jumbo 2 yr??? as in a 2 yr treasury of some kind??!! that hardly seems like a feasible crossover for an equity scalper! but yea, our guys dont trade HSI either, i have a friend who does, and loves it, hes not a 'book' guy though...and i have heard lots of ppl talk about it in other conversations...but no i havent looked at the book...anyhow, most of the guys im with are in the russell, and seem to think that the 'dax glory days' are over...who knows, but i think the russell has been rather ripe the last few weeks....far more than any other index i can find anyhow, what characteristics do you like in the dax that were unique to or plentiful in it? what is your take on the er2 book? and what other products do u have ur eye on? almost forgot, someting i wanted your opinion on...what is your take on scalping eua? have you ever taken a look? what are your thoughts and why? thanks...
i think the glory days of the DAX are over in terms of volatility, but I'm finding it easier and less stressful to trade larger size now. When you are wrong you don't have to worry about getting your ass handed to you so badly.-
yea, the volatility...thats what i was refering to...but thats whats important to a room full of sbux guzzling 20 something index scalpers!!
I've cut down the frequency of my trades and upped the size. I still make a lot of trades but not the frantic pace I used to.
I'm one of those 20 somethings index traders who love the action, but if i can make more money trading bigger and relax on pushing buttons thats fine by me. I used to make about 100 trades a day now I'm doing about 50 in the DAX.
but it seems like there are already more mature products that are better suited for that...that 'scalping ground' phase that these products go thru usually has a limited window it seems, IOW, if u wanted to trade like that...there is eurostoxx, ftse nasdaq etc etc.... anyhow, what do you guys think of nasdaq midcaps?? seems to go lag/correlate with er2? anyone doing anything there?
I look for tick value vs cost vs volatility. I have a spread ratio spreadsheet with dynamic links to CQG that tells me how the contracts compare to each other. That's what tells me what is tradeable and what is not. Right now, it seems like the DAX is like the STOXX from early 2003, but the reality is that the ratio between the DAX and ES hasn't changed much. This tells me that the lower volatility is across the board in many ways. The spreadsheet uses historical volatility, converted $ value, multiplier and some other factors to come up with an index for each product I am aware that I can trade. It then creates a table dividing each product's index with another. Very quickly, you can see what amount of one product would hedge another or be equivalent to it. It is very useful. Furthermore, I like to be one of the guys buying some size through highs and lows and I have gotten burned pretty good doing that this month. There were always stops above the high or low and if we can get there, it would have a pop or drop of at least 2 pts or so. That was where I made the bulk of my profits. Now, I'm trading those as if I'm trading range-bound movement. It will take the high by about 1 tick or two and everyone's a seller slamming it back down. This was one of the great things about the DAX. This was also true if a level mid-range broke and it was close to a high or low. It would make for a low like a kamikaze and just fall through with gaps. Now, it goes down 3 ticks, retraces 2, goes down another 4, retraces 2, etc. That sell-off on friday was a great example. I can't remember how many times I sold size and I would cover a point above just to see it fall thru my b/e point again and again. It is as if a switch had been hit between December and January. Like someone had a meeting over the New Year and decided to include the DAX in their spoofing/faking/fading program. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I know that book very well and not much of the size in there actually trades. It looks thicker, but I have the hardest time getting out of a 20 or 30-lot. Honestly, I think this action is a condition of the market. I see it across the board, as I mentioned. This is why ER2 is unique because it has been leading a lot of movement and sometimes it continues rallying even though NQ and ES are selling off. I actually enjoy trading the ER2 very much because the execution is crisp (the CME is about 3 city blocks from where I am), it has follow through and when it is setting up to rally it doesn't fake you out. What am I looking at for future products? Hmmmm...... I gave you some milk... not sure if I want to give away the cow yet. I'm actually working more on changing my style than jumping from product to product. I don't like going to different products because there is a long process and curve to overcoming to make some "real" money in them. I have many markets on my screen at the same time and I watch carefully how they are trading and what clues they might give. I haven't found one yet that can replace the DAX.
I agree with your comments regarding up-ing size and cutting frequency. I find myself doing that. I have actually traded less this month in volume than I have any time last year including the dead summer days. I hardly do over 800 or so turns a day in the DAX now. My lineouts show me holding positions for 2 or 3 minutes (something that I never did unless we had some kind of news or some breakout trend). I'm with you, Mark, on the frantic clicking thing. I find that, although I have made more money with it, I enjoy it more when I wait for some setups. I would have to become accustomed to much bigger size to get to where I was, I think, but then that is why I stopped trading the STOXX a while back. I hate being a sitting duck for a long time and I don't use stops. Gets kind of boring.
Do you have a symbol for that one? I only see the EMD (S&P mid-caps) but not Nasdaq. The EMD looks like it is very similar to the ER2.
milk??? cow??? dont flatter yourself(j/k), i was just trying to have a conversation! anyhow, yea...i trade not far from the merc or board also...and that is another disadvantage to eurex stuff, mainly in regard to scalping because speed is SOO much more important...so you are trying to change your style to suit dax more as opposed to find a mkt more suitable to your style? interesting...i dont know if id take that approach...i guess i figure the path of least resistance is to participate in the environment that i feel im most aclaimated to....