The motivation came from the following correlation chart. http://share.esignal.com/groupcontents.jsp?folder=&picture=USZ6-TYZ6.gif&groupid=707 I am personally not paying too much attention regarding the margin. My accounts are big enough and because of my money management I would never come even close to a margin call. About a year ago you received reduced margin on a lot of 1:1 NOB spreads. But exchanges change there margin policy from time to time. Why not trading only the outrights? Well, to me spreads are less volatile and very often they move much smoother then outrights. All the best... Andy
Forgive me, Andy- I was really asking about the ratio of the spread for volatility sake. Why don't you use take this into account using some method (DV01 ect) rather than simply using nominal value? Thanks
I am sticking pretty much to the (seasonal and correlation) charts I got from Moores. The correlation chart was 1:1 and therefore I used the same ratio. Regards, Andy
10/06 I did exit my US-TY trade today at 4^0. Hyp. profit is $1,880 - $60 commission = $1,820. Hyp. account now at $55,121. I am not putting on any new trade because I have to travel on Tuesday. Happy trading, Andy
Trades Sorry Guys, because of traveling I could not find the time to post my trades. Short overview: I am in 4 x TUZ6-USZ6 since 10/10 @ 92.984 5 x LHG7-LHZ6 since 10/04 @ 1.95 10 x SF7 - SN7 since 10/10 @ -28 1/4 I took first profits on TU-US @ 93.450 with one contract. Will try to catch something with S-S today. Will keep you updated! Happy trading, Andy
Trades 10/19 SF7-SN7: I took profit today at my first target with 3 contracts at -23. LHG7-LHZ6: I got out yesterday at 2.4, because the spread wasn't going my way. Hyp. profit on the LH-LH trade is $900 - $150 commission = $750. Hyp. account at $55.871. Happy trading, Andy
Update S-S looks good. TU-US doesn't want to move higher. My stop is now at $93,125. Happy trading, Andy
Hi Guys, I am traveling in Europe at the moment and can not find much time for the journal. To keep the journal alive I will post some FAQ's from time to time. I hope this is ok for you! Happy trading, Andy
Hi Andy! Do you feel that the Close is more important or just as important as the Open or any other time during the day? I think everything in trading is important. The Open, the Close and also what happens in between. But, if you ask me about spread trading it is quite different. Personally, I do not pay much attention to what is going on during the trading day. I try to avoid looking at my charts during the day and concentrate more on the Close. The reason is the following. Whenever you watch the spread A - B on your chart software, you look only at "Outright âAâ minus Outright âBâ" but not at the spread itself. We do not get the data from the spread itself we only get the data for both outrights. Most of the time, both contracts are trading together only at the Close. This is because usually Outright âAâ does not open at the same time as Outright âB.â It is only at the Close that you see what is really going on with your spread. The usual case is that both legs of your spread are not trading equally during the day. Because the legs of the spread do not trade equally, you have no true concept of what's really taking place with your spread.