Mark, This depends on what order you're using. As I mentioned before, never use anything but limit orders on thin products. This way you will get filled at (or better ) your limit price or you won't get a fill.
If I were you I would not trade any of these products without using a simulator to see how the Market flows. IB, Advanced and FFastTrade all have simulators. Don't experiment with your hard earned money until you have a good grasp. My opinion of the Mini-DOW is: It is showing some very good growth in spite of the fact that the CBOT stopped its waiver on fees. This is a good sign. Usually a new electronic contract needs a deep and liquid (pit contract) to arb against. The Pit Traded DOW contract is not very deep and the fact that the MiniDOW has started to catch on is a good sign. I think that it has a very good chance to be a huge contract over the next few years. The traders that figure out an edge now may be able to leverage that as the volumes grow, just like the early emini traders did. Just an opinion! Riskless
It's fine. I've been trading it every day since fall and I'm new to minis. It is not a CME product but is offered by CBOT and trades on ACE through IB. It has shorter hours than ES and NQ - maybe something like 20 hours a day. Limit orders are a good idea but I disagree that they are absolutely essential during market hours. My worst slippage with a market order when I really wanted in or out was maybe 25$. It has been a struggle with minis for me so far but I seem to have better results overall with YM than NQ and ES. It helps me to have a chart of DJIA, C, MMM, UTX and MSFT going during the day. Before and after usual market hours spreads get pretty wide - upwards of 10 points. I started trading it specifically because of the big ad campaign literature which was informative and the special deal on IB which has now ended. That's my limited experience with it so far. Actually everybody's experience is limited - they have only been around since last spring. Geo.
Less liquidity. When it picks up, like I think it will, I will trade it. Too thin for my liking now. The CBOT is marketing it well though. Jay
What differences do you feel are important between YM and NQ/ES? [/B][/QUOTE] Can't say because haven't been at it long enough. Might want to check for prior discussions here under search. One factor I saw as to why I did better with YM has to do with starting very early in the morning. On those days when I traded and was correct about direction and entry overnight, I was further ahead with YM than the others before the real trading day even started. That in turn is probably related to ES and NQ maybe trading in a narrower channel overnight. Geo.
For extra protection take less risk by only trading 1/3 to 1/2 of what you would normally trade. Start out with 1 lots until you're comfortable with the trading activity in the dow. Lack or liquidity means more risk. Crossing over from stocks to futures can provide a shock to equity. Later
Anyone trading the $5 dow contract? How have the spreads been recently, (as in today or last week) I looked at them over the summer but the spread was just too high, liquidity seems to be picking up......just wondering ........... Or if you have any info on the $2 dow contract, that would be nice too.........thanks. CBOT is promoting them in every trading mag I have seen in recent weeks. (This from someone who trades the ES)
but I will repeat what I have posted earlier on this matter there is no more $2 dow ( sigh) alas ... it was a cool arb contract but the CBOT ended it 2 months ago "Or if you have any info on the $2 dow contract, that would be nice too........."
O, I didn't know about the discontinuation of the $2 dollar contract, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I missed it when you mentioned it earlier. The main part of my question was the spread on the $5 dollar, the $2 dollar was more of an afterthought, any info on that? ..............buddy (I love making new buddies)