when trading futures maintenance margin means something different it is the level at which an investor is required to top up their account to the initial margin amount 
example of variation marginlet s say a trader buys 100 shares of stock abc for 10 each the initial margin set by the broker for purchase is 50 this means that the broker must have 500 in his account at all times to make trades also assume that the maintenance margin is 300 if the price of abc falls to 7 then the 300 in losses in the trade are deducted from the initial margin account this means that initial margin account balance is now 200 which is below the 300 maintenance margin amount specified earlier the new initial margin amount is 350 50 of 700 the trader would need to top up their account with 150 in order to continue trading 