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As I understand it:
As long as you are in and out of your position in a single day trading period, you are only subject to the initial margin.
If your account falls below the maintenance margin during the course of the trading day then you will get a margin call to deposit more funds.
If you carry your position open past the close of markets on any given day, then you would be subject to the maintenance margin.
So when you open your position, the initial is taken by the the broker as security for the duration of the trade. Keep a position open overnight and you will need to cough up the maintenance amount as well.
Check the CME for open and close times. Your broker will give you this info as well.
My understanding is slightly different from @Grantx's -
Initial margin: you need this to start trading at all.
Day margin: you can go down to this level as long as you trade only within day market hours (means you can't keep a position open after the market's official closing time)
Maintenance margin: you need this level if you intend to keep a position open after market's official closing time, in other words, keep positions open overnight.
Another point: depending on your broker's requirement, it may be that the 5500 USD initial margin may be what they require if you intend to carry positions overnight, but if you do not, even the initial margin may be considerably lower.
Again, this is a per-broker requirement so you may be better off checking with them.
Here the example of today for German DAX Future: in EURO
Intraday Initial 1 14338.46 FIRST contract DAY
Intraday Maintenance 1 11470.77 2nd to x contract DAY Overnight Initial 28676.91 FIRST contr. Night
Overnight Maintenance 22941.53 2nd to x contract over night
Sorry - table does not work nicely
Hope this helps
GFIs1
