---
title: What is MetroTrade's Risk & Liquidation policy?
description: Accounts must meet exchange initial margin requirements by 3:30PM US central time or risk auto-liquidation.
---

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2. [Margins & Trading Info](https://help.metrotrade.com/kb/margins-trading-info?hsLang=en)
3. [Margin & Risk](https://help.metrotrade.com/kb/margins-trading-info?hsLang=en#margin-risk)

# What is MetroTrade's Risk & Liquidation policy?

## Accounts must meet exchange initial margin requirements by 3:30PM US central time or risk auto-liquidation.

### Summary

Accounts must meet exchange overnight initial margin requirements by 3:30 PM U.S. Central Time. Accounts that fall below defined thresholds may be auto-liquidated to protect both the customer and the firm.

### Why auto-liquidation exists

Futures are leveraged products. When an account's available equity falls too close to, or below, the margin required to support open positions, continued exposure creates risk of a debit balance — for the customer and the firm. Auto-liquidation is a backstop that closes positions before that happens.

### When liquidation is triggered

**MetroTrade generally liquidates open positions when:**

- Net Liquidating Value (NLV = Account Balance +/- Unrealized P&L) drops below $500.00 (accounts holding full-size or mini contracts) or $50.00 (accounts holding only micro e-mini contracts)

In addition, any account that entered positions on day-trade margin and has not offset those positions by 3:30 PM CT may be liquidated to bring the account into compliance with full exchange initial margin by 4 PM CT.

### Liquidation fees

| **Contract / Scenario** | **Fee** |
| --- | --- |
| Micro contracts (MetroTrade-managed liquidation) | $15 per contract |
| Full-size and mini contracts (MetroTrade-managed liquidation) | $25 per contract |

### Your responsibilities

- Monitor your open positions and available margin throughout the trading day.
- You remain financially responsible for any losses generated by open positions, including any debit balance produced by a fast-moving market.
- MetroTrade reserves the right to liquidate any commodity positions at its sole and absolute discretion, without prior notice. If risk-management staff liquidates your position due to inaction on your part, the liquidation fee above applies.

### Agreement

Opening an account and trading with MetroTrade signifies agreement with this liquidation policy.

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