All I can tell you, is that I was using Market orders in far out contracts. I never used any limit orders. In some cases, such as the Jun 25 Crude contract, there was a crossed market, ie Ask lower than bid. Also, with the RJO platform, the Last price is used as a marker between bid or ask, sometimes that allowed me to create larger positions with more buying power. Whether or not this is commonplace I don't know, yes the figure illustrated in my example is very probably overhyped, but these are the results nonetheless.
Update to questions guys, here is another screenshot. This is of Jun 24 Gold. You can clearly see the last price(because of lack of trading activity) is much lower than both the bid and the ask prices. So, if I were to sell at the price, the platform gives a result of difference between bid and last price. Then when the ask price drops I sell. That is how I did it. Not saying by any means this can be done in every case.
Hi con. Most of the skill in trading comes from execution which has no meaning if it’s paper money. It’s like kicking field goals from 50 yards out, the talent is can one do it under pressure. That’s why IMO you are getting push back.
Thanks for your input Yogi Trader, yes indeed I can see your point there. This is a demo account, but the prices do match up with live market data. Only for the fact that I was building on positions, the figure would not be so high in the account. Execution is the main issue.
If there are 10 contracts for sale a price X and you need 250 contracts, what do you think will happen next?