I traded the DAX briefly for a month a while ago. While it has movement, it really is better suited for European traders. I live in NYC so in order to monitor activity or daytrade, I would have to stay up from 3AM EST which is start of premarket until 4AM, actual start, then monitor activity anytime to the close at around 12PM EST. Not conducive to a regular lifestyle. In addition, it's an expensive contract, one tick = 12.5 EUR (16.65 USD). If you trade US hours, typically the volatility for the futures contracts range from ES = slowest (tick = 12.5 USD) YM = fast (tick = 5 USD) NQ = faster (tick = 5 USD) TF = fastest (tick = 10 USD) I prefer the TF (Russell 2k futures) but for newer traders, the YM may be a better alternative/medium since it's not as spikey as the TF but won't make you fall asleep like the ES. Now if you want to live on the wild side, try trading CL ....
Thanks for the reply.Could you please provide more specifics(or sources) on FDAX trading,as to rollover dates,open outcry hours,holidays,etc?Eurex official site is quite confusing.
Germans are desperate pass an FTT this week, lets hope they dont include the DAX futures. Otherwise its going to be add about 35 euros onto each trade.
Hi South,could you explain it further,please?Whats an FTT?What additional 35 euros are going to added to? Thanks
FTT = financial transaction tax And it will not be implemented before 2015 at the earliest, and not by germany alone, its an European initiative by 11 countries. There is still no proposal from the eu commission, only the last proposal which is outdated. Futures will be affected for sure. But it depends on the implementation - according to the last proposal, the domicile of the counterparty will decide if you pay the tax or not (exchange location is irrelevant). So for example UK based firms would not pay. Nor would individuals directly be affected. But nothing is definite yet.