so when you mark to market daily, you have to compare the ending balance to maintenance margin and make a deposit if the end balance falls below maintenance level, and this deposit must bring you back to initial margin? is that right?
this sounds confusing as hell…what is the point of two different margins - one that must be made whole (initial) vs. one that you cannot fall below (maintenance)?
The intial margin is the amount you need to post to initiate the contract; afterward the value of the contract can go up or down right? So if the value of the contract declines to a certain point, which is the maintenance margin, this is the point where the investor would need to deposit more money. With equities the investor would only need to keep the balance at the maintenance margin, with futures they need to deposit enough to bring the balance back to the initial requirement. Make sense?