I watched QQQ INTC and MSFT futures it's pretty liquid it seems. As mentioned 5-6 cent spread, but it's not active enough sometimes there is no trade for 30 minutes. I don't think you see full depth with IB but it looks perfectly OK for 3-10 contracts per trade. Now you have to see how they behave in fast market.
until someone actually puts up size, and more stable economic times, trends, profits, dividends and chart patterns return, they're really not going to be that useful...
I have been trading MSFT on both markets the last 2 days. The spreads do suck and since volume is so low you are at the MM's mercy. but the size the MM's show is real and can be bought/sold into. (they will show 20 contracts). My fills have been immediate but at the cost of buying the ask/selling the bid. um... for a guy like me with a sub 25k account i cant complain about ssf's, better volume chopping these spreads down would be great and make trading easier but right now they can be traded and money can be made so i am happy.
after the news came out ... usually had to lift offers or hit bids but still made a few $ One Chicago was the exchange considering the volume MO did afer the news I think the volume in MO's SSF was puny. maybe down the road ... things will pick up
" I have been trading MSFT on both markets the last 2 days. The spreads do suck and since volume is so low you are at the MM's mercy. but the size the MM's show is real and can be bought/sold into. (they will show 20 contracts). My fills have been immediate but at the cost of buying the ask/selling the bid. um... for a guy like me with a sub 25k account i cant complain about ssf's, better volume chopping these spreads down would be great and make trading easier but right now they can be traded and money can be made so i am happy." You are lucky that your trade was instantly executed buy on ask, and sell on bid. I did same for MSFT but it took over a minute to get it executed. I initially felt like if there is a specialist as in NYSE traded stocks. I am not sure if this is the usual mechanism of trading ssfs!! I was expecting the execution speed like that in Globex. Hope things will improve over time.
I have not looked into SSF's, but I noticed there was about a .40-.50 difference between MO stock and MO future at the end of the day. What was that spread like when the news hit and did you notice much of a change in that spread as the day went on?
sounds like good results so far. I'm getting more interested, but I will wait until after new years for the volume to pick up.
That was the spread the whole time I looked at it (from after the news was released). The SSF bid-ask spread was about 15 cents.