Hi everyone, I'm new to futures. I'm practicing trading the emini in a demo account on a platform called FireTip. So far I'm doing really well. But I'm a little skeptical since I've traded stocks for a long time. I know how deceiving the fills can be on demo accounts compared to the real thing. I seem to get filled on the last price instead of the spread coming to my order to fill it (although I'm not use to spreads being so small because they are only one tick with eminis). Is this common in E-minis because they are so liquid, or is it usually hard to get an order in unless the bid or the ask hits your price? I guess I won't know for sure until I start using real money in this account. I just thought I'd get some perspective from some of you professional emini traders out there. As always, thanks for helping out!
I use stop limit orders 99.9% of the time and the only time I've ever had a problem getting my exact price was in the couple of seconds after the release of the monthly employment numbers.
I think I phrased it wrong. example: last price 1313.25 bid 1313.00 ask 1313.25 If I want to go short with a limit order at 1313.25 the demo will fill my order even though I'm not selling at the bid. It fills at the last price. Does this happen with e-minis in real time at all, or is this the demo platform making it much easier to trade than it really is? I know this is probably a stupid question.
in the es you would need it to trade through your limit order most of the time (unless you are one of the first 100 or so) to get a fill in the real market.
Thanks, that's the info I was looking for. That is what I assumed but I've never traded futures before and I know eminis are really liquid so I thought it might happen once in a while.
Anyone here use stop limits in thinner markets like cl,tf,gc with any success ? Or too many runners that don't come back to limit price?
I use limit on CL up to 8 ticks below or above my trading signal during US RTH and up to 4 ticks,below or above the signal during Asian session.
OK, I thought this might have been what you meant, but wasn't sure. What the other guy said about having to be relatively early in the book to get that kind of fill seems about right to me.
I'm just getting into CL and use stop limits, but I'm always a bit nervous given just how quickly that thing can move. I don't mind so much on entries because I can miss a trade without any regrets, but I'd hate to get screwed on an exit.