You can always find the maintainence requirements on the CME web site. For Russell 2k futures - link here - https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/equities/russell/e-mini-russell-2000.margins.html You can also look at the margin impact in ToS using the analyze tab - just add a simulated trade. More on reddit.com

Hey OP I've been trading exclusively Russell 2000 since fall 2023 with e minis Keep in mind I am in the eastern time zone. I am still learning but I would say I see price action between 4-845am. Then it kicks off at 930 to 11. Tapers off then picks up again around 130 to 330pm I typically am observing 5 point changes or even greater point changes in the 10 point range. I'm learning to take profits and actually have found just focusing on this one to be helpful The others markets seem toirrir while the Russell does it's own thing. It's certainly influenced by news. For example if I see articles stating futures to soar more often than not I observe it going the opposite direction. Of course stop losses and limits are in play but my observations seem to continue. Finally I don't like technical analysis but I have observed three very distinct patterns. Keep in mind I have an sma and ema indicator set at 14. I observe these really distinct W lines. They get really abstract but it's almost always a W. I see a lot of price action forming V typically it's for about 2 hours. I see a sideways s where it will go up fake out downward then shoot upwards. These three trends if I catch them seem to yield me some solid results. To anyone that reads this I want to state the importance of stop losses/limits and knowing what's it's time to lock in the profit or take the loss to fight another day . There are merely my observations that seem to work for me and I hope they are considered/evaluated/helpful in your trading journey. More on reddit.com

M2k1 is the current contract(dec) I prefer to instead use the contract ticker M2KZ2023 this is December as well More on reddit.com

Regarding your first question, they may look the same, but they aren’t the exact same, they do differ slightly in shape if you look close enough. But generally, yes, at the moment they are pretty in sync. They also move a different amount of points, like the Nasdaq typically moves the most at any given time vs the other indices. Regarding your second question, the letter at the second to the last position means what month the contract expires, each expiration month has a letter code. For example, H = March expiration. That’s the nearest expiration. You can look up what the others stand for. If they have an M at the front, that means it’s the micro version of the regular e-mini contract, like M2K is the micro Russell 2000. RTY is the letter code for the regular e-mini version of the Russell 2000. 1 micro contract is 1/10 the value of an e-mini contract. More on reddit.com