Hello, I was doing well growing a small account under $2000. Yesterday I had a bad trade and broke a rule I let stress take over and chased the market to make up for the loss that resulted in more loss. I learned a valuable lesson you cannot learn trading simulated. Today I received notice im under margin. Im trading micro e mini. It says i need minimum of $1500 but also sqys i need $23,000. Ive never had any previous notice about $23000. I dont have $23000. I was under the impression trading micro allows you to start with little money. Can someone explain, Im wising i can continue to trade mes once I bring my account back to close to $2000. Thank you.
Your interaday margin is different than your overnight margins. Overnight you’d need the CME initial margin (~$3,355 per MNQ), so $2,000 can’t hold any MNQ past the cutoff.
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Thank you. That is very helpful. One more question if I can, does my minimal margin limit me to trading one share ( order quantity) per trade. I see some trading 4 or more. Thank you.
The margin is per contract. So you can trade more than one proving your buying power allows it. But id encourage you to understand leverage. If you do, margin will never be an issue. If you over leverage yourself, your multiplying your wins but your also multipling your losses. You wont be able to substain any sort of move against you and youll get margin calls all the time. So id say to make sure you understand risks and leverage. Trading is all about survival. 
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Well, now im more confused. I added another $500 today and it says it was accepted but its not showingmor I was docked. I received this message. How much more do i need to be able to trade mes? And no over night trading just daytime market hours? Sorry for the questions.
My account is currently at $800. I was at 2300 yesterday until i messed up.
Good thing about NinjaTrader brokerage is they let you set a daily loss and it will lock your account if you reach it.
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These are the normal standard rules for MES:
- daytrading $500
- full margin if you go overnight $2344.68
- no minimum account size, but you need at least $500 margin plus some extra to cover losses on open positions.
The $23,459.50 is the full margin for the mini ES, so not the micro ES.
If your net liquidity was $900, and you added $500, you should be able to trade the MES. But maximum 2 contracts.
I have no idea if Ninjatrader restricts your trading in case of heavy losses.
Maybe call clientservice and ask them what the problem is.
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Just mentioning Not sure if this is a suggestion to the user or you are stating that this is the actual margin required. If the latter you are incorrect as you do not need $500.00 to trade the MES.
“NinjaTrader offers clients aggressive $50 intraday margins for Micro contracts and only $500 for popular futures markets including the E-mini S&P 500.”
In the bigger picture anyone attempting to trade should not take as accurate from a forum. I would advise you actually speak to your broker.
Cheers
You cannot trade the MES with just $50 as you will be stopped out immediately. You need $50 + extra money as you should always have $50 on your account, also if your trade will go $1 against you while trading. And that will happen with a 100% certainty.
My 500 for MES was a typo, should indeed be $50, but with an additional amount for possible losses. Not a single professional trader will trade MES with just $50. If you cannot risk more money, you should not trade at all.
It’s wild how often people don’t know that futures are inherently highly leveraged instruments. Just to put it into more perspective, 1 MES is about 50 shares of SPY.
Ask them what is the notional value of 1 contract MES?
The majority probably has no clue.
And for this notional value there should only be a $50 margin? LOL.
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