Your investment account has $250,000 of cash on January 15 before you begin trading on the same date. The next trading date is July 15, with a simplifying assumption that there is no margin recalculation in between these dates (a duration of 6 months). The broker issues a margin call whenever the account equity falls below the maintenance margin requirement - in which case the account must be brought back to the initial margin requirement level. You are trading futures contracts. Using margin, you will get into as many full contracts as possible with your cash balance on January 15 with any remaining cash still kept in the account. (Ignore any interest, trading commissions, and borrow fees.) Assume you go LONG the e- Mini S&P500 Index futures contracts on January 15 when the index is at 3,204. The margin requirement per contract is $11,100 initially and $7,210 on maintenance. Each contract provides exposure to a dollar value of $50 times the index level. If the index is at 3,230 on July 15, calculate the effective annual return on your account's equity. 24.19% 24.79% 25.40% 26.00% 26.61%