Jym is it a little hard to spread futures on thinkorswim? Can you get the actual exchange recognized spread with its order book? Try my.futuresource.com to chart spreads. But beware -- the charts aren't accurate really -- no OHLC just lines. Scarr trading has some stuff, and a couple other small sites. MRCI is worth it I think. I don't know about trading directly off of their recommendations, but the database especially is useful. Does anyone here make their own charts, like with excel for example? Or trade spreads with excel? What's the best way to get good long term OHLC spread charts?
In the summer the grain markets are especially dependent on the weather, so be careful. PM with any spread questions, I don't feel like typing now and will answer what I can later.,
You guys ever look at Spring wheat spreads. I'm long MWU0-MWZ0 at 16.5 and will buy more if it approaches 18 again. I like this one cause some fund came in and bought the shit out of MWz0 Vs. Wz0. Its just a waiting game now. Did you also know mge doesnt charge margin for spread in the same crop year?
I made some charts in Excel for Soybeans back last summer to evaluate spread trading fundamentals/ patterns. I just took the historical daily closing prices off of MRCI's site and manually plugged them in. Labor intensive. I now just use the free Spread charts in Bright Futures.com webpage now for a quick glance at how the Spread in playing out...lot easier.
Best way to get historical charts of spreads is get a top charting software...I'd recommend either DTN ProphetX or CQG. As far as trading spreads out of Excel, I have before for complex and inter-market spreads. Works fine, although the DDE linking does have some latency concerns, but this isn't a worry if you are trading spreads.
Yeah having a lack of charts on TOS is my main problem right now. I had their software up and running for a couple of months without any problems then i guess they updated it a week or so ago and i haven't had the chance to finish the new download. Where I'm living now for the next couple of months my only internet access is dailup which is fine for the software but doesn't cut it for the webbased charting. And if TOS has future spreads data or charts i haven't been able to figure out how to set them up yet. They do have a pretty easy setup for option spreads though if you guys are into futures' options. Mainly i just use TOS to try out new option and future strategies but use another broker for the actual trades since TOS has such high intraday margins
Yes, yes, good expensive charting systems, they're very nice. At some point I might spring something. Seems it must be possible to do it in excel for the slower spreads for now. Anyone have existing spreadsheets or know where to point? Jym, you can get (very crappy) spread charts on ThinkOrSwim. You type the spread where the symbol only would be. So /ZSN0-/ZSX0. Then, the charts must be set to LINE instead of HLOC/candle. Don't trust those charts too much -- even if you can read them all scrunched up like that... my.futuresource.com is pretty flexible, you can save custom charts incl options spreads etc. But no historical months on the free version, so no previous months' spreads. And more complicated charts may not save easily. And you can't draw on it. But still sometimes I'm so thankful for my.futuresource.com. For a spread: = 'zc n0' - 'zs x0' look in the help section for "expressions" -- like simple formulas in excel But again, line charts don't have to show true highs or lows... So then you can't make real trend lines and it feels a little like you're in Flatland...
I like to use this for a High Level view of a spread setup. http://www.britefutures.com/charts000/spreadcharts.aspx For you Bar charts and closer time frame I also look at this: http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=CBOT_ZS.N10_X10.E&v=w&w=5&t=f&a=0 That is about all I need to plan out a Spread trade. I use MOC order entries for spreads...make it much simpler.
By the way, do you occasionally know if it's possible to do for a non-US resident? I have looked through rates for renting a place on NYMEX/COMEX, it looks like one could rent it for $2k monthly. Is my info actual or maybe you know where I can get more info?