German, French, English... let's discuss them from a trader in US trading them perspectives.... I'm thinking of trading them... check the charts... they've got nice non-choppy moves going there...
plus EFT and options in non-US exchanges. I like to hear about 'em. Because I need to work night shift sometimes. Thanks.
I would be very wary of trading non-dollar denominated futures (which rules out pretty much all foreign futures except for london metals) because of the significant currency risk involved. Unless you hedge away the currency risk using either cash or the futures FX markets, you are essentially ending up with the equivalent of two futures (one for the underlying commodity and one for the currency in which it is denominated) every time you enter the market. -blueberrycake
You can trade the spread between S&P future and DAX future: Dec 12, 2002 | ES 911.00 | FDAX 3220 Jan 08, 2003 | ES 913.50 | FDAX 3025 ES Long, FDAX Short FDAX 25 EUR per point
There isn't much currency risk intraday if scalping futures and repatriating your money each night. At IB for example you could do FX converstion but most US based traders just use USD's as collateral/margin. You could also consider HK HSI futures which are pegged to the dollar. There is plenty of opportunity beyond the US.
Obviously intraday risk isnt as large. However, for those of us who trade longer term (my average holding period ranges from 20 to 90 days including rollovers), the currency fluctuations can be deadly if not properly hedged. -blueberrycake
By Jeremy Grant in Chicago Published: January 10 2003 0:29 | Last Updated: January 10 2003 0:29 Eurex, the German-Swiss derivatives exchange, on Thursday night said it would launch a derivatives exchange in the US in an immediate response to rejection by the Chicago Board of Trade of Eurex as the sole provider of a new electronic trading platform. The development marks the opening of hostilities between Europe's largest derivatives exchange and its rivals in the US and the start of Eurex's ambitious moves to gain a foothold in the world's largest derivatives market. It is also a victory for Euronext-Liffe, the London-based derivatives exchange, over its continental European rival. It has been battling for months to persuade the Chicago Board of Trade to switch to using its Liffe-Connect electronic trading system from an existing arrangement under which it leases a Eurex system known as a/c/e/. The CBOT decided at a board meeting to choose Liffe-Connect and not to continue leasing a/c/e after January 2002, when the current arrangement expires. The decision to reject Eurex will come as a surprise because most observers had thought that the Chicago exchange would stick with the a/c/e system. Rejection of the Eurex system turns Eurex into a significant threat because it will now be allowed to compete head-on for the first time with the CBOT's core US dollar interest rate futures products. "We're going to launch our US exchange and expand our existing product base to include product on US underlying [indexes and equities]," Rudi Ferscha, Eurex chief executive, told the Financial Times. "We've been in advanced talks with US regulators for this launch. We will continue to use the a/c/e infrastructure with the new exchange and leverage it," he said.
What a load of nonsense............you make euro/pounds/yen you change them into dollars and the reverse applies. If you are in a situation where a currency movement will trigger a margin call then trade smaller...............simple
Klutz, it's not the liquidation that makes the problem.. Look at me, I'm a Dutch trader (Euro based country) I trade through AF and work with a US$ acct (I know I can also take a Euro acct) Since last month, US$ vs Euro went down almost 5% So I have to make 5% on my acct to brake even. Of course the same goes the other way but I think that's what people talk about when they 're talking about currency risk.