It has been rumoured that Eurex is going to be eliminating trader assistant id's and instituting a requirement that all Eurex trader's successfully complete the Certification Exam. Anyone hear anything about this?
I took the exam but it became pretty redundant as all the prop shops in London started using PATS (jtrader) and this was considered order routing software and the exam wasn't needed. Get studying, it wasn't easy!
Per the current rules, the exam requirements apply to traders who work for the "participants," i.e. the members. I couldn't imagine that they could impose such a requirement on customers. I know, though, that lots of prop shops in Chicago will probably be squealing like pigs -- I have heard of a number of shops where most of their FESX and FDAX traders are trading on "assistant" id's, which, according to the rules is verboten, although not strictly enforced for the time being. BTW, I passed the exam on my first try. It was indeed a tough exam. The company I'm with makes everyone take it. Sort of a way of making sure that the firm ends up with traders on the higher end of the spectrum. Why someone in the US, who is not permitted to trade German Equity Index Options and such, needs to know much about short straddles, butterflys and condors, though, is beyond me.
Chicago. . . . . using TT's X-Trader for execution and CQG for charting. . . . . .still very new though. . . . .
You must have problems sleeping! I am in London using IB and Sierrachart, very cheap and good. Do you look at the FTSE dax spread?