Can anybody recommend a good resource for learning energy futures calendar spread trading (books/articles/websites) or a resource for news on such (newsletters/market reports/commentary/etc)? Much appreciated!
mrci posts seasonal spread and outright trades, about 500 us/per year daniels trading and joe ross (google joe ross spread trading) sends weekly newletters joe ross had a good spread trading books no need to dish out thousands of dollars for "mentoring"
If you can send it back, do so. I have never read any retail spread book worth much and there is a reason for this. Most of those who made a living when there were pits, made it generally spread trading and they would never write any books on spread stats. Only recently has trading software allowed much more easily to use indicators on spread charts(line only). Perhaps "Bone" can offer where he gets his charts, but I use Ninja, I can do Bollinger bands and RSI/oscillators on the spreads themselves. Tradestation may have the ability, don't know. But past year, I have transferred methods I use from stocks to do longer term on spreads and luv it. Just cause a certain date pops up for entering/existing doesn't make me warm and fuzzy to take a trade, using backtesting, you can make anything seem like a good time to put on a spread of something as MRCI has bout 100 spreads to put on a month.
Since you asked so nicely, here's a thought which you may utilize. When I was a broker I had some clients who wanted to trade energy spreads. So I would look at a chart of one crude contract minus the next one, e.g. CL-M2 minus CL-N2. This is charted and one can see the support/resistance. Then enter orders to buy near support or sell near resistance. I would typically risk about 0.50 on CL. You can chart the difference between any two future contracts, e.g. June Brent crude and June WTI crude. It's helpful to know if you should be Bear spreading (selling front month) or bull spreading. So basically, my advice for those interested in spread trading is: Don't be afraid to chart it. yes, it can be somewhat expensive. I believe I was using DTN's Prophet X, at about $400 per month. Also, if you're willing to pony up "BONE" on ET has some good insights, from what I can tell. GL -Chi CTA
CTS T4 platform has spread charting ability as follows:. fee is about 25 usd pm also reqs active brokerage acct. tried to attach JUN/OCT crude just for example