You open a long position in five May'21 corn futures contracts on Feb 11. Denote this day as Day 1. The purchase price is $4.50 per bushel. Each corn futures contract underlies 5,000 bushels. The initial margin (performance bond) is $770 per contract and the maintenance margin is $700 per contract.

1. How much in initial margin (total) do you need to deposit into your margin account to open the position?

2. Given that you bought five contracts and the maintenance margin is $3,500, what is the maximum daily price variation (settlement price - purchase price) today you can face without receiving a margin call after trading closes?

3. How about your maximum price variation exposure (settlement price - purchase price) if you were holding 90 contracts instead of 5?

The figure below shows your margin account for the time you held the contract. It is similar to the one we say in class.

Trade Settlement Daily Cummulative Margin account Margin Day price price gain gain balance call 1 4.50 Question 1 0 1 4.51 250.00 250.00 4100.00 2 4.53 500.00 750.00 4600.00 3 4.54 250.00 1000.00 4850.00 4.58 1000.00 A 5850.00 4.47 -2750.00 -750.00 3100.00 B 4.45 -500.00 -1250.00 3350.00 500.00 7 4.51 1500.00 C 5350.00 0