This is the new requirement:
The benchmark West Texas Intermediate light, sweet crude oil futures contract maintenance margins will increase from $5,000/contract to $6,250/contract effective at the close of business Tuesday, May 10, Chris Grams at CME Group told Dow Jones in an email. The move was CME's third increase in 2011.Not exactly earth-shattering. It will effect small players only. Anything the government does to eliminate background noise regarding oil futures is welcome. Yes, I did say that, and it is counter-intuitive.
The headline for the linked story above: "Crude Tumbles As CME Margin Hike Spooks Investors."
Oil futures tumbled all the way to $101.
NOG says their production expenses for first quarter 2011 were $5.24 per BOE on an accrued basis, compared to $3.15 per BOE on an accrued basis for the first quarter of 2010 and $3.69 per BOE on an accrued basis for the fourth quarter of 2010.
Oil futures likely to remain volatile:
Other analysts expect oil prices to continue gaining due to renewed strength in stock markets, continued strong Chinese demand and OPEC output restraint. Ritterbusch and Associates said dramatic oil price swings are likely to continue this month, pegging it at a low of $92 and fresh high above $115 a barrel.
Margin requirements are set by the futures exchanges themselves and not the govt. So the govt had no role in cme margin decision.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting to note that the margin is a fixed amount per contract and not a %equity like stock markets. Not clear to me how a trade would get a "margin call" based on price movement of the underlying as happens in stock market.
Also note that as price of the underlying increases so does leverage because of the fixed margin price.