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To: ecrire who wrote (24169)	8/27/2011 7:43:26 AM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218639

It varies, but it's getting more and more expensive... Speculative investors in the benchmark 100-troy-ounce gold contract now must put up $9,450 to open a position and maintain $7,000 of that to keep the position overnight. marketwatch.com GZ

To: ecrire who wrote (24169)	8/29/2011 12:12:49 AM
From: KevinKT	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218639

Someone posted the way Comex margin requirement is calculated: investorvillage.com Paste below: *The exchanges should have a formula for changing the margin which is publicized. Therefore, everyone will know what the margin value will probably be based on that formula.* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think if you work in the industry you might have that information it can be purchased thru a suite of products called SPAN. Participants are quite aware of margin changes coming as the software that decides those changes is available to them from the CME. They spell it all out here, it is just math, seems very above board and it manages all futures contracts with this product. It can be purchased for a individual PC. Somehow we on these BB's have made it seem a political decision or such, it really isn't it's just a predefined algorithm. cmegroup.com The Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk (SPAN) system is a sophisticated methodology that calculates performance bond requirements by analyzing the "what-ifs" of virtually any market scenario. Developed and implemented in 1988 by Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), SPAN was the first system ever to calculate performance bond requirements exclusively on the basis of overall portfolio risk at both clearing and customer level. In the years since its inception, SPAN has become the industry standard for portfolio risk assessment. It is the official performance bond (margin) mechanism of 50 registered exchanges, clearing organizations, service bureaus and regulatory agencies throughout the world. SPAN software is utilized by a wide range of end-users, including futures commission merchants (FCMs), investment banks, hedge funds, research organizations, risk managers, brokerage firms and individual investors worldwide. Continually enhanced and elaborated, the SPAN methodology can be used to evaluate risk for the broadest possible range of derivative and physical instruments. Although originally designed for use with derivatives, its extraordinary capabilities have led to its extensive use in assessing risk for many different types of financial instruments. Now in its fourth generation of functionality, SPAN has evolved into a suite of three software products designed to meet the needs of a wide range of customers: PC-SPAN, SPAN Risk Manager, and SPAN Risk Manager Clearing. The SPAN Product Suite1. PC-SPAN– A single-user desktop application that offers margin calculation across multiple exchanges. PC-SPAN provides a quick, inexpensive and simple way to calculate SPAN margin requirements across multiple exchanges. PC-SPAN makes calculating SPAN margins a snap. All users need to do is: Download SPAN files for the exchanges or clearing organizations of interest from CME's FTP site on the Internet Load the data from these SPAN files into PC-SPAN Define portfolios, either via PC-SPAN's graphical user interface, or by loading them from a file Click to calculate performance bond requirements View results online, or export margin results to a file for importing into your other applications. 2. SPAN Risk Manager–PC-SPAN plus risk analytics SPAN Risk Manager integrates risk management features with core margin calculation abilities, to deliver a flexible and intuitive system for full portfolio risk management. Its powerful features and intuitive design allow for true portfolio analytics through multi-variant stress testing and option exposures. Specifically, it: Enables users to gauge the effects, on a total portfolio or a single option, of changes in price, implied volatility, time to expiration, dividend yields, and interest rates Calculates hypothetical P&ampL's, option prices, and option greeks Calculates option implied volatilities, allows determination of appropriate volatilities for call/put pairs, and determines volatilities applicable to entire series of options Allows for stress testing across portfolios of multiple products Allows users to define, compare, save and reload "what-if" scenarios for stress testing Enables shifting of volatility skews Supports a variety of pricing models applicable to different types of options, including Black-Scholes, Merton, Adesi-Whaley, Cox-Ross-Rubinstein, and Bachelier 3. SPAN Risk Manager Clearing–SPAN Risk Manager plus real-time margining, plus risk array calculations and production of SPAN risk parameter files Our most powerful product, SPAN Risk Manager is an institutional-level program used by exchanges, clearing organizations, service bureaus and regulatory agencies. It provides all capabilities of PC-SPAN and SPAN Risk Manager, and adds features enabling exchanges and clearing organizations to implement SPAN in a rapid and cost-effective manner. Its advanced functions provide the ability to: Define SPAN rates and rules, Calculate SPAN risk arrays Prepare and publish SPAN risk parameter files Provide a real-time component interface, enabling true high-speed real-time pre- or post-execution risk-based credit controls Another poster also noted that Interactive Brokers seem to give notice of margin change 2 days before Comex. IB gave one notice last Thursday.