im new to ag futures..whats good?

I'm looking for a contract thats rather slow moving, but yet still has reasonable volume day to day with good profit potential. What would that be?

thanks

 

I don't know if you can say that any of the ags are slow moving, but I'd be looking at corn.

 

corn or oats or live cattle...although cattle tend to (historically) get very range bound...so if you want something that moves over time (week to a month) but has *relatively* low daily ranges...look at corn or oats.

Best of all though, look at grain spreads...very slow moving, very methodical, and very good liquidity. My favorites are MGE and KC wheat, but thats just me....corn spreads or Chi wheat probably have better liquidity.

 

corn and oats eletronic both have tick values of about 12.50.. is there an ag contract that trades in the 5.00 per tick range or less like the YM?

with 36k possible starting capital, risking 3% a trade thats 1080.00 per trade, if corn moves 12.5 per tick, i can lose no more than 86 ticks...is this a wide range?

 

never mind, i can trade mini corn or wheat.

 

Yes, but the mini contracts trade with much lower volume.

 

there is alot of "funny stuff" esp overnight in the grains

as the "large specs" move the prices up or down

so my suggestion is to trade a mini or two
while you get your feet wet

and also watch the some of the other markets for sentiment

 

86 ticks is MUCH too wide in corn or oats if you are trading with a good strategy. I like to keep my risk at between 5-10 cents (20-40 ticks) depending on my target in those markets. For a new guy...I'd say 10 cents should be a good risk for you to take on any given trade in corn...if you can't "hit" a level in a dime in that market you need to re-adjust what you are doing.

as far as $5 increments per tick go...cotton trades this amount, but its probably much too volatile right now for what you are wanting to do.

OJ trades $7.50 per tick..but forget it if you want liquidity.

Try some of the livestock mkts: Live, feeder or lean hogs on "swing" trading strategies...$10 per tick on the lives and leans, 12.5 on the feeders

 

July / Nov Bean spread... ( Hit +160 Spread last week)
Unfortunately the time to safely trade this has passed.
Planning ahead to start the trade for this in December (09) when the spread is back down in the neg range again.

 

Learn to trade spreads, less risky (usually) liquidity is great you usually won't get the movement you get in outrights, but that's okay.