I am just about to finalize leasing a CME seat. Let me know specifically what questions you need answered and I'll try to help. You can PM me if you wish.
It is not my thread, but I do have a few questions if you don't mind. Can you lease a seat for a certain pit? or do you lease a seat for the entire floor and trade where you want? How much does the seat cost(to buy and lease)? How much are clearing and exchange fees? How much capital do you need to have in your trading acct. and in reserve to make clearing firms happy? LOL. I know, I'm like a six year old with questions. Thanks for any help though.
www.cbot.com www.cme.com Look under membership! Or contact me and I can help out! Richard is a client of mine!
When I was at the MERC, you could lease two types of seats, an IMM seat or a full seat. The IMM allows one to trade most everything most people in here are interested in, ED, TB, SP500, Currencies, etc. In those days, the IMM seat lease was about $2500/Month. The full MERC seat allows one to trade anything on the floor, e.g., cattle, live hogs, pork bellies, lumber, etc, etc. I don't recall anyone of those being leased and I do not know how much they went for... nitro
Maverick, Over the last several months there has been a dramatic shift in dominance from the Floor to the Screens. Basically, the Screen traders used to use the Floor as the lead, now the screens lead the way. Traders off the floor see and hear more information well before the Pit does, so the advantage has definitely shifted. I speak to Floor traders everyday and they are very concerned about their way of making a living. My firm is currently offering an Electronic Trading Seminar for the Floor traders and 6 guys came up yesterday and signed up for a February 8th seminar at $2000 per head. They are all very experienced and successful traders but the pit has lost the edge. They are going to take a seminar presented by a very guy that is successfully trading the NQ and ES on the screens. I am a long time Floor trader and it is kind of sad to see a great tradition change, but it is more efficient and cost effective for the Institutions to use the Screens. With the exception of the Eurodollars and Options markets, the screens now have a substantial volume and depth advantage. Take a look at the thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11945&perpage=6&pagenumber=1 It explains the seminar abit. Good Luck!
IMM's go for about $3500 a month. Leasing a seat at the Merc certainly does not have the same advantage it once had. These days, The only benefit is paying member rates. Most of the large ES & NQ traders traders have left the floor to trade E-minis with a platform of their own choosing.
How about the Kansas City Board of Trade. They trade wheat futures and options there as well along with some index futures on stocks. It's not quite as cheap as the MGEX at $50 a month but $200 is not bad. Also the weather is a little warmer in the winter. Btw, has anyone here ever traded wheat futures? I looked at the chart on that and it looks like the nasdaq back in 2000. Talk about volatility. It looks like that mkt has a lot of potential but I have never traded it so the reality maybe different then the perception.
Now that Eurex is free to move into the US market the trend toward electronic trading should increase. Institutions now will have a club to hit the CME, CBOT and NYBOT with. I hope Eurex offers an S&P 500 product with a .10 tick size (or less). They could make a case to the CFTC that the CME has abused its monopoly on the S&P index by discriminating against mom & pop traders by hobbling them with a .25 tick size vs. .10 for the pit.