What happens each day?

Regular day

A clearing house has a regular daily cycle to process trades, this involves:

• A halt to incoming trades at the end of the clearing day
  
• Calculation the Variation Margin and Initial Margin for tomorrow's margin calls
• Calculation of all cashflows on trades for settlement tomorrow
• Calculation of any fees for using the service, for settlement tomorrow
• Netting of all payments down to a single payment per currency
• Production of detailed reports and data files for members, and delivery electronically
• Issuing margin calls for tomorrow

Intraday

The regular cycle assumes that the amount of margin held by the clearing house will cover market movements within each  day of trading. As a further risk measure, some clearing houses recalculate Initial Margin regularly during each day. If the amount of IM for any firm exceeded the assets held by the clearing house, a call can be made for additional assets during that trading day to top up their account.