TGM, I think you are correct concerning the big Spoo. If they close the pit in maybe 3-5 years, they will most likely delist/discontinue the big contract. The ETF futures are a good thing with all the SHO list trouble lately. Maybe Merc has more luck than ONE in attracting a bit liquidity.
I guess they really NEED to cater to the crowd that's left to "trade". College kids with $5K to play. Might as well call it the Chicago Gambling Hall. What a joke!
Partially true, but from what I am hearing the Merc has figured out that alot of institutions/traders out east are pissed the etf slippage and nonsense intraday. These could be a better deal than the ETF's ---or at least they will have to run a tighter game on the ETF's. The AMEX Specialist used to pull some wild shit in the Q's. Should be interesting. And what do you care if some college kid wants to play with 5k. Gotta start somewhere. The big deal will be the transaction cost. The CME is expensive.
Historically, the volume will be light for the first year. It's another case of chicken or the egg. I, myself, will stick the the ETFs for now.
We maybe and maybe not. These may take off and there will be market makers lining up for these. They are very efficient for option market makers as well. We will see. Paying 30 percent less in taxes and getting traders status off the top will get attention!
it will take years before they have enough volume for intraday trading. however it seems like a good solution for longer term positions, since they are smaller and allow more flexibility.
my biggest concern would be the transaction fees. Since these contracts are smaller, will the globex/clearing fee be smaller as well? edit: and if the tick sizes will be the same as the stox, ie in ticks of .10 as opposed to .25, i might even be interested in trading the SPY future!
Good point, but I don't see the masses flocking to SP/ES futures options, which have the same attractiveness over SPX options, not to mention SPAN. Maybe this will bring more players into the futures fold. At 1/5 the size of the e-mini, they are very very small.
This is the whole entire point. It pisses off the powers that be---to see folks trading etf's and refusing to trade mini's. So they are giving them the same damn thing in a futures. With all the retail brokers offering futures this may work to introduce the masses to futures. We will see.