If I were still trading off pure technicals, I'd much prefer culling through the equity world with hundreds of tradable names than to sit and stare at a single index future. That said, since you mention news risk for holding single companies, I assume you're not just trading intraday and have a longer time frame. As you will have much more free time on your hands, if you are really going to move to futures on a technical basis, you may as well familiarize yourself with ZN, EUR, QM, YG etc, as they all are interconnected in some way or other. Trading NQ based only on "charts" is not a good idea imo.
ER2 average rang isn't 12 points, it's around 8-9 points, and that's the hottest US index future today, soon it will end, as ES, NQ used to be. http://www.futuresource.com/charts/charts.jsp?s=RT1!&o=&a=V:60&z=800x550&d=HIGH&b=CANDLE&st= Still it's nothing compare to moves that most active stocks do daily. Today Most active gainer and losers nyse, nasdaq, amex (just few moves resulted from gap opening, rest not) http://finance.yahoo.com/gainers?e=o http://finance.yahoo.com/losers?e=o http://finance.yahoo.com/gainers?e=nq http://finance.yahoo.com/losers?e=nq http://finance.yahoo.com/gainers?e=aq
ES had 30 tradable points of movement easy the last 24 hours up, down, and sideways. But taking these points ain't easy.
http://www.futuresource.com/charts/charts.jsp?s=ES1!&o=&a=V:60&z=800x550&d=HIGH&b=CANDLE&st= The only one big move happened on first thursday of this period. Look at the moves, last 16 days, 6 days had moves only. How can trade something like this? ES is a dead product for trading it intraday.
How? Pay alot of commissions. I think alot of people are frustrated by the volatility crunch. Good Luck
Currently, the ave true range is 12 points (based on my software. I have no idea what the parameters of the study are as I don't use this feature for trading). Who knows what it will be in the future. But using your figure of 8 points, thats $800 per contract. With a $25,000 acct, the amount stock traders need, you can trade 50 at a pop. That's daily volatility covering $40,000, well more than the account is worth! The stock lists you put up are event driven moves on small stocks. Show me a liquid stock that gets you an AVERAGE volatility of $40,000 that you could trade with $25,000. Your statement that futures indices aren't volatile enough makes no sense. Its specifically for this reason that so many equities traders have switched over. Jay
trading futures was much easier for me. Much much better! just trade nasdaq index!, You are correct about the research, cuts your research time by 75%
It might be dead watching the timeframe you do so change the channel. The average oscillation swings per day on the ES, I watch, have been over 20 points this month alone. If you can't pull 10 - 20% plus out of that daily you need to re-evaluate your strategy. Oh, and change to "HD (High Definition) Trading". What ever channel you are watching has just way too much static there Bud.