First of all, are there any ESTX50 traders here? I traded (position & daytrading) the ESTX50 futures for around a year in the past with a modest success. However, I moved to other contracts/markets due to the long & boring intraday tight ranges. I have picked it up again recently because of increased intraday volatility. From what I remember back then (more than a year ago), the sizes offered/asked were more than a 1000 contracts for the biggest part of the day. Now, those sizes are reduced so much that the market looks kind of thin. (50 or less contracts show up at the bid/ask regularly during the European session!) Did something really change in this market? Or is it just the effect of increased volatility?
right now (peak time supposedly), I see a couple of hundred contracts at bid and ask. More than a year ago, this use to happen only after the cash market was closed... How long have you been trading it?
Well, quite a few years - but even when trading is slow (which does happen a lot when you're not trading at or near the opening & Wall Street's opening) slippage has never been a concern, I must say.
Slippage isn't really my concern. From what I see in the orderbook + executions, seems like the trading pattern has changed a lot from a year ago... I am still capable to squeeze 10-15 pts daily with a max of 3 trades, however one of my good old tactics based on volume patterns doesn't seem to give any edge anymore. How are you doing with your trading it?
are you looking at the right index??? you are referring to the eurostoxx 50 on eurex correct? the book has not thinned at all.
I trade it quite a bit and can see it is a bit thinner than it used to be. Mostly <1000 bid offer now whereas before was usually 1000+ I can't help but think this is a market the flipper used to play with and is no longer present in?
well perhaps it happened so slowly i didnt even realize it. average volume keeps going up so while there may be less size showing there is more that is actually trading so that is good. u trade open to close marky?