compared to the shanghai composite index, HSI moves with low volatility in the whole day,the range is not more than 1% percent http://finance.sina.com.cn/realstock/company/sh000001/nc.shtml
Robin, I am also looking forward to trading our own ( Chinese ) stock index futures, the volatility there is bloody huge. But before its launch, I will stay with HSI & SGXNK, etc. A robust strategy should be ok with the current market. Don't trade big money until you are comfortable with your strategy.
what is the rumor nowadays regarding the launch of the Shanghai index futs? by the way, HSI is still not bad, but SGXNK is not even worth the time anymore.... it's even less tradeable than Aussie.
I think our government is extremely conservative in launching the index futures, they have been delaying it 3-4 times. The first version was that it would come out in September 2006, and the latest version is that "there is no schedule for the launch of this contract", rumors say it could be September 2007, or sometime next year. There is a simulated contract of China 300 index futures contract now listed in China Financial futures Exchange. Many participants of the simulated trading blowed up their accounts even in this great bull market with clear trend, checking the result of the simulation in the last half year leads the autority to believe that "Chinese investors are too risk-oriented and have little experience of index futures". On the other hand , many brokers still have not made their hardware & software in place for the launch of the first index contract.
Yeah, we have sized down on SGXNK and sized up on KOSPI200 in our trading from last month. The South Korean Market has been full of stamina recently.
SGXNK has wider trading hours than the osaka. The n225m is a mini. On IB you should be able to access either, although the osaka feed costs something like $10/month. SGX is free. And if you want to scalp Nikkei during the day in the states, go with NIY futures. It tends to go in unison with the US indexes.