Shanghai Futures Exchange moved urgently after the last close to raise margin requirements and expand daily price limits for silver futures AG2602, lifting cash needed to hold positions into the next open that market participants described as Sunday night.
Market posts described the change as an unprecedented margin hike for the “main” silver contract, with a general margin level set at 17% and a higher standard of 26% applied for futures companies’ agency buying and selling, framed as the highest on record.
A broker notice citing SHFE circular set the effective timing as from settlement after the close on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, meaning the new parameters apply immediately after that day’s closing settlement and into the next trading session.
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Per the broker notice, SHFE adjusted the daily price limit for silver futures AG2602 to 15%, simultaneously raising the hedging margin to 16% and the general position margin to 17%.
Guotai Junan Futures told clients it would not change its own incremental margin add-ons beyond the exchange’s baseline, keeping company-level requirements materially higher than SHFE’s minimums for the same contract.
Under that company standard, AG2602 margins were set at 25% for hedging positions and 26% for general positions, matching the “highest in history” 26% figure circulated for agency trading and positioning the broker’s requirements above the exchange’s 16%–17% baseline.
The notice also stated that if a position’s margin requirement calculated under applicable rules is higher than the newly announced thresholds, then the original higher standard continues to apply, preserving any risk-based add-ons that already exceed the new floor.
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