Hi Neil, Well I'm papertrading Stoxx at the moment and I am knocked out by how much more straightforward it is than SBs. No having to play the bias and the prices moves seem so slow. I did two hours yesterday, 5 trades, +15 points and it felt much more relaxed. Without this site and the encouragement I wouldn't have considered trading futures yet but I can't tell you how glad I am that I have decided to change over. I decided against e-minis maily due to the timing of the US markets, it just doesn't fit with having a young family. But Stoxx is lovely
That sounds interesting helen.. where do you get the stoxx data feed from? I wonder if IB deals with them.. and is that the stoxx futures you mean or the actual index? I know nothing! lol e-minis timing is perfect for me since my lad is now a grown man and has flown the nest a few years ago.. the US markets give me a chance to get some things done during the day and trade in the pm or sometimes just the evening.. and is great since my wife, rowena, shares my interest (obsession.. ) and therefore can be involved.. watching and interferring.. lol just joking, it makes a world of difference to be able to share the triumphs and disasters.. might have a look at the stoxx tho.. Neil
I have also been trading eminis (SP) for the last few months - after using spread betters for a year or so. Like Neil, afternoon &/or evening suits me. I am interested in finding out about other markets though & I have read that stoxx has good liquidity for day trading. Do you (Helen) only trade stoxx - or have you traded eminis too? I'd be interested in comparison. I am also interested in what data/charting source you use. I am using QCharts Basic, which I'm reasonably happy with. Occasionally (a few mins once/twice a week maybe) it'll lag the mkt by a few seconds (3-5) - I don't know if this is common to all data suppliers. By the way, I think ADVFN was mentioned earlier in the thread. If anyone is not aware of it, it's worth checking out - very active BB.
Hi Both, I'm only just moving from Sb so I haven't traded yet but I did do a comparision of the contracts that I thought might be worth looking at here: http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=7359584 I'm awaiting the approval of my IB account and the data feed I use is Mytrack with Sierra charts. I like Sierra very much and it will take the IB feed once I have my account approved hence cutting costs a bit for me. I just can't get over how straightforward futures are compared with SBs and how slowly the prices move in compariison and that you can trade what you see. A real joy
.............and how slowly the prices move in compariison and that you can trade what you see. A real joy ------------------------------------------------------------- good luck
helen once you start trading - it will be as big a pain as anything! but when u take a trade, and get a fill in seconds, and even with a market order - at the price you wanted - you will realise why i have such sort short shrift with the spread betting fans who are making fortunes!!! controlling risk is key to trading, and there is no way to control risk with spreadbetting
Baron, If you are counting U.K. traders- here is another one ! Best part of trading U.S. from here is that you can "lie in" till about noon and still not miss trading the open Until we get our own forum, we can always clutter up the other forums with our threads and/or posts Cheers, bob
why don´t you try to invite a number of staunch (but rather likeable) UK spread-betters to join your ET club ... at a mIRC ( www.mirc.co.uk ) chat room called "#techtrade", best accessed through "othernet"? regards wild
Thanks for mkt comparisons Helen - I will look more closely when I have time. Onthe subject of s.bet vs. direct access futures, you might be interested in my experiences/mistakes. I had been trading SPX with Cantor & CMC for a few months and made a profit almost every session. When I started futures, I continued in my usual way of trading and continued to be profitable. After a while, though, I began to change my trading style. With CMC I really had to be sure of a trade before entering because the spread would kill me if I made many mistakes. With eminis, on the other hand, I thought I could jump in and out a lot more, because commission was small (relative to s.b. spread). The unfortunate result was a lot of overtrading and consequent losses. The moral is, if you have built up a safe & profitable approach to trading, be careful not to lose it.
1contract well you are set then - you have an easy way to make a few mil each day as u made the bucks every session - just go back to spreadbetting and pile it up unfortunately, unlike you, most only have an occasional winning session on spreadbetting, and lose all the other times, although admitedly they do seem to remember the wins more than the losses