Following three consecutive and increasingly more severe margin hikes by Interactive brokers (from Monday, Wednesday and Thursday), it was only a matter of time before the CME joined the party. And even if CME had hiked E-mini margins for all of two or three times since Lehman, whether it is due to recent surge in volatility or for whatever other reason, it had no problem doing so after the close on Friday, when moments ago it hiked initial and maintenance margins on the key market moving futures contracts including the E-Mini and big S&P, Nasdaq and Dow Jones, as well as pages of other contracts (see below) anywhere between 8% and 16%.
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Full list of margin changes below: