SP/ES Who trades the pit traded contracts online during the daytime periods? What is your experience with execution as compared to the mini? Is it worth it? What about the big pit traded Nasdaq and Russel contracts? Which online broker has the 'best' service? (IB doesn't seem to offer pit traded index contracts). Thank you, nononsense
I traded the big contracts (500$ a point) from 1995 till ??? It is difficult to calculate the difference in money. I have the impression that electronic trading gives correcter fills. When i called (yes you had to take the phone) to take 20 contracts, it took on average 2 minutes before the order got filled. The man on the other side of the phone was constantly jelling how many contracts he got at which price. I feel more relaxed now, because i have the feeling to have more control on what happens. Especially when i have to get out fast. I must admit that since 1995 volume went up so the fills might be better than they were at that time.
nonosense, we trade both. As of late (2+ years) the e-minis have been just as good (perhaps easier to deal with) than the big ones. Unless you need to move substantial size (1000+ for ES, 100+ for ER and DM), I'd stick with the minis. Russell and (especially) Midcap are still a crapshoot either way in terms of execution. Things are OK around the open and close. Sorry, can't help you with an online broker, (have never used a retail one). If you have any specific questions, will be glad to try and answer them. Hope this helps.
...just to clarify things - As far as I know, the big contracts only trade electronic outside of pit hours (9:30-4:15 EST). During pit hours orders go through the brokers/pit traders, i.e. careful using intraday data for these. Historical is probably OK (revised based on T&S), but my impression is that streaming data is input manually by clerks. The MERC will probably have more info http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/equity/