 50 % and
a maintenance margin of 25 %, a long equity may fall by 1/3 before forced liquidation, a short one may rise by 50 %.
Along with the initial margin,
a maintenance margin has to be maintained by the trader so that he is able to cover up the losses in case of adverse market scenarios.
For example if the initial margin for a mini silver contract is $ 1,000 and
the maintenance margin level is $ 750, $ 1,000 would need to be allocated as initial margin.
The maintenance margin level is NOT additional to the initial margin.
The maintenance margin is the amount of initial margin that must be maintained for that position before a margin call is generated.
Since her broker's
maintenance margin is 50 percent, she's short 12.5 percent, or $ 2,500.
Phrases with «maintenance margin»