Simulation margin

[JoshDance]

On my simulator options, it has "Margin / unit" as 1000, and my simulator balance is about 11000. Yet, I was able to open a position of 40+ contracts today! Am I misunderstanding this setting?

Moreover, how would I go about setting a different margin requirement per instrument?

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hello

Did you reset the simulator after applying your custom settings? If you have not yet please make sure to reset the simulator.

With a cash Value of 11,000 and the margin set to 1000 you should receive a rejection from the simulation engine for 40 contracts

[JoshDance]

Thank you Matthew for the quick response.

I don't recall changing the setting from the default, though perhaps I did.

Here's what I would like to do:

I'd like to be able to limit the number of contracts I can trade based on the account balance.

Imagine that my balance is 10000 and my margin is 2500, so I can have 4 contracts open. If it were to shrink to 5000, I'd want to limit it to 4000 maybe, so that I can only trade 1 contract. So, I'd like the margin to be flexible depending on the account balance. Is this possible?

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Yes, this is possible and should work as such. You can configure the Maintenance margin which is the minimum required level of margin as a percent of the value the cash value, and also set the margin/unit which controls the minimum amount of margin to trade a single unit.

And sorry I mispoke - you can set the margin for a particular futures contract by going to Tools--> Instrument Manager--> edit the Instrument you wish to change--> set the "margin" value

[JoshDance]

Let's start from here, and see where I am probably misunderstanding the issue.

I set the sim account initial balance to 10000. Margin to 0.50, which I would think would require 5000 in the account per contract opened. Now, if I set margin/unit to 500, which one of these trumps the other? In the video you will see that with the above settings I am able to open 66 contracts, but not more, and I would expect it to reject anything above 20.

http://screencast.com/t/LzrRtc2TGds

[JoshDance]

I know it's Sunday guys, but any word on this yet?

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Hello,

Thanks for your patience.

Please check into the following should clear up your understanding on how it works.

Basically Margin setting has no affect on if orders get rejected or not rejected on the simulator.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/simulator_tab.htm

Expand on the bottom of the page:

How the Margin parameters impact Account values

-Brett

[JoshDance]

Thanks Brett. After reading this, I am utterly confused, as the definitions seem to be a little contrary to what I have in my head already. Sorry for being dim-witted...

Perhaps we could approach this from a different perspective.

Let's say that with a 10000-12000 balance on my sim account, I want to limit the number of contracts traded to 3. What settings would I use?

[Laserdan]

I might add that he wants to trade futures...I was confused also and would like an answer as well.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Hello,

I would use the following settings.

[JoshDance]

This did not work Brett--I was still able to trade many more than 3 contracts. And yes, I did a reset on the account.

So, I changed the margin field in the Instrument Editor. This seems to work. It seems that the margin settings in the simulator options have no real effect on what margins are supposed to be primarily used for.

Further, it seems the documentation is mislead at best--see the screen shot attached.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Josh,


Forgot to mention.


Most likely you did not reset the simulator for the settings to take effect.


These figures only take affect and are what are used to initialize the simulator account on reset.

-Brett

[JoshDance]

Most likely you did not reset the simulator for the settings to take effect.

Brett, I did reset it, per my last post -- also, did you watch the video I posted above? I show that I reset the account and have a margin of 500 per unit, and still am able to trade 60+ units on a 10000 account.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

With the account reset and the margin at 0 on the contract itself if you place a trade for 1 contract what is excess equity at in the accounts tab start at and then what it is at after the 1 long trade?

-Brett

[JoshDance]

With the account reset and the margin at 0 on the contract itself if you place a trade for 1 contract what is excess equity at in the accounts tab start at and then what it is at after the 1 long trade?

-Brett

Before: 20000
During: 16991.20
After: 19962.68