I don't have good charts for futures, but I would like to look at some NQ history. For my purposes, QQQ should be close enough, but I can't find the relationship of the points. Am I correct in calculating that a .20 move in QQQ equals a 1 point move in NQ? If not, what is the relationship? Thanks for the help.
QQQ is 1/40th of the NASDQ 100 index. NQ is the equivalent of 800 shares of QQQ. Thus a penny move in QQQ is .04 a NQ point. Or 1 pt NQ= 2.5 cents in QQQ.
...please forgive the unsolicited advice, but I may have gone down the path you are contemplating. If you are thinking about strategy development of NQ using QQQ as a surrogate, there are some problems. QQQ has bad ticks at round numbers (XX.00, XX.25, XX.50, XX.75). These are usually 100 lot trades which I suspect of being tape painting. It has bad ticks from late or late reported fills. The commonplace bad fills from screwjob artists like Fido distort the landscape. I have run strategies which work on the clean ticks of NQ on QQQ data and the results are significantly different. NQ data is clean, QQQ looks like shit. Just bite down on the CME data fee, it's worth it. Profuse apologies if this was off base. Best regards. - Mike
"I have run strategies which work on the clean ticks of NQ on QQQ data and the results are significantly different." Hypostomous, do you think that someone could base his signals on NQ real time data and place the trades on QQQ, for better position sizing (smaller lots) purposes ? I am talking about swing trading systems with holding times of about 3-4 hours. thanks
...offhand I think that if you have an intraday NQ system good enough to give you 2-3 hour trades (IMO a loooong intraday NQ trade), you might as well trade NQ for the lower commission, better fills, and tax advantages. However, if it works that long in NQ surely would work in QQQ. Is there some reason you like QQQ better?
Yes, I want to keep fixed the amount of invested money and this is not possible with big lots such as those of NQ. Stocks are better for money management. By the way, could you or someone else mention the usual spread for QQQ at both typical and extreme days ? Thanks