Instruments (Futures) for SHORT TERM trading (lower 5m)? (Suggestions)

Hey folks,

I am testing the currency futures (6A, 6B, 6C, 6E, 6J) for short term trading right now and I am experiencing very different results... The best results gave me 6B so far... (My strategy is very simple - enter in retracements in the direciton of the trend... but this is not relevant)

By now I think that some of the 5 contracts are just not behaving that well for short term trading (especially 6A, 6C and 6J) ... so i was thinking of trying some other contracts...

So what contracts do you guys use for short term trading?

By the way with short term trading I mean trading on timeframes lower than 5m... (I traded on 4range bar charts)

Thanks for suggestions!

Best wishes,
Thomas

 

you should try ES , and with tick charts

 

CL and ES both have journals. take it easy on cl if you are new tho, eat your lunch. es can too, but not as dramatic

 

CL

 

ES, NQ and YM move almost identical... sometimes i think NQ makes better moves... what do you think is the best suited instrument for short term trading?

when looking at oil - is CL the way to go? or are there other liquid and volatile oil futures?

(unforunately i cannot look at every contract - seems my broker does not offer some...)

thanks so far for the replies...

 

CL is the most liquid, but there are other illiquid contracts.


ES is far more liquid than NQ or YM. With NQ and YM you'll get stops blown through some times.

 

Usually any trading instrument that's on the worlds active trading list will be suitable for short term trading based upon their liquidity. Stocks & Commodities magazine has a decent list that ranks the worlds trading instruments based upon liquidity at their website.

Other websites (use Google search) will give similar lists based upon liquidity in combo with volatility.

Mark

 

what do you guys think about bonds, metals or agriculturural futures?

 

You can trade all the contracts other traders mentioned.

Bonds and notes are fine and have lots of liquidity - they may be stuck in a range until the macroeconomic picture clears, though.

Metals are tricky to trade. Gold is in its own world. Copper trades similar to oil, only more China-dependent. Silver can go either way and is on the lower end of the minimum liquidity you'll want to avoid nasty slippage.

I would forget about agrs and softs unless you are seriously capitalized and want to do swing trading.

By the way, how many years (if any) have you tested in currencies. If you've only tested last few weeks/months, you'll get very different results.

 

QM or mini-oil is basically the same as CL but half the size.

HO (heating oil) and RB (gasoline) have much lower liquidity and higher slippage, but tend to trade in tandem (except after inventories).

You can also trade Brent (North Sea oil) and WTI (a proxy for CL) in the ICE.

There are hundreds of other oil-related contracts, but with very low liquidity (basically they're for hedgers and funds - you won't see retail traders there).

You also have NG (Natural Gas), which moves fast and decoupled from oil a couple of years ago.


Other than QM (for reduced size) or NG, you would need - in my view - some very good rationale and/or a huge account to trade most of these, though.