Margin Calculations

What this video covers

• How initial margin works as the opening deposit per contract, and why you multiply the per-contract requirement by the number of contracts to find the total needed
• What mark-to-market means in futures: the daily repricing of every open position to the exchange settlement price
• How variation margin settles the day's gains and losses in cash, with losers paying and winners receiving through the clearinghouse
• Why a futures margin call restores equity all the way to the initial requirement, not merely to maintenance, and how this differs from securities margin rules
• How maintenance margin is only the trigger for a call, while initial margin is the destination, and why the $300 trap answer is always wrong
• How an exchange can raise margin requirements on positions already open, forcing a deposit even with no new trades and no price movement
• What excess equity means, why it sits strictly above the initial requirement, and why the initial level is also the withdrawal floor