Hi,
You know what: I never thought about this until I read your post (very silly of me to not have thought of this before I must say) BUT I wonder if you can request a lower leverage from GCI i.e. 100:1 or even 50:1. THAT would certainly solve the problem of being 'wiped out' by Soybeans with less capital not so??? I have looked on their website and I don't see this as an option anywhere BUT I WILL send them an email to ask. If it IS possible then it will solve your problem as well as quite a few others that may have the same problem but want to trade stocks and commodities!!!
Limits:
Well you've got it right (mostly). If the price of Soybeans moves its 'limit' down in a day and stays there and is now 'locked limit' it means that you can ONLY long Soybeans at that point i.e. not short them. There's the problem: let's say you WERE long Soybeans and the price dropped 'through the floor' i.e. 'limit down' and 'locked limit' you would NOT be able to close that position i.e. you'd have to be able to sell (short) in order to close the position but you cannot at that point. Of course the opposite would apply to a 'limit' move up. See the problem???
As far as knowing what the limit is for a particular commodity you can get that information (normally) from the exchange's website (like the CBOT i.e.
Chicago Board of Trade).
To be honest I have not found HOW the value of the 'limit' comes into play with the SI System so if you figure it out let me know. I agree that it's there for a reason but I've not been able to figure out the reason i.e. it does not matter WHAT value you put in there (or even if you just leave it out altogether) i.e. it makes absolutely NO difference to how the ASI is 'plotted' on a chart or indicator i.e. the 'shape' is EXACTLY the same and only the actual ASI value changes so I don't know what you make of that.