Is it me, or am i noticing MANY more triple digit contract trades today? Trades of 100+ contracts are not unheard of in the ES, but i seem to recall them being sporadic (a few per hour) and not the norm. Today, i'm guessing that 5% of the trades seem to be in the triple digits (and a lot more in the high double digits). Anybody else notice this? Are we getting close to option expiration or perhaps some sort of unwinding due to yesterday's error spike?
Could be more institutions moving over to the emini from the pit contract. Could also be a reason for these spikes as the institutional traders screw up when converting to electronic trading. Just speculating.
100+ contracts trade continuously. I would say 'at the very least' 1 per minute on average. It may be less as the overall volume drops during lunch. During heavy volume periods you will see them all the time.
right - so now they are taken by the hand to learn it. http://www.cme.com/news/shownews.cfm?NewsItem=00073BBC-FC1D-1F0A-9ECE80EDBEFB0000
Seems to me that a lot more option trading firms, specifically in the SPX at the CBOE have been using the minis a lot more to minimize slippage. Keep in mind that 100 minis is only 20 big spoos, and that as we approach expiration and traders are unwinding positions, for the MMs to put in orders for 20 futures is not really that big of a hedge. Don't get me wrong, if you're scalping, 20 futures is big, but laying the delta risk off in the minis against option trades, a 20-lot aint squat. So I would assume that if you looked at the volume of expiration weeks vs the other three weeks of the month, that volume would be higher now. Vega
From that article, "CME remains committed to offering its world-renowned risk management products on two state-of-the-art trading platforms â open outcry and electronic ." We saw how good that world-renowned risk management was yesterday, didn't we, when one trader's mistake can send a shockwave through the world's financial markets.
The system is only as good as those who use it. Can't happen in pit trades so I would imagine having both will go on for the forseeable future.