What do people here look for when trading index futures spreads? Are the trends more persistent than in the outright market?
I look at the rate of change. But the point or percentage change is too misleading because things get to out of whack on the close. I follow them in groups spx vs indu vs ndx nya vs comp oex vs rut it comes naturally after a while. a fast spx and a medium indu and a slow ndx is usually a weak move. Timing the bet the spread will narrow however is very difficult for me, and I ususally just use the spread for evaluating strength.