I have been paper trading ER2 for a while with pretty good success and am pretty comfortable with its action by now.... then i learn that it's being switched to ICE within a month or so..... so now i will have to figure out what instrument i should concentrate on when the switch happens. What would you guys recommend? What do you guys trade? What's the best bang for the bucks?
bang for buck is definitely ER2, unfortunately. T-bonds are good too, but trade differently. i'd say join the crowd in ES. massively liquid, and moves well, although not like the freight train that is ER2. NQ is OK as well.
I wanted to ask the same question but to say Best index to trade without the word US? I am in UK and european as well as US market timings are suitable. Comments much appreciated. Thanks
I trade from the USA...Chicago Time Zone...I'd say the best indexes to trade are: #1-DAX...best bang per 1 contract and small spread #2-FTSE...second best bang per 1 contract and small spread #3-YM...tight spread but small pop per 1 contract ES has too wide spread.... NQ is "whatever"...big spread and too small pop per 1 contract ER2 is gone...in my opinion...
but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tread lightly with the DAX as many will tell you...the BIGGEST profit potential but also could really HURT!!!!...the EMD seems to have a wide spread and very thin volume also...this is all my opinion...if you have never traded before, study , study and study and papertrade and simulator trade...before you even try the YM...much less the DAX...
NQ sometimes moves well, sometimes not. If you're used to the ER2, I'm telling you now, you won't like it. I like the ES much more than the ER2 ...much more consistency and liquidity in the product. As mentioned, the Bonds are good, you should give them a twirl ... and whiled you're at it, pull up the EU (EuroFx), Corn and Oil e-mini's (QM in the cased of oil, C/ZC for Corn). IOW, there's a ton of stuff out there to trade, so don't worry about some e-mini contract.
This is very simple. NQ or ND or the .NDX derivatives. Here's my reasoning: Every single person on this site loves their computer. They know technology like the back of their hand. It is only 100 stocks. The ES is 500 stocks, something is always moving up or down or in both directions in this index. I trade QID and QLD because I find that they move directionally where I expect them to, and I'm aware of nearly all of the NAZ100 components in them. You take tomorrow. If you've looked at my system at anytime, you could probably guess what I'm going to do tomorrow, and why is that? You got CSCO surging after hours and it brought all of the components up with it. I just have to guess more about the group, than about 500 stocks. Tech as a sector is predictable in my opinion, and highly directional. You won't have to worry about a couple hundred components skewing your ES trades. Most every tech stock in the NDX moves in the same direction on any given day. So, I've found, if I'm right about the direction, I don't have to worry about maybe 1 or two components that are a half percent of the index increasing or decreasing by tens of percent overnight to ruin my trade. So, I guess I give a big thumbs up to QQQQ, QID, QLD, ND, and NQ contracts. Highly directional, and, by now, I would expect anyone on this site familiar with at least 60% of the companies of the index. Just like pundits say, "buy what you know", well, I've been on computers since I was 6, so I'm definitely familiar with all the components. You got too many different sectors in broad indexes like the ES, and way too many, in my opinioin, to ever be succesful long term trading the ER2. So...yeah. I'm sure that you can see that all of you probably are familiar with these components, so why not trade what most of the people on this site and you know?