[156]

Hello,
I wanted to ask 2 questions ... I know they might seem noob but they are I am confused by a brokerage margin requirements - I see Inital and Maintainance margin required... I am not sure about them.. is the initial just a minimum amount of money that I need to have in my balance to open a position and the maitainance the amount that is subtracted from my account as margin...? And the other thing I wanted to ask is can you name a software that can be fed with data and displayed bar by bar so I can monitor how an indicator behaves, that can also support custom indicators?
Thank you!

[sevensa]

Initial margin is the amount you need to open a position.
Maintenance margin is the amount you need to keep your position open.

If Initial Margin is $1000 and Maintenance is $700, this mean you need to have $1000 in your account to open a position and if you are starting to lose on your position, you will get a margin call when your account dips below $700.

With regard to software... There are 1000's. Do a search on google and you will find plenty to look into. Many brokers also have their own application you can use. This varies from fairly advanced to very basic.

[156]

Originally Posted by sevensa »

Initial margin is the amount you need to open a position.
Maintenance margin is the amount you need to keep your position open.

If Initial Margin is $1000 and Maintenance is $700, this mean you need to have $1000 in your account to open a position and if you are starting to lose on your position, you will get a margin call when your account dips below $700.

With regard to software... There are 1000's. Do a search on google and you will find plenty to look into. Many brokers also have their own application you can use. This varies from fairly advanced to very basic.

Thanks for you reply, so I got it right about the margin, but about the charting software I am really stuck because I see there are 1000s on google but none I think offers what I need which is to be able to display historical data bar by bar or candlestick by candlestick. Thanks!

[Flojomojo]

Actually they definitely all display historical data bar by bar...otherwise what should they show on the screen other than the past. Maybe you could formulate your question a bit more specific.
As far as I know eSignal has a built in feature where you can replay a days action. Otherwise you can simply "scroll" foreward bar by bar from the past to the present in every charting package. What you can also do is the classic way: Print out a chart history, cover the bars with a piece of thick paper and slide the paper to the right, foreward in time, revealing bar after bar.
Hope this helps a bit and have a good start.

[156]

Originally Posted by Flojomojo »

Actually they definitely all display historical data bar by bar...otherwise what should they show on the screen other than the past. Maybe you could formulate your question a bit more specific.
As far as I know eSignal has a built in feature where you can replay a days action. Otherwise you can simply "scroll" foreward bar by bar from the past to the present in every charting package. What you can also do is the classic way: Print out a chart history, cover the bars with a piece of thick paper and slide the paper to the right, foreward in time, revealing bar after bar.
Hope this helps a bit and have a good start.

Thanks for your reply but what I need actually is to be able to monitor an indicator's behavior so I need to provide it with the historical data "replay" bar by bar, I think I found one - ensign software has that feature and I contacted their support but so far no reply. THanks!

[Flojomojo]

All charting packages I know of provide the historical price behavior as well as indicator behavior. I've attached a random example of a past chart with some indicators...beware...you r chart should never look this way!
Your platform might limit you from going back far in time, this depends on the timeframe you are interested in. Don't expect your charting package to plot you 1 Minute bars for the past 10 years.

The keyword here is "replay".

Investor R/T, Sierra Chart and Ensign should provide this feature for you - contact them directly for more details on how it is setup.

-fs

Originally Posted by 156 »

Hello,
And the other thing I wanted to ask is can you name a software that can be fed with data and displayed bar by bar so I can monitor how an indicator behaves, that can also support custom indicators?
Thank you!

Which market are you going to trade? Bulgarian? Have you already thought about data feed provider or are you going to feed this software via csv file or from your broker website through xml / other possibilities?

Regards