Hi Guys, I am going to give the Asian indeces a try. Not sure whether I want to trade HSI or NK though. Q's 1) Which do you find easier if you do both? By easier I nean liquidity, tendency to trend, etc. 2) If you prefer the Nikkei, which exchange, and where do you get your data? Thanks, Jay
SGXNK does 5pt ticks rather than the tokyo 10pt. Its free for data and has reasonable fees. Very good liquidity and nice trender. HSI is more volatile but 1tick only = 6.40 per contract. Lower liquidity but you can get filled at your price if you use limit orders and your intelligence. Definitely trickier but rather fun with it. If I hadnt started on HSI before SGXNK was available I suspect I would be trading SGX but HSI is an intense experience with very reasonable exchange opening hours.
Jayford, I assume you are daytrading? I personally prefer the Nikkei 225. It trends very nicely intraday, with volume being a key driver of price. If you are an experienced trader I think you will find it a pleasure to trade. The Hang Seng on the other hand is quite frenetic. It is a bit thinner than the Nikkei (SGX) which may explain some of the volatility, but the problem I have with the Hang Seng is the way the tape reads. I attribute this to their order matching system. The spread is all over the place, and during periods of frantic action you start getting prints over a huge range (say 50 or more ticks). Crazy! It certainly doesn't suit my style of using a percision entry with a reasonably tight stop. Some people love this market though?? Of the Nikkei contracts the SGX is your best option, Osaka has too big a tick value, and forget the CME contract. The SGX market is very orderly and you can usually expect a 1 tick spread. I use eSignal data FWIW. One thing about trading in Asia to note, don't expect the same datafeed stability you get for US or Eurpoean markets. Hey good luck.
I would recommend you look at both (personally I prefer the Hang Seng but to each his own). Both have been quite volatile of late but on some days the Hang Seng can be very quiet with the Nikkei active and vice versa. Both tend to trend and can move fast. As HSI can have less depth, you will get gaps from time to time. The main reason I am replying though is that I strongly disagree with the post above on datafeed stability. Perhaps with other vendors but our feeds come direct from SGX and HKEx and have been superb.
yeah, day trading. I've been day trading spoos since '87 when I had to call orders to the floor! Seems crazy now. I prefer to just trade the first few hours ES/ER2, and am looking for something else to do the same, but obviously at a different time. Am assuming that most volume/movement is early as in US. Thanks, Jay
The movement can come at any time but the most active times are usually around the open (cash opens 15 minutes later) and before the close.
yep, not a hitch on data feed per sgxnk with tws; but da contract tho has lost too much vols to be attractive at this point with a spread of $25 imo and have to agree with u that mhi is a better option at this moment in time, especially when is trendin'. enjoy
with ib sgx data is free...on futs premkt'n'afterhours available also, volumes data included of course.