yes, I've looked at NG too. It trades somewhere between CL of old and GC of late. Anyone looking for abrupt, explosive moves can sure find plenty in both
fade-traders don't last one big trend day in CL before wiping out. CL (and NG, GC) are dual-edge swords... they move so fast and cover so much $$ distance in a hurry, it triggers all the greed (negative) emotions in a trader. You need to have your head on straight and firm grasp of your emotions controlled to be successful there. CL (and similar) are for experienced, well capitalized traders only, imo.
Well put, Reminds me of this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIMwMsY0ndo Appologies for not posting anything of value, could not resist
Just from what I have seen from private message questions and inquiries, I would opine that day trading anything has morphed into a very, very difficult endeavor. My sincere props to anyone who can do it for a living with a point-and-click mouse. I know that there are traders who can do it. If you are a new trader and insist upon day trading, I think the best product to trade is whatever is cheapest to capitalize, has the lowest volatility, and that "behaves" and models the best for you. Because you have to develop a competent trading system and learn how to survive before you could even entertain the notion of profiting. Initial margin on CL is $3,740 per today's CME SPAN run. Initial margin on a May-June CL Calendar Spread is $385. Initial margin on a CL Jun-Jul-Aug-Sep Condor Spread is $198. There is another thread on ET from a prop trader who has observed that the top 3 traders at his firm are spreaders. And I am sure that they trade for size. Common Chicago prop strategy theme, btw and my personal fave. If you don't want to spread, quite honestly my sincere advice would be to day trade very small size Oil or Stock Index ETFs until you get some positive momentum going, and then lever from there. Just be smart about this. You can burn through ALOT of money screwing around with CL or ES or 6E one-lot futures.
Yeah I'm always surprised how few people talk about trading the strips in oil and gas. I mean it's not like they are institutional products. Both IB and TOS offer them. They are liquid, trade very orderly and the margins can't be beat. For the life of me I don't understand how anyone could want to trade the ES outright. For swing trading, ES offers very predictable follow through, partly because it's an inflationary upward drifting asset. But to daytrade it? Nah...
ES is missing the calendar trading opportunity. So it is only good for outright, or spreading over stock portfolio. This is the main reason I do not trade it much. CL add the calendar dimension. I can easily roll into next few months. I can also trade spreads over many months. Stock index futures almost do not trade past the front month (at least NQ). ES could be better, but still no good.
Let me know of ES overnight trading volume vs. CL overnight trading volume.... Huge day trading volume does not mean it is more liquid...