I was looking through what types of futures I could trade with my IB account. I came up with some mini sized futures contracts that I might be interested in trading. I'm just wondering if anyone has tried them out. My intentions are to hold overnight, but I am still concerned about liquidity. Any feedback would be appreciated. I picked the minis to start with so I'm not taking on large positions during a testing phase of trading this way. Mini Gold and Silver Futures: http://www.cbot.com/cbot/www/cont_modular/0,2291,14+62+15,00.html Mini 10 Year Treasury Note: http://www.cbot.com/cbot/www/prod_detail/0,1499,14+58+140+93,00.html Mini 30 Year Treasury Bond: http://www.cbot.com/cbot/www/prod_detail/0,1499,14+58+140+92,00.html Mini Eurodollar: http://www.cbot.com/cbot/www/prod_detail/0,1499,14+58+140+100,00.html E-Mini EuroFX: http://www.cme.com/products/currency/products:currency:e-minieurofx.cfm E-Mini Japanese Yen: http://www.cme.com/products/currency/e-minijapaneseyen.cfm E-miNY Natural Gas and Crude Oil: http://www.nymex.com/jsp/markets/emi_overvi.jsp Thanks in advance, Banker
will be a problem ... if you are holding positions for a while and can initiate the position using a limit order and you think the spread is not too large in case you need to liquidate ( or in case IB Liquidates for you ) then it might work out for you ... good luck ...
Short 5 contracts at 30.85 over the holiday. Neither the IB nor the NYMEX websites showed the early closing time on 12/31. I hope that I will come out of this unscathed. These seem to be much scarier (less liquid and more volatile) than the ES. We shall see tomorrow.
That's too bad. I was hoping they had some liquidity to them. I might trade them anyway. I would enter on limit, but without liquidity I would be concerned about placing exit stops. I wasn't planning on trading any size which would create a forced liquidation situation. These items seem like great ideas to me, I wonder why they lack popularity. Maybe others are just satisfied with ES and NQ. For me, I was hoping for more diverse choices in what to trade. Thanks, Banker
Banker, this is an interesting topic. Many of those markets trend really well (over days/weeks) and are good places for swing traders.
IB has closing price at 31.725. NYMEX has last trade at 31.20. Which is right? On 12/31, at 16:03:40 219 contracts traded at 30.95. Last bid was 30.80, last offer was 31.35. Is there anything more recent? Please help. Thanks.
TJuggler: There are at least 5, some say closer to 15 crazed Muhajadeen having infiltrated the Canadian border over a long New Years holiday when the market is closed, you've got Iraq, North Korea, Al Quaeda, and of course the Venezuela turmoil. Oh, and Saudia Arabia is saying the U.S. can put forces on their bases. WTF?
banked, not all those contracts are illiquid - albeit when compared to ES or NQ they may seem to be. You need to watch them a few days and be your own judge as to whether or not you'd be able to get in and out without giving up enough to suit your style. juggler, closing prices. I'm not sure where IB gets the closing price for that contract. Sometimes last trade does not reflect the settlement price sent out by the exchange. Hopefully next year we'll put together a more comprehensive holiday schedule to include all US and foreign exchanges. Just keep in mind that the commodity exchanges tend to trade less hours than more. Thus, if you see the CME closing early, it is probably a fair assumption that they NYMEX will close early as well.
Babak, I agree, some of these markets do trend really well over time. In addition, it's rather difficult or impossible to gain exposure to some of these areas using equities. Gold and silver aren't that tough, you can always buy some mining stocks. How do you capitalize on the Yen from the equity market though? I have a basket of 10 ETF's that I'm using for "longer" term trading, but I would like to add some diversity. These vehicles could help fill some gaps in market coverage for me. At the CBOT, they are working on launching mini Corn, Soybean, and Wheat contracts, that will be great. Two of them are already trading somewhere besides A/C/E, but with IB, I don't have access to those contracts as of now. They are trading at the MidAM Exchange, which is a subsidiary of the CBOT. In the future, I'm hoping to gain exposure to markets like: Cocoa, Cotton, Orange Juice, Coffee, Lumber, Sugar, Cattle, Hogs, Oats, Rice, Copper, Platinum, and Palladium. It might take some time, or I will have to open up a different type of account somewhere. Glad you are interested, Banker