$300 margin for S&P500 e-minis

[MarketMoverTrader]

My Broker has offered for me to start trading the S&P e-minis for $300 per contract (usually $500).

My round trip commission would go up from $4.80 to $4.95.

This seems really low. Has anyone else traded this market at margins this low, or lower?
Just interested. Thanks.

 

[gc1]

How comfortable are you with the possibility of your account value going negative if you got stuck in a position (e.g. if Globex went down) and the market moved 6 points against you (assuming you used that leverage to its maximum).

 

[MarketMoverTrader]

I'm not comfortable with the idea of that, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of being hit by a car - I still leave my house on that calculated risk. It could happen, but I've been very successful at trading the S&P e-minis so I think this should more benefit me than harm me. I was trading a $500 margin until now anyway, which is already nice and low. If I wasn't a good trader then this would just be an opportunity to accelerate my losses I suppose.

My issue isn't with whether I should take it or not, but rather just wondering if this is as low a margin as anyone else here has had.

 

[sneville]

I'm not comfortable with the idea of that, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of being hit by a car - I still leave my house on that calculated risk. It could happen, but I've been very successful at trading the S&P e-minis so I think this should more benefit me than harm me. I was trading a $500 margin until now anyway, which is already nice and low. If I wasn't a good trader then this would just be an opportunity to accelerate my losses I suppose.

My issue isn't with whether I should take it or not, but rather just wondering if this is as low a margin as anyone else here has had.

You are a successful trader trading the S&P is that $200 drop in margin requirements really going to make any difference?

 

[MarketMoverTrader]

If my margin drops by 40% my ROI per contract traded increases by 60%!
So yes, a big difference.

I earn $50 per point on the S&P e-minis. This has always neatly worked out to a 10% ROI on every contract traded on a $500 margin. Now that same $50 per point earned will be 16% per contract traded at $300 each. Or I can look at it as the ability to trade 2 contracts for only $100 more than the usual 1 contract at $500.

I retro-calculated all my trades for last month. If I had been trading with a $300 margin my ROI on contracts traded (which was 84% for the month) would have been 140%.

 

[sneville]

If my margin drops by 40% my ROI per contract traded increases by 60%!
So yes, a big difference.

I earn $50 per point on the S&P e-minis. This has always neatly worked out to a 10% ROI on every contract traded on a $500 margin. Now that same $50 per point earned will be 16% per contract traded at $300 each. Or I can look at it as the ability to trade 2 contracts for only $100 more than the usual 1 contract at $500.

I retro-calculated all my trades for last month. If I had been trading with a $300 margin my ROI on contracts traded (which was 84% for the month) would have been 140%.

If you are going to trade that close to the wire and only meet the minimum margin requirements, then it is going to make a big difference.