ok friends - this might be a dumb question - but does anybody have an idea why the es recently has about three times the volume of the nq (or even more)? lately we saw days where the es traded about 1 million contracts - really impressive. any thoughts?
I would surmise it's due to the index representing 500 stocks vs only 100 for the NQ, thus attracting more hedge volume?
i know - volume in es has always been higher than nq's. but as far as i watched it - it increased tremendously in the last few weeks. maybe because the sp500 has just started it's selloff.
I was prop trading for about 18 months starting in July 2000 went from 15 cents a share(after a week learning) to about 3-4 at the end March of this year. I feel I was way better at the end to the market just got that much harder and much more random. By the time I quit I was basically just picking directions. I though about trying eminis since it seemed if all I was doing was picking the market they seemed like the most efficient vehicle. If I get started again I think I'll try emini. For now I'm in Law school though and its quite enjoyable. Maybe I'll start a sole proprietorship so I could trade and practice at the same time. Or be a judge.
500 shares of SPY is 50 times the index. One es (e mini s&p) contract is worth 50 times the index (S&P). So futures es contract is the same as 500 shares of SPY. A lot of people don't like spy because it moves kind of slow. But using leverage in the futures market makes it move a little faster. It takes $3 thousand nine hundred and something dollars to put on one contract. Most brokers will let you day trade it for only $ninteen hundered and some dollars. At any rate, whether you trade stocks or options or futures or options on futures, you still have to be right to make money. I really love es. That's all I trade. It's a big market over there and there's something for everyone. Whether you like to get in and out quickly, or just go short in July and use the 50 day sma as a stop.