For example: I buy 100 shares of COCO at $52.00 for a capital committment of $5200.00 I sell 100 shares of COCO at $57.00 for a gain of $500.00 which is roughly 9.6% on my invested capital. I buy 1 March T-Bond Futures contract at 108.16 after the bonds have already rallied a full point ( or $1,000 per contract ) at 7AM EST. My margin requirement for this transaction is $1500.00 I sell 1 March T-Bond Futures contract at 109.16 even though they trade all the way up to 109.28 and make $1,000 which is roughly a 66% return on my invested capital. Gee, I'll take 66% vs 9.6% any time of Day!
Quote from vhehn: "In this case, with Nasdaq deciding to bust trades *after* the stock was reopened, they have shown themselves to be an incompetent and unprofessional exchange, IMHO. A futures exchange like Eurex or the CME would never do that." exactly. i dont remember this ever happening before. "Burnin" is right when he states that trades have in fact been broken on futures exchanges before. The E-Mini S&P and the Mini-Dow contract have seen debacles when very large errant orders hit the electronic platforms. To my knowlege, the CBOT's electronically traded bond futures contract has not suffered from such fate. 30-Year Bond Volume: 257,752 10-Year Bond Volume: 722,385 Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to criticize anyone for stocktrading, as I have a lot of sympathy for the Little Guy that continually gets screwed by the Big Boys. . . I'm just suggesting to you guys that there is a much better product to trade, and it's called FUTURES!
Quote from vhehn: "In this case, with Nasdaq deciding to bust trades *after* the stock was reopened, they have shown themselves to be an incompetent and unprofessional exchange, IMHO. A futures exchange like Eurex or the CME would never do that." exactly. i dont remember this ever happening before. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your comment refers to CME and Eurux never busting trades, I do however remember a debacle in the CBOT mini dow about 6 months ago. Remember this -- if you roll the dice when something is that far out of whack, your gambling not trading. I feel for everyone that got f****ed on that. But beware, its happened before, and it will most assuredly happen again. If any of us have learned anything as traders, its that the unexpected CAN and WILL happen. i was refering to the naz deciding to break the trades after it reopened. they had it halted it never should have reopened until the decision was made on the bust.
ZB is more volatile, if I understand correctly, so (today) I can earn more money in ZB than in ZN. Am I correct or not?
sounds like you are new to bond and note futures, if you are going to start in them look at the ZF, plenty of volume, low margin and it won't kick you ass as much, moves a little slow, so you would have to have a little patience.
How to range futures in order to decide which one to trade? ES, NQ, ZB, ZN, ... Which are other really good, tradable futures than the four above? Where can be earned the most money, if you are average successful trader?
any of the four will work, if you went long at the beginnig of the day on ZB or ZN you made a shitload, if you went short at the beginning of the day on ES or NQ, you made a shit load, ZF(5 year note) is prob the best for a new person to trade. not as volitale, and only 675.00 margin at IB
No, I am not using IB for futures. I use REFCO's PRO-TRADER which is a combination of the Pat Systems "J-Trader" and the super-duper cadillac of all electronic platforms by Trading Technologies, "X-Trader". J-Trader is usually Free. X-Trader goes for $500-$650 per month. Both Velocity Futures and Advanced Futures ( Goldenberg, Hehmeyer & Company ) can offer you either platform, and great rates to boot!