Reuters is superior to Bloomberg in my opinion. I have seen Reuters beat the pants of Bloomberg time and time again on the number!!!! By the way, on Reuters you can subscribe to MNI (Market News International). It is an add on news service. MNI is also available directly from there website (google Market News International--you can do a demo for free). They have THE fastest news service I have ever seen. They break numbers quicker than anyone. It is not even close (I have been trading fixed income for a decade). Fatfozzy, How do you like Reuters over the internet via Citrix?? I plan on moving to it from a direct line. Apparently, it is cheaper? Reuters sales reps only come by and return calls from the NEW/prospective customers---old ones do not count!!! I have had a problem getting ahold of them for the demo!!!!??
Fatfozzy, Switch to the belly of the curve. 5's and 10's (esp. 10's)---look at tick charts on the electronic symbols. For instance, I am a momentum trder to the extreme. I look at 50 tick 10 year electronic all session and 300 tick. Some times 3 min "day only session" as well. You can play with time frames. Just remember they way more trendy than stocks (most of the time). I will give you some other tactics later when I have time. A momentum trader in stocks coming into fixed income will have challenges speading the eurostrips or even curve trading. If you are a straight away momentum trader. Just stay in the belly (I trade mostly the 10's) and stick to a low momenum chart and remember this is something new for you. I used to be 10k a side a day in the emini spoo. Now I just position trade damn things and selectively daytrade the ER2 and bang up the 10 year. I believe fixed income is where it is at. However, coming into fixed income from momentum trading stocks is challenging. You can make it easier on yourself by not going crazy with curve trades. Just trade straight away and use what you are not in if you get in trouble. If you are in 5's go 10's etc. You get the point.
The belly of the curve===5's and 10's. I usually prefer the 2 year to the Euro strips on the short end. In realty, none of them get to far out of line. I found for momentum players (esp. new to fixed income) need to keep it simple at first.
Despite what TGM says, I think Eurodollar is a great product for traders new to fixed income...First of all it tends to be a follower of the long end (speaking from a intraday perspective)...Second it takes out some of the stress inducing 10yr noise...Third, while the 5yr is less volatile...problem with the 5yr is that it is the true belly of the curve and as such is used primarily, in my experience, to hedge both long end and short end positions...this results in weird spreads that occur almost arbitrarily...Finally, EuroDollar, as I've said before offers the opportunity to do big size and take a lot of money out of small moves... by the way TGM, as I made reference to earlier, the 10yr really isn't referred to as the Belly of the curve anymore...since the treasury stopped issuing 30yr bonds, the new Long Bond is really the 10yr...this is further supported by the fact that Mortgage players like Fannie and Freddie use the 10yr rather than 30yr to primarily hedge their longer term exposure...
oh and fatfozz, I use both Reuters and Bloomberg and sometimes Reuters is quicker as others have mentioned...you really need both if you want the full picture as it happens...
trdinglife, You are right about the 10 year not technically being the belly anymore (sorry). I have the Eurostrips up on tick charts and there are little rips. I see what you are talking about. I position trade one end of the curve and daytrade one end. That is just my eclectic style. I was just trying to help fatfozzy out from my momentum perspective. For instance, this morning I took out 13.5 ticksin the 10 year and it was relatively simple for a index futures momentum player like me to do. So I figure any idiot can pick it up ---seeing as it was pure momentum. Sometimes stock traders can't trade the little rips in the short end of the curve (speaking self referentially). I had a bitch of a time sitting tight for the shatz to make it's little rips!! That is just me. I see what you are talking about in the Eurostrips tho. It really depends on Fatfozzy's style. It is not like he can't trade size anywhere in the curve.
hey no need to be sorry...that's what this site is all about! I agree with you about the momentum issue...when the 10yr goes, like today, it freaking goes and doesn't look back...but here is the crux of my argument for EuroDollar...on a day like today you can use the 10yr as confirmation for your trades...when it dumps you sell big size in ED and hold on until the 10yr reverses ...yes you might miss the perfect entry and exit point, but at least you have a reference...trading the 10yr itself you have to deal with the ridiculous 2-3 tick spoof and squeeze all the time...while this happens in ED as well, don't get me wrong, it is less prevalent and the spoofs are usually easier to spot... as for the size issue...yes you can do size just about anywhere on the curve, but frankly, I'd rather be 500 long or short EDollar than 10yr or 30yr anyday! anyway, it is always good for people asking question on this site to get more than one opinion...in that sense it is like a market as well...though hopefully one with less spoofers...lol!
Great replys to all who answered. In reply to those who asked about the Reuters terminal, yes I'm happy with it but you're right, once you're an established customer of Reuters it can be challenging to get a call back. I have some contacts there so let me know if you need some help and I'll be glad to pass on the info. The nice thing about 3000 on the numbers is that it has a page where the number simply pops in when released, so you're not searching for it as they're flying by on a headlines page. I'll give the tick chart advice a try and let you know how it goes. Again, thanks to all and good trading.
good to see this thread still alive and kickin im starting to think more seriously at ge now - especially as vol in the equities is being sucked out waiting for the us chief clown elections to end anyway - back to the question - im assuming the best months to 'day-trade' are going to be the mid-months like u5 - they seem to have the most vol - thus opportunity for direction/commitment. i guess it largely depends on personal style - but coming from an equities background im a momentum guy at heart not a scalper of the b/o spread. having said that - would i be right in saying that if one wanted to trade the rotations of the range, then the front months would be better due to less vol? i keep thinking that this ge thing is gunna be like falling off a log after trading equities. rather than trading 20 lots of ym hoping for 10-20 tick move, i could trade 50-100 lots for a 1- 2 (full) tick move??? i just know im missing something here because if it seems to good 2 be true - it usually is. i guess the pro rata will come into play - suck it and see i guess.......