i am a beginner at this and know very little about trading futures. i want to trade the dow jones futures but theres so many different symbols. the symbols i know of are- indu-dow jones industrial ave (nyse) ym-mini sized dow jones industrial ave dd- big sized dow jones $25 (ecbot) i dont know how to decide which one to choose? are there also more of them? i know the mini is the most popular but i understand that i can make more money from the indu because 1 contract makes you 25$ a point and the mini only makes you $5 a point. can someone please help me understand the differences between all these? can someone also please tell me what symbol is the actual index that you see on cnbc every day? i can trade that right? thanks for your time
The ym is the one you want, bro. Stay away from the other two contracts... the 10 and 25. How much heat can you take ?? How much cash can you lose?? you cant trade the dow index directly.
im a beginner please explain? is the indu the $10? why stay away? it seems like you can make more money in the non mini futures
the 10 is pit traded and electronically traded and the perf. bond is about 13K per car. Low volume. Stay the hell away! the 25 has practically no vol and perf. bond/car is over 30K. You're a beginner, right?? You had best get your thinking pointed toward how much you can afford to lose before anything like what you said above. cheers.
rcj, i appreciate your help but i have no idea what your talking about. what is a perf. bond and what does 13K per car mean? you seriously have to explain this to me like im a 12 year old, lol. im not joking around when i say i know absolutely nothing about futures. just so you know i have alot of money and you dont have to worry about me losing money i just need to understand how these symbols work. whats the symbol for the $10 one and whats the symbol for the $25 one? are the $10 and $25 ones traded pretty much 24 hours a day like the mini? is the only difference the volume and you make or lose more money per point?
rcj has patiently told you twice exactly what you need to know about trading futures. you should not expect someone on this website to educate at this level, because no one has the time to bring you up to speed with the basics of how to walk and talk like a little baby (which basically, is the level that you are currently at). start here, and start educating yourself: exchange tradef funds and emini's
The products you are interested in are located on the CME website here ... http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/ Study .... spend hrs there. Take JJ's (mandlebrotset's) suggestion....get the book. There are lots of youtube videos on trading of all types. ck out investopedia - for example - for terminology. Risk. doesnt matter whether one has 2.5k or 250 ml. You are gonna lose it if you dont get a firm handle on what you can lose and NOT on what you think you might make. Actually, it may be a good thing for you that you came here to ask some questions. A suggestion. After some initial study start a thread here. Title the thread something like " Very basic questions for Futures" or whatever. There are some very knowledgeable traders here that will respond from time to time. You will get some "drive by" bullshit - just ignore them as you move forward. cheers
The mini index are the electronically traded with high volumes. YM $5 is what you want... the DD $25 doesn't have the volume for you to get in and out of the trade. If $5 dollars a point in YM does not sound like enough for you then buy 10 contracts. Now $50 a point.. still not enough then buy 100 contracts now $500 a point. Anyways don't worry about the money right now, so much as figuring out what you are doing. I would suggest a demo account so you can play around with fake money. I think OEC has a 15 day trial. and then $30 a month after that to keep the demo. IB I think has a demo too. Good Luck.