How different is trading index etf (SPY) against SP ES-Mini ?

I am use to analyzing and trading SPY etfs. I am tempted to move into SP ES-Mini trading.

For those experienced traders....How diffcult is to make the transiton to SP ES trading from trading/analyzing SPYs ?

 

I believe it all depends on your style.

When you trade for the medium term there is no real difference. When it comes to short term that is a whole new story.

 

I excluded that detail from my original post. I am referring to short-term/day only ...

 

If you look at the bid-ask spread, you pay about 2.50 more in the e-mini compared to the spy.

 

ES moves ahead of SPY, believe it or not.
But you can hardly exploit it, because it's 1/10 of a second difference.

 

the SPY gets arb'ed pretty quickly.

trade the SPY if your already in cash.

ES is pretty good if your doing size but the back and fill nature of this index might not suit certain trading styles.

there really isn't that much of a difference IMO.

 

How you came up with that 1/10 ?

 

Hi, ctarmor-et.
ES is the FUTURE of standard and poors 500, traded in cme.
thats why it moves a little ahead of spy etf (amex), as 4DTrader said.
But it´s very difficult to exploit that, as 4DTrader said too.
If you have a proprietary account, of course is better spy, because of rebates adding liquidity.

 

only difference is that emini requires much less capital to trade...

 

i've had a bad 2 months of trading and recently moved from es to spy options and es options,there are 2 differences. One is speed ,becauses the options have a delta,i.e.an option with a .50 delta will move half a point for every 1 point move in the underlying security it is traded in,they move slower. That is the equivalent of parking your car and switching over to a bicycle. In doing that your profits and losses are smaller,and your p/l moves up and down at a slower rate. Now if you are used to the action this adjustment to a slower speed is very difficult. Conversely,if you are trading spy's and you move to es you will have to make that adjustment to your psyche and it will affect your trading while you are going thru that learning curve. Be prepared to trade small and protect your acct while your mentality adjusts to this change in trading styles,it's not automatic. A bad entry can go $250 with or against you on a 1 lot in a matter of minutes,so u must be very adept at excepting and taking losses and profits quickly,and astute at picking entry points,work on those 2 things before u move over and become good at it, and u will be fine.